Eighteen months ago, when the Definitive Jux posse came over to the UK en masse for the All Tomorrow's Parties festival at Camber Sands, Mr Lif was inescapable all weekend. Wherever you went, whoever was playing, there was always a small, bespectacled, dreaded guy with a box of his own records; dynamite salesman and skilled debater, the omnipresent face of DIY hip-hop.
That personality is writ large all over 'I Phantom'. Lif, from Boston, is a hyperactive, hyper-literate rapper whose informed polemical style harks back to the '80s, to the heyday of Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions. He's wise enough, in fact, to explicitly acknowledge the link on the dazzling 'Return Of The B-Boy'. But to portray Mr Lif as a mere old school revivalist is to miss the point.
His political agenda, for a start, is firmly rooted in the 21st Century - though sadly nothing here quite matches the magnificent rants against American foreign and domestic policy post-9/11 that filled his recent mini-album, 'Emergency Rations'. Instead, Lif uses autobiographical detail to illustrate domestic iniquities on the likes of 'New Man Theme', or spins meticulously-detailed stories of how wage-slavery can destroy relationships and families (the outstanding 'Success').
The music, too, is hardly retrogressive, if not quite as awe-inspiring as much of the scarred beatscapes typical of Def Jux. Half of 'I Phantom' is produced by the label's CEO, El-P, in a slightly less muzzy and oppressive mood than usual. Still, the prevailing atmosphere remains state-of-the-art underground hip-hop, something that's increased by Lif's fine choice of collaborators: Aesop Rock alongside El-P on 'Success'; Edan at the controls for 'Live From The Plantation', another exploration of work's debilitating effects; the rarely-spotted Jean Grae on the closing 'Post Mortem'.
A fractional disappointment after 'Emergency Rations', perhaps. But still, Def Jux's reputation as the most consistent hip-hop label in the world circa now remains unsullied.
