Get all 5 Mr. Lif releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Low Resolution, Resolution, The Life & Death of Scenery, Don't Look Down, and I Phantom.
1. |
Early Mourning
03:22
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Early Mourning -
Akrobatik
(Chorus)
A new day coulda been dawning - but we’re left with the….
Taken down by the world they were born in, leaving us to...
The grid got us underperforming / leading people to their...
Courage comes from within like endorphins, lets overcome the
Verse 1
No mother should have to bury her child
But still its young brothers lying in the cemetery for miles
In lockup its few attempts at rehabilitation
In the hood its no attempts at reconciliation
Brothers coming out don’t wanna deal with no humiliation
Its power in numbers so its gang affiliation
But is that inherently in our souls
Or would maybe things be different if our neighborhoods were lit and patrolled
Would we still be seen as savages if we could have the lavishness
Commit crimes more than what the national average is?
We civilized but we minimalized
And unfortunately many turn to criminal lives
Its no surprise blinded eyes can’t vigil the prize
With politicians bullshittin in their civil disguise
When we put this all together men and women will rise
We mourn as another broken individual dies
(Chorus)
Verse 2 (Mr. Lif)
Yo, this world could have been anything that we wanna
We've got so much to offer
Yet we settled on slaughter
Are these the things that we've done with our posable thumb
Plus our fascinating brains
Painting pathways to pain
Explain:
How do we go from children who were brimming with vast imagination
Filled with fascination...
to fueling this land of fabrication?
You can check it on your local station
Fuck it,
It's on every station
Corporations crush your local farmer
The government's in bed with big Pharma
The cops who shot ya rocking big armor
They like to wear it to corral a protest
The democracy where they don't think the people know best?
From electoral college
To falsified knowledge...
Somebody told me slavery has been abolished
Tax laws
The backdrop
For feet they've hacked off
Showed the police
Signs for peace
They never backed off
(Chorus)
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2. |
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Hose Down feat Syne -
Hose Down
Hose Down
It be getting too hot
Too loud
Calling all my woes out
They all down
If it's getting too hot
It goes down
Oh, you gotta
Hose Down
Hose Down
It be getting too hot
Too loud
Throw it down now....
Verse 1 (Mr. Lif)
You don't wanna miss a good thing
You don't wanna miss a good thing
Pushing for the good things
For the queens & the hood kings
This is more like an uprise
Duck down for the surprise
Looking just like an uprise
It's a muthafuckin' uprise
In these troubled times
Trouble I'm seeing
Treason
Breaching every region
Easing
Right into your crib in the evening
Reaching
Every little breath of any air we're breathing
Inhale
Exhale
Death nail
Ahh Boy, shit about to get real
Ahh Man, it's really bout to get real
Ahh, yeah it's really gonna get ill
Wether White, Black, Asian
We're all caged in
Runaway the system raging
With all the funds they're raising
Making this mainframe
Better duck down
They're aiming
Hands up
But the cops shoot us now
They brutal now
It ain't coolin' down
That greed of the 1% grueling now
It ain't slowing down
Got me thinking
Was it better when they...
(Chorus)
Verse 2 (Akrobatik)
You don’t want to miss a good thing
You don’t want to miss a good thing
Pushing for the good things
For the queens and the hood kings
This is more like an uprise
Duck down for the surprise
Looking just like an uprise
It’s a motherfuckin’ uprise (Come on!)
Back in the day, before the A-K
They let the hose spray to sweep bros away
But they kept coming back harder
Stronger, faster, smarter - and many became martyrs
They just wanted to be part of something
And not feel like they fought so hard for nothing
But they just got put in their place
And ended up with a foot in their face
No hood, no book, no religion or race could ever save ya
Big time bread is the only savior
Otherwise - you’re just one of those other guys
If you don’t believe it, see the hands of a brother rise
Up but the cops still shoot him down
They brutal now - they don’t fool around
Traffic stop could lead to a funeral now
It’s unsuitable how it’s worse now than it was when they…
(Chorus)
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3. |
Out of Control
03:13
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Out of Control -
(Chorus)
Feeling so out of control
Man, the world's spinning out of control
Man, the world's spinning out of control
Maybe we're out of control
The world's spinning out of control
Man, the world's spinning out of control
Yo, the world's spinning out of control
Man, the world's spinning out of control
Yo, the world's spinning...
Verse 1
We're fighting over quote unquote facts we'll never truly know
Wether it's true or false, it happened so long ago...
Couldn't we define our own guidelines and decide that anything leading to crime is out of line?
If truly destructive
And counterproductive
even if you quote unquote "win"
Your karma sucks kid
How you gonna progress through life off the back of another man's strife?
Off of the death of another man's wife
Off of the death of a mother's kids...
World of confusion
We've flipped our wigs
....inside out
Getting right before my kin dies out
Breathe in the sun before my skin dries out
I aint jumping out that window the wind flies out
Won’t be the coward in no pretend hideout
I'm in the trenches talking brothers up on benches
Hoping my gems penetrate stenches
Man, I'm right there with them
keeping it funky
If I’m African American, tell me which country
Our differences shouldn’t make you wanna hunt me
When in reality every fruit came from one tree
(Chorus)
Feeling so out of control man
The world's spinning out of control yo
The world's spinning out of control
The world's spinning out of control man
The world's spinning out of control
It's so...
Outta control
The world's spinning out of control man
The world's spinning out of control yo
The world's spinning out of control
The world's spinning (spinning) spinning
Verse 2
Yeah it's true
The world's spinning out of control
Sometimes, I'm tempted to just let go
Somehow I find the strength to hold on
I've seen the light of day
So I know dawn
Holding everyone I love with both arms
So strong
I'm hoping this embrace will help us all know calm
I wish we didn't all know harm
...but we do so we fight through
It's what we must do not what we might do
Wether you a Philanthropist who’s putting up a lot of his dough
Or if you poor with you socks poking outta ya toes
It's our own lives we gotta patrol
And I’m a optimist bro
I looked around to see whats popping and yo…
Philosopher stone
With modesty tones
That we offer to own
To get us up out of the prodigal zone
No matter how many dollars you own
Or where you calling ya home
It's obvious that the globe is spinning outta control
(Chorus)
Feeling so out of control man
The world's spinning out of control yo
The world's spinning out of control
The world's spinning out of control man
The world's spinning out of control
It's so...
Outta control
The world's spinning out of control man
The world's spinning out of control yo
The world's spinning out of control
The world's spinning (spinning) spinning
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4. |
Lemme Find Out
02:50
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Lemme Find Out -
(Chorus)
These thoughts escaping my mind now
Lemme find out
Lemme find out
Wanting me to go the blind route til I'm timed out
Lemme find out
Lemme find out
How these thoughts escaping my mind now
Lemme find out
Lemme find out
Wanting me to go the blind route til I'm timed out
Lemme find out
Lemme find out
Verse 1
These thoughts escaping my brain
My government name's been claimed
I'm a carbon copy
That was stored on floppy..
The walking autopsy
Odd with no heartbeat
Zombie
When they caught me
tech drone
With a chip in my neck bone
On line waiting for the next phone
Teleport to get home
I'm about to get cloned...
The people back home all thought it was funny
Tim they’d seen it for themselves on their iPhone 120’s
See, we thought all we had to fear was greed and money
But technology got us all hooked, dummies
Am I a man or an android? A fly lord or a cyborg?
It’s starting to become clearer when I look in the mirror
That this fear of living developing within me isn’t my thought
(Chorus)
Verse 2
Microchip implanted in my hip
Got me feeling like an alien that landed in a ship
Probed my frontal lobe now I’m standing here equipped
With abilities to flip
But I can’t get a grip on regular shit
I’m about to dodge my competitor’s wit
Hit them with something that they’ll never forget
Deprogram, roll up a hell of a spliff
And smoke Master Kush at the edge of a cliff
It's inception but I slept in
I'm a weapon
A bomb
H bomb
Maybe I'm napalm
NASA owned
Plasma chrome
T2
T3
Written on the tea leaves
Turn on your TV
See me
3D
Without the glasses
Ashes
Blast this
So all your neighbors hear this
Fear this
Wonder what that glare is
Wonder what the year is...
(Chorus)
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5. |
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When Push Comes to Shove feat. Dutch Rebelle -
Verse 1 (Akrobatik)
Listen, lately I’ve been deliberating
Previous worries we need to be eliminating
Forget the past girl I’m about elevating
That’s why tonight when you get home, I’ll have your dinner waiting
Move your body girl the way you do is innovating
Heat up the place with the grace that you’re demonstrating
When we’re close it feels like our bodies levitating
Queen - forget about those other men and women hating
They only see an emcee, so they discriminating
They’re unaware to how you give my spirit ventilation
And it’s a bond that goes beyond just penetration
And it feels like a brother’s been forever waiting
Forget the past, baby, I’m about elevating
And the rush from doing us so scintillating
I know you’re feeling the fantasy that we’re facilitating
Girl - it’s exhilarating - this is not no pillow faking
But it’s invigorating when I see your figure shaking
Glad you chose me, I know it’s plenty ..... waiting
For me to fuck up and do something incriminating
And watch what we’ve got begin disintegrating
But all we’ve got to do is execute a bit of patience
And manifest infinity like we’re figure eighting figure skating
We both know there’s something bigger waiting
What’s up baby? It’s time for reconfigurating - let’s go
(Chorus by Dutch ReBelle)
As we both grew - became one from two
Ups and the downs that we've survived through
Let me tell you something that you already knew
When push comes to shove, I’m down for you
When push comes to shove I’m down for you
When push comes to shove, I’m down for you
Been a little while, not trying to hold you
But when push comes to shove, I’m down
Verse 2 (Mr. Lif)
I was standing there admiring your presentation
Wanted to talk but I was caught in hesitation
Speculation on a future with no limitation
Calculating how to spark a little conversation
We only miss whatever chances we have never taken
A little lesson that I've learned throughout my maturation
So I step to you, it's quickening my respiration
And we both spoke with elegant articulation
It wasn't conversation baby it was aviation
I welcome you into my life so here's an invitation
Let me tell you about these walls that I'm forever scaling
and these goals I hope to reach, but they're intimidating
We are the real thing lady, never imitation
But we're living in a world that is forever changing
Expectations have a way of leading us astray
I know
Yeah, sometimes it can be aggravating
But the very thought of losing you is devastating
Let's reassess the stress that we're delegating
Have I told you what I've got with you's my inspiration
And my heart race whenever there's a complication
Maybe it's time now for self evaluation
And a true vacation
Pick a destination
Making way for epiphanies and revelations
Take it back to the feeling when we started dating
Let's go
(Chorus)
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6. |
Let's Battle
02:53
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Let's Battle -
Verse 1 (Mr. Lif)
So I ran into this chump around the end of the month
He said, "you ain't nice on the mic brother"
He started to front
So I looked at him sideways
Like 5 ways
His soul disintegrated from the tone of my eye gaze
He tried to materialize some fabricated
Excuse that I had to use to lacerate him
Exacerbating this situation
Some of his supporters teleported from their place of occupation
These dudes came through real blind to co-sign
That's when I dusted off this very old rhyme
"You don't / even / wanna / test a"
Rhyme manifester
Against the
Court jester
Boy I made a mess of this shit like Odysseus
When he returns home
My arrows was flown
Suitors clutch computers but their keyboards jam
That when I upgrade my invade with more
RAM
My system glisten
Listen
Tape hissin'
Analog fog
The bodies are still missin'
How would I describe my vision?
Nuclear fission
Somewhere between what's never been
And what's living
Verse 2 (Akrobatik)
I came up on these lame rappers rocking fake jewelry
Rolling deep like the Baseball Furys or a jury
This dirty dozen wasn’t friendly like cousins
Nah - they was buzzing ‘bout some shit that they would soon wish that they wasn’t
Talking ‘bout Ak’s washed up
They must’ve never heard Built To Last - they was probably locked up
For emcee impersonation
I let the leader run his little empty interpretation
I said a rhyme that made his head explode
My girl got it all recorded for my next podcast episode
So amazing how they all became introverts
Yo Lif - let me show you how I put them in the dirt
Brothers just had to test pedigree
I took them out seven at once, like The R in my melody
I let a roar that sent a chill up their backs
Then spit some heat towards the earth, and yo they fell through the crack
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7. |
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Free At Last feat Syne -
(Chorus by Syne)
Til we are free
At Last (x3)
Free
At last (x3)
Verse 1 (Mr. Lif)
I'm writing to you from a bomb shelter
I'm talking to you from my calm center
It's that feeling when you're fuckin' with the wrong venture
But you're in too deep to walk
Every day you fear a bullet make your heart stop
Talk not of woes and foes that come to get ya
The music is the only thing to help relieve the pressure
So you lose yourself in it
Til life is infinite
Til you're immortalized
Legacy fortified
Beyond making the cake
You tell them name you with the greats
They mention B.I.G. & Pac
They've gotta say your name a lot
So go ahead and hit em with that all time rhyme
Make people rewind
To hear it more times
(Is dude nice?)
Yeah, he's certified
He's live
Comp will not survive
Yes, you gonna thrive
Flip your style til' you're getting Grammy nominated
Damn it feels good when you can tell your mom you made it
(Chorus)
Verse 2 (Akrobatik)
In my neighborhood, poverty is still the majority
The streets are patrolled by unfamiliar authority
This...
prison industrial complex
Sets the pathway for us to go from being students to convicts
So we hang in clusters, many become hustlers
We trust nobody and nobody can trust us
Typecast as criminals that’s menacing
So we still get followed around the store even when we’re innocent
Devastated by the usual underplanning
The segregated lack mutual understanding
Afraid of what they don’t know, blind to the prospects
That they don’t have to be confined to the projects
Open up your mind to the logic
Let’s expand - the reward is how far your squad gets
Hard living when you feel like a target
So the revolution starts to spark the whole market
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8. |
Dirty Drumz
02:55
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Dirty Drumz -
(Chorus)
All the world wants is some dirty ass drums
We stand where we stand and we don't plan to run
All the world wants is some dirty ass rhymes
C4 with the raw
We grenade with these lines
Verse 1 (Akrobatik)
Yo, give me a boom and a bit and strip it down
I’ll give my homie Lif a pound
ignite the mic and rip it down
We don’t clutter airwaves with insipid sounds
I’m Akrobatik, known to flip around
Lyrics ’til they get renowned in your town, city, or commonwealth
Thirsty rappers - I’m suggesting that you calm yourself
You talk big but favor a leprechaun or elf
End of the day you’ll be calling to your Mom for help
But no maternal assistance
How can you pose resistance when you ain’t got a urinal to piss in?
My eternal mission: drop my gems and learn to live them
So rookies, please pull out your journals and listen
I’m giving seminars and lectures, drop bars with texture
Plus I am a beast so call a large professor
Dissertation on elimination
Thesis on the new Perceptionists releases - believe this!
(Chorus)
Verse 2 (Mr. Lif)
Ya see the beat is kept minimal
Mad simple
I see you moving toward the mic
I'd trip you
The crowd don't need to hear that black
Not everybody could rap
Step back
Bear trap
Your bones snap
The stage, I own that
Now show me where another microphone at
So I can amplify
My chants will fly
And resurrect the brothaz out in Sudan who ain't have to die
Grab the sky
Show the land my command
The seas may weave through the leaves to expand
The manphibian lungs
I naturally adapt
Anything that disobeys the laws of nature is a wrap
So watch me mutate at a new rate
Legs, I grew 8
Peace as I teleport from here to Kuwait
The mineral rich soil could sprout new vines
Like the syllable rich rhyme could fertilize minds
(Chorus)
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9. |
Grab Hold
03:25
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Grab Hold -
Verse 1 (Akrobatik)
I had a lover and I let her go free
You know what happened next?
She came back to me
Lost my job - didn’t let it fuck up my head
A year later had five times as much bread
My heart was broken and I let that shit heal
And jumped out the box as the fucking man of steel
Lost my best friend - didn’t follow his path
Instead I’m carrying his legacy through my lyrical math
My brother got locked up
When he checked his commissary though, my name always popped up
It’s something every woman and man should know
Never lose your soul over something you can’t control
It’s found in the Serenity Prayer
I ain’t religious, but I found a certain energy there
If it’s something I can control, you better beware
But if not - I’m still plenty prepared, because you can’t be
(Chorus)
Trying to grab hold of what you can’t control Trying to grab hold of what you can’t control
(There's no end when you're)
Trying to grab hold of what you can’t control
(You can’t win when you're)
Trying to grab hold of what you can’t control
x3
There's no end...
Verse 2 (Mr. Lif)
My tour bus crashed yet everybody lived
And I'm here this year
With more music to give
My dad left the crib
Over shit he hid
He stopped loving my mom
Yet my mom got strong
I've lost some relationships but gained wisdom
And found keys when regret was my prison
I've listened to sounds of anguish
Become a language
And feed the famished
I've seen the homeless
Flip a dope rhyme off the dome just
To prove they hadn't drowned in their (own) aloneness
I know this..
earth cracked open & split
Just to birth new land we call continents
I've heard a volcanic eruption
Sound like production
The bass was thumping
The clouds was moving
And sprouting humans
I've seen illusions
Be time consuming
You can't keep...
(Chorus)
VERSE 3
(There's storms on the horizon)
Storms that we can see
(Storms within you)
And storms within me
Upsetting the motion of the ocean & the seas
But never leaving me another broken entity
Centuries vent to me
Til time's just mindless
We stood there using the years to reminds us
(Removing the blinders)
But soon as we blinked
species went instinct
And the polar caps shrink
Ak, what you think?
I'm puzzled like the riddle of the sphinx
I disagree with all of the misery
Because talking to history is only one side of the coin
We really need the future to join
Combining and designing til were flying
High from our findings
Brighten those horizons
Rising above the clouds to new pinnacles
Setbacks could never limit you as long as you're not...
(Chorus)
END SONG
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10. |
A Different Light
03:47
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A Different Light -
Verse 1 (Mr. Lif)
This is me right now
no poetry shroud
maybe on the brink of death except the beat was pumpin loud
And it told me...
it'd hold me through the darkest of times
if I want to live
all I had to do was start to rhyme
I thought about it
no words came
But those birds came...
Vultures circled over head
Thinking I was surely dead
I asked the rhythm where to take it from here
The beat was gone
And all it left behind was a snare
Symbolic
I never was an alcoholic
Never fucked with hard drugs
Nearly overdosed on love
That's my fault
We've all got our vices to claim
I took a real hard fall
It seems I'll never be the same
How can I separate the lessons from pain?
How can I shake this eerie vibe of feeling drained?
If the past holds fire
and the future's unclear
Somebody tell me where I'm going from here
(Chorus)
Want to crucify me for toughest era in my life?
That's all right...
Thought the world of you but now I see you in a different light
That's all right...
(x2)
Verse 2 (Akrobatik)
I don’t need to call your name out - I ain’t trying to embarrass ya
This is not about revenge, it’s more about your character
Or lack thereof, step back there brov
How can you call someone a friend and then attack their love?
On my potential deathbed hooked up to machines and things
You would text my girl, and message her the sweetest things
Same time you would look me right in my face
And advise trying the single life when I left that wretched place
You tried to get me at my lowest moment
Funny how those we call our friends often quickly become opponents
Vultures circled overhead thinking I was surely dead
But always bet on Ak the burly dread
Now I’m all healed up
stronger than ever before
Would have blitzed back when, but I ain’t contemplating war no more
I’m above all the melodrama
“When they go low, we go high” - Michelle Obama
(Chorus)
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11. |
Resolution
03:41
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Resolution
(Chorus)
Those times I stumbled
Didn't know I'd fall
When I fell, I didn't mean to hurt you at all...
I think I'd answer the call
For resolution
(x2)
Verse 1 (Mr. Lif)
I am a mortal man
Just a mortal man
I have claimed to withstand
more than I can
I made promises
I know I made promises
I was reaching I wasn't as honest as...
I should have been
I could have been
I was battling a lifetime of hurt within
My internal struggles blemished your beauty
Another big mistake made by yours truly
Will this undo me?
Maybe I'm undone
I'll keep issuing apologies to everyone
Until is sinks in that I mean it
I wish my route to no doubt was not scenic
So anemic and frail
The sliding scale
Where I lump
The line between triumph and fail
If I want a happy end to my tale
I've got a lot to work on
And that's real
(Chorus)
Verse 2 (Akrobatik)
My own downfall did my own squad harm
But every time I fell I landed in God’s arms
Repeating what I put my friends family and fans thru
Is simply not something I can do
I might get the props but y’all deserve the credit
So now I’m coming with that hardcore work ethic
It's worth the effort
From mistakes come experience
and from experience comes wisdom
This vision delivered through Ak’s prism...
Hopefully brings clarity maybe epiphany
Turning your days from erroneous to harmonious symphonies
An orchestra of more sisters brothers and fam
Are behind the rise of this man than you can ever understand
That’s who I'm in it for
I let em all know now
Just in case a brother doesn’t live a minute more
The rush I get every time y’all give a roar
Let’s me know I’m living more
Wether rich or poor
(Chorus)
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Mr. Lif Boston, Massachusetts
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