Birthed on the now infamous “Rebel Alliance” EP, which introduced the world to Boston indy heavyweights such as 7L & Esoteric & Virtuoso, Mr. Lif has built a name for himself, releasing several indy 12” singles, on several different labels. From Brick to Grand Royal, Lif finally lands on El-P’s new Def Jux imprint, letting us get a broader glipse into what he is about, in eight songs or less.

Many will classify Mr. Lif as a battle rhymer, but unlike many others in his class, he also serves as a storyteller. Like last year’s classic, “Farmhand”, (which unfortunately remains absent), Lif spits amusing threats on “Enters The Colossus”, told in past tense. His stream-of-consciousness rhyme patterns are unpredictable, and on tracks like “Front On This”, you can feel him breathlessly building his mental matrix, as he evolves with the track. “If you punks wanna / ball then I’ma have to 720 dunk on ya / and during my revolutions / I undergo evolution / then I emerge superhuman / due to this / metamorphosis / ability to morph is just / second nature / so I turn into a pager / vibrate and chip / the bone in your hip / become a blade / a slip in your midsection / when I’m wreckin’.” Do lyrics get more fun than this?

The album’s opener, “Datablend” is equally as entertaining, where Lif kicks in the door with a non-stop verse that will have listeners laughing out loud. As the KRS-ONE sample pushes Lif to “come again” after he finishes the first verse, he gets even sicker with it as the beat changes up for verse two. Meanwhile, “Pulse Cannon” (featuring T-Ruckus and Insight along with Lif to form “Knights Of The Round Table”), shows interesting chemistry, but may scare some heads off, with it’s strange style of production. The album’s other collaboration, “Avengers”, which features fellow Perceptionist, Akrobatik, comes off much better, as the two Boston emcees preview what could be an interesting full-length collaboration project. Finally, Lif gets more serious on “Arise”, featuring the train-wreck sounds of El-Producto, which, like usual, in all of it’s chaos somehow seems to work, closing the album out.

While only his first EP, it shows lots of potential for his future. Despite that “Farmhand” was missing and some of the production here seems a little strange, a more finely tuned full-length release could really help Mr. Lif achieve success and status he strives for.