Six months after Mr. Lif‘s tour bus flipped off the side of the highway and fell down a 30 foot embankment, the artist sounds as reflective as ever. In a new interview with csindy.com the indie rapper notoriously known for some of the biggest hair in hip-hop he talks about the accident and a new approach to his art.
“I was finishing a bowl of cereal, watching Anchorman with my friends, next thing I know, it was pitch black. It was the loudest noise I had ever heard. Furniture was going everywhere. The bus caught on fire. It happened in the desert at 3 a.m. Luckily, people were driving by and were kind enough to stop and take my friends and I to the hospital. People were airlifted out of the accident. I got out with a sneaker and a sock on and my cell phone. I had a friend who lost a lot of flesh on her hand. I had to use the sock as a tourniquet. It was straight carnage.”
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Up to this point of his career, Lif has been a politically charged musical activist, he was one of the first musicians to respond after 9/11 in musical form and has often questioned this countries leadership and political leaders. Since the accident though, Lif barely acknowledges “that era” – anything prior to the accident, even his 2006 record doesn’t exist to him anymore.
“When people hear my new material, it’ll have new elements on it,”Lif said, “It’ll be a return to some things people do like about me. It’ll be a grand narrative, have an overall theme, having to do with a story that will run through the whole album.”
Lif says that parts of his body still ache from the accident and he’s committed to a limited tour with three shows in Colorado before a month off. The accident hasn’t only changed his musical approach, it has also affected his perception of life and his career.
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“It’s pretty tough to figure out how no one died, I would just say that the old Mr. Lif is definitely gone, passed away in that accident. My new identity will be revealed in months to come, when this new [album] is fully realized. Part of me wants to be away from the world. I’ve always been an introvert. Now even more so. [But] now I’m a grown man who fully understands how powerful life is. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t even be seen for the next year. But the reality is, you have to do shows and keep your life financially viable. And when I’m on stage now, it’s almost a vengeful-type experience.”
