NEWS

Mr. Lif’s Emergency Rations EP is post-9/11 hip hop at its most daring

by | Jul 5, 2026

Cover of Mr. Lif’s Emergency Rations EP showing planes dropping bombs on people and then planes dropping aid to those same people.

First, you drop bombs, then you send aid. Totally logical. | Image: Definitive Jux

There was a period in the early aughts when Definitive Jux (nee: Def Jux) seemed like it was going to be the future of hip hop. While the label featured plenty of experimental, boundary-pushing, and politically minded acts, Lif stood out as the most “conscious rapper” in the traditional sense. It was clear though, that label head El-P envisioned that as an important part of Def Jux’s identity, as the first record it put out was 2000’s Enter the Colossus EP, from Lif.

Mr. Lif’s follow-up was 2002’s Emergency Rations EP, a sort of place setter for the full-length I, Phantom just a couple of months later. It opens with a skit about Lif missing …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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