Mr. Lif is a man with a mission. Several, in fact.

While his politically conscious lyrics offer new viewpoints on everything from fast food to the war in Afghanistan, the rapper has been instrumental in putting Boston on the hip-hop map.

As he has grown and matured, so has the Boston hip-hop scene—from informal tape-swaps at shows often marred by fights to a flourishing environment that has produced several buzz-worthy artists.

When he was growing up, Lif says, the few hip-hop shows in Boston were “pretty rowdy, so my folks kept me at bay.” There were plenty of other means for a hardcore fan to get his hands on cutting-edge jams, so Lif avidly collected tapes by groups like Run DMC and De La Soul.

One of his key early influences was a operation now based out of Pennypacker basement.

Lif credits David M. Mays ’90, who spun records on WHRB as an undergrad, for introducing him to underground emcees and tracks that never enjoyed commercial circulation. Mays later went on to found “The Source,” the first and most prominent mainstream hip-hop magazine.

Lif pays homage to Boston’s hip-hop roots on his 2000 debut EP Enters the Colossus—a bare-bones affair featuring old-school beats and some cocksure rhyming. On the album’s closing track, he names the influences, collaborators and contemporaries who jumpstarted his career, name-dropping several Boston colleges before mentioning Harvard radio.

Only a year earlier, Lif says, he had begun to “stake [his] claim as an emcee.” Lif and other up-and-comers—including Mr. Turk, 7L and DJ Sense, who features on Colossus—started putting on shows at the Middle East club in Central Square, which flew the flag for Boston hip-hop.

“We wouldn’t really have had it like we did [without the Middle East],” says Lif. “They held us down.”

He attributes the rapid and positive evolution of hip-hop in Boston in large part to “the college crowd, who were open to hear anything fresh.”

“It always helps to have young, intelligent minds,” he says.

In two or three years, he’s only seen one fight at a show—and that was started by an outside gang—in marked contrast to the stereotypical hip-hop scene.

Meanwhile, college radio helped sustain the less commercial, independent hip-hop movement.

Lif’s long-awaited full-length debut I Phantom hit stores in 2002 to substantial critical acclaim (including in The Crimson). He says he worried that the album, which traces a central character’s struggle for success and happiness amidst the banality of modern life, was “too heady” for a listening public focused on catchy singles and fly but air-headed rhymes.

But Lif said the reception has been far better than he expected.