The album also faced the challenge of being released by an underground artist on a relatively obscure underground label—Definitive Jux Records, also home to Aesop Rock and Cannibal Ox. But years of experience in Boston’s scene have made Lif a master of getting word out on his music.

Last summer, just before the release of I Phantom, Lif put out the Emergency Rations EP and his most incendiary single to date: “Home of the Brave.” A fantastically articulate—and funky—verbal assault on the Bush administration and their war on terrorism, the song concluded with the line “You can wave that piece-of-shit flag if you dare / But they killed us because we’ve been killing them for years.” The single was accompanied by rumors from Lif’s website and publicity agents that he had gone “missing” due to his political views. But to the relief of his fans, he soon reemerged, and the buzz kept growing.

Lif’s album release brought another change as he left for Berkeley, CA to conquer new ground and be with his girlfriend.

“It’s back to ground zero,” he says. “But I think a lot of people are grateful because there aren’t many emcees out here. A lot moved to LA to be where the business is.”

But Lif still keeps a 617 phone number, and he says Boston is still home—“I mean, I lived there for 26 years!” And he’s been back to Boston in recent months for a number of shows, including “Lifoween” at the Paradise Rock Club and an all-ages show at the House of Blues in Harvard Square last year. Always well-attended by cheering crowds, Lif’s Boston shows often feature new material and breathtaking freestyles from the man himself.

Lif isn’t one to hog the spotlight, though. He treats his shows as an opportunity to give emerging Boston rappers exposure and support. Kabir, another Cambridge-based rapper, has opened for Lif at nearly every one of his local shows. His intellectual lyrics and damn-the-man mentality jive well with Lif’s revolutionary outlook, but Kabir’s skills are still in their infancy compared to Lif’s awesome mastery.

Not so with Akrobatik, a talented emcee who traded rhymes and freestyles with Lif at both of his last two shows in Boston and will release his debut album early this year.

He doesn’t have immediate plans for new solo material, but Lif’s creative energies are still at boiling point. With some collaborators, he’s working on a new record and several labels are “poised to make offers.”

Lif says that only the unexpected is genuinely fresh, so for his next album he intends to drastically recreate himself. He says he “might have been too cryptic early on” when his real goal is to “raise awareness about what’s going on with the government, and make people think.”

—Staff writer Andrew R. Iliff can be reached at iliff@fas.harvard.edu.