I like to keep "Lifestyles" on my iPod at all times. Its not my favorite album of all time or one that is necessarily more deserving of any other. I do it because when I hear him rhyme I like to think about what could have been for him. The punchlines. The internal and end rhymes. The no-nonsense hooks. * * *
"There are too many/ mc's who are overrated."
He's not. L deserves every bit of praise he gets.
"If you're rough stay rough, if you're dap, stay dapper but never look or even try to sound like another rapper"
He's got respct for the game, the art and his lane. The system is bigger than the individual. Isn't that what we want to hear? That rap means something? That music means something? Who can we say cares about that anymore? Even old heads like Diddy stopped caring. Timbo stopped. Drake is in a different category. But L had something that can't be taught. Biggie had it. Jay found it. Ghostdini has it. Its a confidence within the lyrics that allows you to go up and through the language and make internal allusions. Use slang as a first language. Bounce on words like a tom tom drum. There's no false bravado in the voice- this is the real deal.
So what would have happened had he lived? Just another classic debut with a string of crap behind it? Maybe he is where Ice Cube is, making kids movies. I think of this album like its an Joyce short story. The characters are there, the richness of scenery, the poetry, the emotion--- but it ends far too quickly.
Its too bad really.
