Lyrics Born

"For my last album, I wanted to throw the funkiest, freakiest, messiest going away party I could for myself,” declares rap legend LYRICS BORN about his upcoming exit from the music space to further explore other entertainment realms. “I'm saying what I want to say, and then I'm boogie-ing my ass out the door.” Before he waves sayonara to his illustrious musical career that stretches over three decades from his start as part of the iconic Northern California hip hop collectives SoleSides and Quannum Projects in the ‘90s to his solo joints in the ‘00s and onward, Lyrics Born will be releasing one final album, Goodbye, Sticky Rice on October 10, 2024 via his label Mobile Home Recordings. His new single “Take It 2 Far” from the upcoming album is a funk-fueled track that finds Lyrics Born spitting out rhymes in his trademark cadence. ““Everything in Moderation, including moderation,” he says about the song, shooting a shifty eye. “Fuck that,” he laughs. “Let’s take it 2 far this time, & take it there with me!!” Celebrating excess and indulgence in the best possible way, it’s a hearty song that embraces the Dionysian life. “I’m already fun but we can get funner / Every bottle upside down all summer,” he raps, popping corks and upping the ante past eleven. As part of the lead up to the release of Goodbye, Sticky Rice, Lyrics Born will be hitting the road for a handful of West Coast shows to party it up for his last hurrah. “We are gigging, we are indulging, we are naming names, we are crying in the middle of the room, and somebody might end up pregnant,” he says. “Come say good-bye to the kiddo one last time!" Amongst the dusty records of UC Davis’ KDVS college radio station, Tom Shimura, who currently makes records as Lyrics Born, found too much to love. Sandwiched between gatefold LPs, 12-inch singles, dub versions and white-labels was a reservoir of inspiration that he would draw on for the following decades. That was then. This is now. Since his college days, Bay Area-native Lyrics Born’s raw, authentic talent has been polished to a gleaming beacon of originality in a time when it’s needed most, and it’s release marks a new era of label relations. “The old model is dead, you cant just put it out and expect people to get it”, explains LB, and the statement could easily be applied to his sound or his approach to marketing the finished product. Lyrics Born has gone about the creation of his latest effort, As U Were, in a less-than-conventional manner. One defining characteristic of his sound thus far has been that it can be described as unequivocally fun, and this remains true of As U Were. However, LB does routinely peel back the gregarious exterior to reveal a contemplative everyman, and it’s times like this that his true artistry is apparent. “It’s at the point in my career where I’ve been through a lot, fun and not so fun. I think I’m dealing with a lot issues that are more mature than the last few albums, from abandonment to betrayal to incredible joy”. He voices these sentiments prominently on the lead single “Lies x 3”, a driving, heartfelt plead for truth. While touching on newer subjects, he also reached out to artists that he felt removed himself from his comfort zone. “The new record is more synth-oriented. I made an effort to work with younger artists: Trackademicks, Francis and The Lights, and Sam Sparro, namely”. The bay-swagger is in full effect on “Funky Hit Records”, and while the new guests add a new dimension to the sound, Tom Shimura isn’t one to lose sight of his roots. Gift of Gab drops a requisite, thought-provoking verse on the critical “Pills” and the classic Latyrx tag-team makes it look way too easy on “Pushed Aside, Pulled Apart”, one of the album’s standout cuts. As U Were may well be LB’s greatest achievement, but it’s been a long time coming. Lyrics Born had been a music obsessive since his youth, and in 1993 freestyles among a group of UC Davis classmates that occupied the same cramped radio quarters began to find their way onto paper, and suddenly LB had written “Send Them”. It became the first single on the newly minted Solesides Records, a collaborative venture between himself and his accomplices who would later go on to be known internationally as Blackalicious (comprised of MC Gift of Gab and producer Chief Xcel), DJ Shadow and Lateef The Truthspeaker, an East Oakland rapper with whom he found a shared affinity for the rapid-fire lyrical volleys that would define the next step. As Latyrx (a combination of their working names) the two MCs released The Album, in 1997. The LP would go on to become a certified classic, selling 100,000 copies, yet would prove to be the tip of an even larger iceberg. Solesides was re-imagined as Quannum Projects in 1999. As co-owner, LB used Quannum as a conduit through which he delivered his most realized project to date, 2003’s Later That Day. The album yielded his biggest commercial success to date, “Callin’ Out”, which charted nationally!

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