While it's obvious that the marriage of Mr. Lif to my artist and longtime friend, Eternia, puts his music atop all my current playlists, I'm actually throwing it back to the early 2000s (2003, I believe?) to revisit one of his most popular records, "Because They Made It That Way." In Lif's own words, "Back in these days, Akrobatik and I used to make beats constantly on the EPS 16 Plus. One day he came up with this idea... I was to produce a track for him and give it a name. Whatever the name was, he had to write a song accordingly. The same rules applied to him as far as producing a track for me and naming it. The track I made for him was called "Aktivity." I'm not sure he ever wrote that song, and thus it never was released. The track he made for me was titled "Because They Made it That Way", and it became one of my most popular songs. It's pretty clear to see that he thoroughly kicked my ass in that challenge." I believe Ethan Lander was the director of the video: two takes of Mr. Lif walking through Post Office Square in Boston, MA with DJ Fakts One on the portable turntable. In the opening of the track Lif rhymes, "It started with two turn tables and a mic / Lightning strike, electricity / MC rip rhymes DJ cut the wax viciously / The combo, maliciously brought / ingenious and precise / Mad nice..." Stepping outside the Matrix, Lif targets the ills and conformity of the world, saying "The only place I can find justice is deep inside of these lines / That I designed to explain situations of the times / People in general are targets of big money markets / And are all disposable unless you come ready to work / Fully posable with suit and tie / Ready to buy into the bullshit images / Of people claiming that money is what there religion is..." Dig into it...