Fresh on the heels of the release of Lyrics Born‘s greatest hits album Now Look What You’ve Done, Lyrics Born!, the Bay Area Hip Hop vet returns with visuals for the classic Latyrx track, “Lady Don’t Tek No,” with longtime collaborator and Quannum Projects label mate Lateef the Truthspeaker.
Since beginning his solo career with 2003’s Later That Day, Lyrics Born (real name Tom Shimura) has released three additional solo records, culminating with 2015’s Real People.
In between time, he’s worked with several heavy hitters, including Blackalicious, Haiku D’Etat and Z-Trip. The greatest hits album has given him the chance to further explore songs that date back to the 1990s.
“One of the best things about a greatest hits album is being able to revisit these songs with videos, which we never had the opportunity to do before,” Shimura tells The Source. “Not sure this has ever been done, so I’m all in. ”
Although a greatest hits album sometimes signifies the end of a career, Shimura was vague about what one meant for him. Either he’s going to continue making albums and consequently generate more greatest hits or he’s going to rest on his laurels for a little while. Whatever happens, the Japanese-American emcee has made a lofty contribution to Hip Hop culture, marking it with his unmistakably unique fingerprint forever.
“One more album makes 10,” he says. “It seems like a good place to either begin or end.”
