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What Is Life For The Better?
From Mr. Cleen's Perspective

Well, I think it was the summer of 2001, and I had been going to the open mic nights at the Barnes and Nobles bookstore every month. Having been solo M.C. for a few years and since nobody at my job liked the kind of Hip-Hop I did. I was desperate for some culture anywhere I could get it.

Some of the people that would read would be grown-ass adults reading poems about their troubled love life or the aluminum siding on their house (seriously), but every month, I'd notice the same group of young people getting up there and spitting rap verses. Even the host, Yakeen from the "The Simple Citizens", would occasionally freestyle (like supernatural!). After just about every reading, I'd go up to those same young people, introduce myself and compliment them on their verses. And they would compliment me on mine as well. After a few months, we all sort of came to the realization that we were some talented-ass, sum-bitches, and we might just have what it takes to start an underground movement out here in the Cadillac desert of Lancaster/Palmdale, California. So, a meeting was arranged.

My memory is a little foggy, but I think the guys that showed up were: Ben Yomen, Yakeen, Offbeat, Banana Nine, Osiris Ka Plutarch, and myself. We came to the conclusion that we all had very different styles, but we all also had our fair share of talent. But you can't do anything without a name.... After about 10 minutes of bullshitting, Yakeen finally coined the phrase "Life For The Better". You see, we needed something that would produce goose bumps on the spinal cords of wack M.C.'s, but not something so negative, it would scare off club bookers. We needed gigs, because without gigs, we were just a bunch of broke guys who could flow.

My engineer, Pete Emard, hooks up sound systems for clubs on the side, of his steady engineering job, and one of the clubs he did sound for was "Club Savanna", a club in Lancaster, California. He told me to call his friend Jay, who was the booker. So I called Jay and told him what was up with us and that we could give him at least two hours of live Hip-Hop. He said we needed the approval of the person that ran the clubs day to day operations, some chick named Nameesha (forgive me if I misspelled your name). So I called Nameesha and told her the same thing I told Jay, and she gave me a day and time to come down to the club, do a walk through, and play her our own stuff. I went to the club with Ben Yomen, Banana Nine, and Con-scienz, and after doing the walk through, we all came out to my car and played her "Witches Checkerboard" by Banana Nine. We didn’t have any crew songs yet. She ending up loving Evan's song, and gave us a date sometime in the next month. We had our first show: "Encyclopedia Organica, Volume 82'". After calling fellow Hip-Hop heads "Camp Life", and "The Simple Citizens" to fill up our three hour stage time, I must say we all rocked that show.

After that first show at "Club Savanna", we had such a good turn out, that we quickly got two more. We were all excited that we had a steady club that we could be regulars at, but, as bad luck reared its ugly head, financial constraints caused "Club Savanna" to shut its doors in early 2002. f***! Back to square one.

Now let's see, around the time we were in the process of promoting our first show at "Club Savanna", Con-Scienz found himself working with some guy named Paul. When Con-Scienz told Paul he was an M.C., Paul told him he should meet his friend Chuck (Speak), because he rapped too. A chance meeting at McDonalds soon followed with Paul, Speak, Con-Scienz, and Banana Nine and when the suggestion was made that Speak become a member of L.F.T.B. the answer was a resounding HELL NO! But I eventually changed my mind...... that was a joke.

As it turned out, I actually knew Speak from his previous group, El Rambo. A mutual friend of ours (and L.F.T.B. affiliate, Rugged Poet) introduced us right before he moved to Colorado three years prior to all this. But we misplaced each others numbers and lost touch. Its funny how life works sometimes.

Anyways, "Shrodur" were apparently big fans of ours going all the way back to our first show. And, they were already real close friends with Speak, so when he was ushered into the crew, he put in a good word for them. Honestly, since I didn’t know them very well, I was little hesitant about saying yes right away, because they were a live band and for the most part, we were all rappers. Speak, Con-Scienz and Banana Nine all assured me they were tight as hell, but I still wanted to hear what they sounded like.

Well, one night, Banana Nine, and I was on our way to a little club in Orange County, California, to see "cLOUDDEAD" perform, and on the drive, he said he had a CD of some of the "Shrodur" recordings..... Holy Shit! All my hesitancy was blown away-these guys were f***ing dope. They had to be in the crew. Once they were in, Speak and Con-Scienz felt them so much that they formed a side project to begin work on after they were done with their "Shrodur" CD called "The Sand People".

Not to keep back-tracking, but before "The Sand People", Con-Scienz was in another group called "Origin of Spirit". "Origin of Spirit" consisted of Con-Scienz and Elliptical M31 (that is what Banana Nine called himself in 2001), but they quickly realized that although they could remain friends, they just couldn’t work together.
Around the same time "The Sand People" was set to begin work, a crew of non Hip-Hop related problems sort of fell in Con-Scienz's lap all of a sudden, And as we all know, family comes first, so Con-Scienz had to go represent for his family. It was sad not kicking it with the homie and not having him at any of the meetings, we all wished he would work out whatever he needed to and come back to us, full steam ahead.

After a few phone calls, Con-Scienz passed the torch to Afcelfe from D.V. ayshun to be second M.C. in "The Sand People". And in the springtime 2002, Con-Scienz spread the word that all was calm enough in his family for him to return back to full-dedication mode in L.F.T.B., and this time, under a new name, Divided Line. We all welcomed him back with opened arms, he had finally found us a crew D.J., in D.J. Stereotype

A little while after we all got to know Speak, he told us his sister, Kelly Donovan, could sing and had made a CD a few years earlier. He also hinted at the fact that she also wanted to be down with L.F.T.B. After we all heard her CD, and after Speak started making beats on his recently purchased SP-505, Speak said her new material would be on some tripped out Portishead-type shit, so we welcomed 'Mean Girl'. (I call her that, because when we first met, she was really mean to me. Speak said that is her way of being nice, but I still prefer 'Mean Girl').
As of now, 8-8-02, Life for the Better is: Offbeat, Cleen, Plural Clarity, D.V.ayshun (BenYomen and Afcelfe), Speak, Kelly Donovan, Divided Line, D.J.Stereotype, Banana Nine, Shrodur and Osiris Ka Plutarch. Now, our roster is deep, and all of us are making some really dope music. I am very proud to be a part of this collection of creative, insightful, dark, brilliant, wierd, outlandish, poetic, eclectic, thought-provoking, reactive, comical, emotional, complicated, fun, musical..... musicians. We are who we are. We are Life For The Better. And remember, we are here because the mainstream is polluted.

Peace.
Mr. Cleen

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