What does Boston-born underground MC Mr. Lif think of minimum-wage slave gigs? Do the math: “You work a thirty a day, away/The government takes a third of your check, correct/You go home and drink cause you don’t get an ounce of respect/And your spirit is wrecked.” Since the ferociously aware Mr. Lif popped onto the scene in the late ’90s amid a keg stand of party anthems, eventually landing on famed indie label Definitive Jux, such keen observations as found on the cut “Live From the Plantation” have been his lyrical modus operandi. It’s also one his comrades Akrobatik and DJ Fakts, who together with Mr. Lif form the Perceptionists, use; i.e., simple formulations that equal a dark sociopolitical reality—think Dead Prez meets Mr. Wizard. So tonight, bring your calculator, and your conscience. With Dim Mak and Rudy and the Rhetoric. KEVIN CAPP

Mr. Lif

Listen to a sample of Mr. Lif’s “Red October.”

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Thu., Jan. 24, 9 p.m., 2008