Lookin’ Back: Lyricks & Manifest – “Gift” (2006)

Time sure flies. “Gift” by Lyricks & Manifest is one of those early videos to go “viral” before viral videos really existed. It was recorded back around 2006 over the instrumental to Eminem’s “When I’m Gone“, and at the time social networking basically included AIM and maybe Xanga and Myspace depending on who you talked to. But this video still got passed along like crazy – especially among the Korean-American youth of the time. It’s kind of funny that both Lyricks & Manifest started off as an early Youtube hit but never really became a staple of the then budding online video site. There are pro’s and con’s to that but regardless the two have been making good music for years now and although they’ve grown as artists, this video is a testament to the strength of their earlier work as well. The two have gone on to form the Beautiful Cycle & SuperNoVA collectives, with Manifest doing his thing overseas with JL & company while Lyricks continues to hold it down stateside. Wow… 2006 seems current but it’s already half a decade ago. It’s fun to Look Back ain’t it?