(Pictured on left: Eric B., right: Rakim)
Young Bladez back again for the weekly dose for all you heads (slang for hip-hop heads.. FYI)! This week we’re headed back to the golden age of hip-hop and one of hip-hop’s most influential MC’s, the rap legend Rakim. Rakim is one half of the hip-hop duo Eric B & Rakim, who are responsible for some of the greatest hip-hop songs of all time. The 1987 album “Paid In Full” was named the greatest hip-hop album of all time by MTV in 2006, and contains classics like “Eric B Is President” & “Paid In Full”.
My first exposure to Rakim was at the age of 10, I picked up a Blaze magazine and on the cover it said “The 50 Greatest MC’s Of All Time”. Thinking I knew a great deal about hip-hop I had already made up my mind at who the top 5 would be. Tupac would be #1, followed by Biggie at #2, Nas at #3, Jay-Z #4 and Method Man at #5. My whole world was turned upside down when I opened up the magazine and some dude named Rakim was #1, I had no clue who he was. The rest of the top 5 made a little bit more sense to me, KRS-1 #2, Biggie was at #3, Big Daddy Kane at #4 and LL Cool J at #5. When I first listened to the album Paid In Full, I was shocked at how many of his lyrics had been used by other rappers and how many of the songs had been sampled as well. So let’s take a listen to one of my personal favourites from Eric B. & Rakim, off the 1992 album “Don’t Sweat The Technique,” The Song is titled “What’s On Your Mind?”
[yframe url=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm9rwTUih08′]
