I’m a little late to rap music, and
albums like this next one make me regret that.
Disc 473 is…Paid in Full
Artist: Eric B.
& Rakim
Year of Release: 1987
What’s up with the Cover? The greatest rap duo of all time strike a pose (DJ
Eric B. on the left, and emcee Rakim on the right). This is in the day when a rap group would don
a set of matching track suits and a bunch of golden bling to be actually cool,
not ironically cool. Also of note, I
purchased this album, ensuring both Eric B. & Rakim continue to get paid in
full for their role in laying down raps great legacy. Pay the artist, people!
How I Came To Know It: I likely first heard the song “Paid in Full” back in the eighties, and can almost guarantee I
hated it. How wrong I was. In terms of my awakening to this band, it was
in hearing their original of “Microphone
Fiend” remade by Rage Against the Machine for their “Renegades” album in 2000. “Paid in Full” is just me
drilling through their musical collection after I was impressed with a sampling
I’d heard earlier on a 20th Century Masters compilation.
How It Stacks Up: I only have two of Eric B. & Rakim’s four studio
albums, which is something I mean to remedy.
Both are amazing, but I’m going to give 1988’s “Follow the Leader” the
edge, and leave “Paid in Full” at second.
Rating: 4 stars but very close to 5.
Eighties
rap was heavily focused on determining who could rap the best, and who could lay
down the best scratches. My exposure to
rap is still fairly limited, but as far as I’m concerned Eric B. & Rakim
were the best then, and are still the best twenty-five years later.
When a
great emcee takes the microphone, it should feel like they’re casting a spell
with their rhymes and their cadence. No
one casts a spell like Rakim. When he
starts rhyming he commands your attention.
Whatever you’re doing you find you stop doing it. If you’re talking, you fall silent. If you’re thinking about something else, you
forget about that and let him take you into the journey of his words, which are
far more interesting than whatever journey you were on before he starting
talking.
In fact,
I started out trying to write this review like I usually do, with the album
playing in the background to give me inspiration. The problem was that with Rakim weaving words
over sampled James Brown horn and guitar riffs (and God knows what else) I
couldn’t concentrate on writing. All my
frontal lobes got drawn in to listening to the intricate rhymes he was laying
down, and the effortless use of beat and cadence while he did it. It was like trying to write a novel while listening
to Leonard Cohen sing; there were just too many good words already in my head
that weren’t my own. And so, in
desperation, I’ve had to resort to radio silence just to get some of my
thoughts down.
To be
sure there are other great and smooth emcees out there; I like the guys in EPMD
and Guru from Gang Starr is also impressive, but no one draws me in like Rakim.
It is
amazing for me to find such an emotional attachment to the music as well, since
these songs aren’t about anything more complicated than “I rap better than you/I
rap the best.” It shouldn’t be this
compelling.
Rakim
doesn’t operate in a vacuum, and his DJ Eric B. is also at the pinnacle of his
craft. Scratching is an art unto itself,
and I can’t think of someone who does it better than Eric B. A number of the songs on “Paid in Full” are
the rap equivalent of an instrumental, in fact, and Eric B. carries those songs
alone. Rather than find myself missing
Rakim’s verbal mastery, I was drawn into the artistry of scratching.
And like
Rakim’s raps, Eric B’ solo songs like “Eric
B. is on the Cut” and “Extended Beat”
tell you with their title not to expect any deeper meaning. Like Rakim telling you that he raps the best,
these are songs where Eric B. is telling you he scratches the best. It would feel like wild and pointless
boasting on both counts, except that it is true.
Of
course, “Paid in Full” is from the golden era of rap, before every sample had
to be paid for. This opens up the entire
human race’s vinyl collection for inspiration.
Yet for all that, the samples are surprisingly simple. This isn’t like Public Enemy’s wall of
sampling; “Paid in Full” keeps things deceptively simple. A beat, a sampled riff and maybe a few choice
sounds to add some depth. Despite the
basic approach, the music is complex, and in places even reminiscent of jazz (the
good jazz – not the obtuse, masturbatory kind).
There’s
not much more I can say, except the only album that bests “Paid in Full” for me
in the rap world is also by Eric B. & Rakim: “Follow the Leader” (more on that when I roll
it). I guess on that note, I will follow
the leader, and leave this unworthy offering with a few lines from the R to the
A to the K-I-M who explains his melody better than I ever could:
“Rhymes are poetically kept and
alphabetically stepped
Put in an order to pursue with
the momentum except
I say one rhyme outta order, a
longer rhyme shorter
Or pause – but don’t stop the
tape recorder.
“I’m not a regular competitor,
first rhyme editor
Melody arranger, poet, et cetera
Extra events, the grand finale
like bonus
I am the man they call the
microphonist.”
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