Eric B. & Rakim - Paid In Full (July 7, 1987)

Every hip hop fan has been involved in the debate at one time or another: who is the best emcee ever? A lot of folks on forums tend to lean toward 2Pac, a stance I can't comprehend, since Pac himself probably would be the first to tell you that he wasn't the best (that is, if he were actually rhyming and not hiding in the Bahamas after faking his death). Valid points can be made for the likes of Shawn Carter or Nasir Jones, but some would consider their inclusion on the shortlist as blasphemy (myself included). Somewhere there's a disgruntled magazine editor that will make the case for Lil Wayne just to sell more copies of their crappy tabloid. But this isn't a question that can be easily answered, as the so-called "best emcee" has to be someone that changed the game and influenced countless others, all while staying true to themselves and their love of the music.

Older heads will narrow down their list to one of these two men: KRS-One and Rakim. An argument could be made both for and against both of these guys. But for my money, Rakim is the best emcee in the game, or at least he was, in the late 1980's, when everything he touched turned to platinum.

Paid In Full was the debut album from producer Eric B. and Rakim, which followed a ton of 12-inch singles that floated around for one year prior. Up until this point, hip hop was obsessed with party tracks, with only a handful or artists taking on societal ills head-on, which is what hip hop has always been good at. Rakim was among the first to mesh intelligence with consciousness, twisting and turning it into a lyrical form that was easy to swallow since he literally rapped like no one else before him. Plenty of fans lapped this shit up, as Paid In Full sold over one million units, turning Eric B. into a star behind the boards, and launching Rakim onto a whole other plane of existence.

It's hilarious to think that this album may have never actually happened had rapper Freddie Foxxx actually arrived at the studio when he was supposed to. Paid In Full, which is actually twenty-one years old today (commence feeling old.....now) feels so much like one of the most vital elements in the hip hop subconscious (almost as if it could stand alongside graffiti and breakdancing all by itself) that it's hard to imagine a time when this album didn't exist.

All I have to say is this: there's a reason that Rakim's solo songs are never mentioned whenever anyone asks which is the best Rakim verse. (To be fair, I've always kind of liked Rakim's DJ Premier-produced "Waiting For The World To End" from The Master, an otherwise negligible album from his ill-fated solo career, but I won't be reviewing that drink coaster anytime soon.) And lest we forget about the album's other star, Eric B's beats always seemed like the toast that Rakim's vocals buttered.

And with that terrible metaphor, let's get into the review.

1. I AIN'T NO JOKE
If you had ever listened to hip hop with any regularity prior to discovering my fantastic blog, then you've heard this song before. The simple drums and scratched-in horns mesh perfectly as Rakim spits quotable after quotable. I wonder if he believed his rhymes to be anything special at the time, especially considering the impact they eventually had on hip hop (even the hip hop Hobgoblin quotes Rakim Allah from time to time).

2. ERIC B. IS ON THE CUT
The deejay cut so early in the sequencing? Well, if you insist.

3. MY MELODY
This song may be considered too slow for hip hop fans today to get into. Max says: get the fuck over it. If you skip this song because of the slower tempo of Marley Marl's (remixed) instrumental, you've fucked up, and you better get that apology letter ready. If you skip this song because you prefer the original version, which only became available on compact disc when the deluxe edition of Paid In Full hit the stores, then I don't know what to tell you, because this version just plain sounds better.

4. I KNOW YOU GOT SOUL
I swear, this entire album is made up of hip hop quotables strung together with Krazy Glue and crazy beats. Or maybe it just seems that way, since every rapper alive seems to have cribbed from Rakim's notes.

5. MOVE THE CROWD
Sorry, my two readers, but "MC" actually means "master of ceremonies", not "move the crowd". But this song still rocks today, so at least one thing remains consistent.

6. PAID IN FULL
My favorite song on this record, although I'm also partial to the Coldcut remix, which is like eighty-seven minutes long. I've always been amused by the intro, in which Eric B. somehow turns reading a list of the duo's agent, label, and management company into a question. It's pretty damn sad that Eric B. and Rakim were never paid in full for their contributions to hip hop: hopefully that shit is rectified, but knowing the music industry, I wouldn't hold my breath.

7. AS THE RHYME GOES ON
If you're only familiar with Rakim Allah's greatest hits, then you probably aren't going to know this one. The beat is only okay, but that Barry White sample creeps up on you like the bogeyman in a Z-grade horror flick, so kudos to Eric.

8. CHINESE ARITHMETIC
Another Eric B. deejay cut, this time focusing on an instrumental sample that's so stereotypically Asian that it would be fucking offensive if released today (unless, of course, the Teriyaki Boyz or Jin decided to be "ironic" and rock over it). Luckily, this song dropped in the late 1980's, when nobody paid any attention to that sort of tomfoolery.

9. ERIC B. IS PRESIDENT
You've also heard this song already, but you may not recall how fucking long it is. Marley Marl's (remixed) beat still sounds pretty good today, so feel free to refresh your memory.

10. EXTENDED BEAT
Sounds exactly how it reads. Eric B. provides listeners with a sorta-instrumental to "Move The Crowd", and you'll be tired of the beat when the disc finally ends.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Paid In Full is considered to be a hip hop classic, and it helps that it actually still sounds great today. There's just something to admire about hip hop music created by two guys who could give a fuck about radio airplay: they made the beats and rhymes the way they wanted to, and the fans followed them on their journey. The exact opposite course of action was attempted when Rakim Allah released his first solo album, The 18th Letter, which still sounds embarrassing thanks to label interference. But when hip hop was as close to unfiltered as it could ever be, the raw product that it produced was light-years ahead of anything that comes out of the machine today, and this is only Exhibit A.

BUY OR BURN? Assuming you don't already have this, buy this shit as soon as humanly possible. Push old ladies down escalators if they have the audacity to get in your way: let nothing get in between you and a copy of this bonafide classic disc. Oh, and you young'uns should also pick this one up and give it a spin: you might learn a thing or two about some good hip hop.

BEST TRACKS: "Paid In Full"; "My Melody"; "Eric B. Is President"; "I Know You Got Soul"; "I Ain't No Joke"

-Max