Eric B. & Rakim - Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em (May 22, 1990)

I haven't actually listened to any full albums with the intent of writing reviews for quite a while now. Sorry. But before my unintentional hiatus (which I'm trying to break, but it's hard to find the time, you know?), I tried to bank some posts with no underlying theme. There aren't many of these lying around on my end, but I found one, made some edits, and present it for your bathroom reading and/or killing-time-at-the-office perusal.

As an aside, the response this post receives will help me determine whether it's worth attempting to keep the site afloat, or if I should scrap the whole fucking thing and come up with another creative outlet, so hint, hint.

Eric B. and Rakim's Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em it is, then.

Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em is the third album from the Hall of Fame hip hop duo Eric B. and Rakim, released by MCA Records over twenty-seven years ago, so now I feel old and I'm going to shoot myself for bringing this up. It didn't sell quite as well as their previous efforts, Paid In Full and Follow The Leader, and didn't have any hit singles, but Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em is frequently touted as the most consistent project from the duo, due to the darker (some may say 'sinister') sounds present and the deeper, calculated lyrics from Rakim, which, while still primarily about how much better a rapper he is when compared to you, attempts to keep things interesting.   

Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em was critically acclaimed, however, receiving the coveted five-mic rating in The Source, and not in a retroactive fashion, either. This was back when the magazine's rankings held far more weight, pre-Benzino era, so this was considered a big deal. However, it isn't as though Eric B. and Rakim ever crossed into pop radio (except for occasionally during dance club mix shows, thanks to one of the many remixes to "Paid In Full" that caught on), so this didn't exactly translate into major sales.

Production is credited to Eric B. and Rakim, if one were to believe the liner notes. As most older hip hop heads are aware of now, however, there are two additional big names that contributed to the making of Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em: the late and prolific Paul C. (whose murder in 1989 remains unsolved to this day), and a guy I'm sure you're familiar with, Large Professor (who picked up where his late mentor left off), in addition to Rakim himself, his brother, and the album's engineer, which begs the question: so what the hell did Eric B. do, anyway? Neither Paul C. nor Extra P received any credit for their work on this project, which is complete bullshit, but it is what it is. Because it isn't absolutely clear who provided what in the studio, I'm not going to assign anyone specific any credit for the instrumentals within the write-up itself, with the exception of one track, as I would prefer to not give credit to an incorrect party.

1. LET THE RHYTHM HIT 'EM

Our hosts let loose this title track as the very first song of the evening, and it's a motherfucking doozy. Over a dramatic, police-chase-through-a-neighborhood-paced instrumental that sounds like what would happen twelve separate beats were played at the exact same time, Rakim flows like lava through four powerful verses that epitomize why he's the grandfather of everyone's rhyme style and, quite possibly, the best to ever do it. (He's got my vote, anyway.) “Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em” is easily my most favoritest song ever from Eric B. & Rakim, and it still holds up fantastically well today. Which is more than I can say about the rest of the album. Whoops!

2. NO OMEGA

Rakim treats “No Omega” as a natural extension of “Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em”, ripping shit the fuck apart with his many bars of fury. The instrumental isn't quite as dense and dramatic as on the previous track, but not everything is required to be overproduced: the simple break serves as a fuel-efficient, eco-friendly vehicle for Rakim Allah to straight-up crush shit. The horn samples toward the end elevate “No Omega” toward greatness, while the vocal samples, also curiously placed near the end, that repeat the phrase “I can't stop!”, pull it right back down to earth. Not the best song ever recorded or anything, but this was still entertaining.

3. IN THE GHETTO

Subdues the energy level like the audio equivalent of Benadryl. Rakim adopts a relaxed flow that still manages to be concise, because that's just what that motherfucker does with ease, to match the calm instrumental, which is made up of hardly more than a drum break and some harmonizing. “In The Ghetto” also has the distinction of being the first truly boring song on Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em: to listen to this shit immediately after the one-two punch that was the title track and “No Omega” is to hit the jackpot on a slot machine twice in two spins and then to have a cocktail waitress beat you over the head with a stool before stealing your wallet. Yep.

4. STEP BACK

Also isn't helping all that much. Rakim boasts about his rhymes being chock-full of energy, but he obviously wasn't listening to himself on playback, as “Step Back” is boring, with our host sounding at his most apathetic. The beat also weighs down the track, making it more of an obstacle than even Rakim could overcome, which is a weird sentence to write, since Rakim is supposed to be one of the greats. You wouldn't believe that after listening to this shit, though.

5. ERIC B. MADE MY DAY

Rakim steps out of the booth to pick up his dry cleaning while his co-host provides listeners with his expected deejay cut. It's consistently entertaining, I'll say that, but you're kept on pins and needles waiting for The R to pop up somewhere, anywhere.

6. RUN FOR COVER

After meandering down a couple of back alleyways with no true destination, Rakim picks up the pace once again with “Run For Cover”, which is dope as fuck not necessarily because of the lyrics, which are good as usual, but because of the teamwork behind the boards, meshing multiple samples together over a hype-ass drum break that'll get your heart racing, your head nodding, and your hands doing whatever the hell it is your hands do when you're listening to a badass rap song. “Run For Cover” was the shit, even though it doesn't hit as hard as this project's title track, because, really, how could it?

7. UNTOUCHABLES

The hard-hitting, militant tracks on Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em that resemble the title track hold up much better today than all of the other stuff present, and “Untouchables” is no exception, although it's hardly in the same category as the rest of the excellent songs in Eric B. & Rakim's back catalog. The R's lyrical content rarely strays from “look at how great of a rapper I am”-territory, but his flow still runs laps around most current emcees, so I approve of this message. The beat is a bit simplistic, but the drums are fucking hard, and hell, this is just entertaining, really.

8. MAHOGANY

Here's the part where I'm sure I'll lose most of you two: I never could get into this song, and I still can't. “Mahogany”, Rakim's ode to an “all-world cover girl“ who is European (a strange description, not unlike Biz Markie's girl from "the U.S. nation" from "Just A Friend") but “almost looked Korean”, is one of the rare instances where our host's lyrical content strays from the pack (although, this being Rakim, he still manages to promote his microphone prowess), but although the bars are descriptive and uniformly good, the slow-moving, awkward beat lying underneath that performance completely turns me off to this day. Kudos for trying to write something different, but fuck it, I'll own it: I'm probably the only hip hop writer in history who doesn't like “Mahogany”. So be it.

9. KEEP 'EM EAGER TO LISTEN

A late-game surge that runs with the big boys (hell, even the song title sounds like a continuation of the title track's command), but manages to slow things down just a bit, so that the audience doesn't run out of breath trying to keep pace with Rakim's rhymes. The beat is underrated as hell: aside from the horns during the “hook”, which weren't the most necessary inclusion in the world, I would place this as the second best song on the project. Seriously. Rakim spits approximately forty-seven verses and never misses a step, rendering “Keep 'Em Eager To Listen” true to its rather modest title.

10. SET 'EM STRAIGHT

The regular program ends with “Set 'Em Straight”, a wholly unsatisfying venture built with a repetitive instrumental foundation and some lyrics that tread water. Rakim has apparently said all that he needed to say on the album, so this final song is a regurgitation of how great his rhymes are and how much of a better person than you he happens to be. Which would be perfectly acceptable had the music been more engaging. Meh.

The CD version of Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em concludes with the following bonus track.

11. LET THE RHYTHM HIT 'EM (12” VOCAL VERSION)

I'm not entirely sure why this remix even exists, as it is far inferior to the album take. The jazzy feel guest producer DJ Mark the 45 King aims for on here doesn't mesh well with Rakim's mission statement, making this song an overall goddamn waste of time... save for the uncensored “You couldn't fuck around with Ra with an army” line that, alas, is cleaned up on the original song. I suppose older hip hop heads may want to hear this at least the once: I will point out that one can very easily see how Rakim influenced the late Prodigy (of Mobb Deep)'s cold, calculated flow. Still, nobody really needs this.

FINAL THOUGHTS: So Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em doesn't hold up as much as some of you two would like. It's only ten tracks deep (or eleven, depending), but you will find yourself skipping over most of this shit in favor of the songs listed below. The production isn't consistently banging: at times, it's quite boring, which is surprising given the big names behind the boards. Rakim Allah fares better with his writing, although he can't help but sound uninspired at times. The thing is, hip hop heads demanded more from their favorite artists back in the 1990s, so I can completely understand how Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em scored five mics in The Source, but if they were to (a) still exist, and (b) write about it with fresh ears today, I have no doubt that it would not rank nearly as highly, because the genre itself has evolved so much that even the best efforts of Eric B., Rakim, and the gang can come across as rote and unappealing. Look, if you're still reading this paragraph, I know you're pissed about this turn, and I don't care: Paid In Full changed the game, but ever since then, our hosts grew fond of settling for the bare minimum, so while Rakim is still technically the finest rapper our chosen genre has ever spawned, that doesn't automatically make everything he touches an instant classic (his solo projects back up my argument), and you can't even really give Eric B. any proper credit for his work behind the boards, even on the great songs, because who knows what exactly he did on them? Besides Eric B., obviously. 

BUY OR BURN? This is a burn, obviously, but I would still recommend you purchase the songs listed below if possible, so as to at least throw some money their way.

BEST TRACKS: “Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em”; "Keep 'Em Eager To Listen"

-Max

RELATED POSTS:

Catch up with the Eric. B & Rakim catalog, along with Rakim's solo stuff.