Author: Brian Coleman
Year: 2007
Rank:
Rating:
Original Rating:
Pop Rating:
Genres/categories:
Music, Non Fiction, History
Purchase/reserch links:
ISBNs:
9780812977752
7770608007
0812977750 |
| 
ERIC B. & RAKIM
"Paid in Full
"(4th & Bway/Island, 1987)
"I came in the door, I said it before/I never let the mic magnetize me no more."
When you hear those first lines, your whole body starts to shiver. You're instantly transported to New York, 1986. The verses are so ill that your mom could say them and they'd still move a crowd. And they don't stop for the duration of Eric B. & Rakim's unsinkable classic, "Eric B. Is President." A song like that only comes along maybe twice a decade, and few of them stay with you like the duo's master tome. Eric B. and Rakim set off a lot of things in 1986-an onslaught of raids on the James Brown sampling archive; a rebirth of anti-party, pro-scientific lyricism; and a 500 percent rise in purchases of dinosaur-choking gold medallions from Bushwick to Bangkok.
Interestingly, William Griffin Jr.-the youngest of three Griffin brothers and better known to hip-hop as Rakim-didn't figure their booming single (first released on Zakia Records, B-sided with the also mind-blowing "My Melody") would change hip-hop the way it did. "I had no idea it would impact like that, but maybe that's because I'm my own worst critic," Rakim Allah says, adding, "I had already been rhyming for so long at that point that I wasn't looking to pursue a recording career. To be honest, at the time I was hoping to play football at Stony Brook [University, in Long Island], since my cousin had a scholarship there. I played quarterback and had met with the coach there. He told me to get my grades up and we could talk." Luckily for hip-hop fans, fate turned Rakim away from the gridiron and
gave the duo a monster hit.
Although he had deep family roots in Brooklyn, William Jr. was born and raised in Long Island's Wyandanch, New York, and came up through an established hip-hop scene that wasn't as flashy as New York's-though skills were most certainly required at the door. "Wyandanch played a big influence in my life," he says. "There was always block parties and DJs at the park. DJs like Pleasure, Nelson PR, DJ Motor, and DJ Maniac. These guys were around-like, back when I said in 'Microphone Fiend' that I was too small to get on the mic. There were a lot of parties in the school gyms. We had a lot going on." He adds, talking about his New York experiences, "I had lots of family in Brooklyn and cousins in Queens, so I used to go to their cribs and go to the park in Jamaica [Queens]. I'd also make sure I always saw the Cold Crush Brothers. [Grandmaster] Caz was a big influence on me. We'd go to DJ battles in New York all the time, like Mike & Dave Productions. I remember joining in on a rap convention back then, I think it was on 127th Street. Biz Markie was there, I remember that."
Aside from his cousins and local friends who introduced him to the hip-hop life, he also had an important musical influence in his family: his aunt, legendary R&B vocalist Ruth Brown. "She used to keep her eye on me, babysit me," he says, also adding that he saw her perform on several occasions in his youth. "Being in that environment, watching her do what she do, that kept me grounded once I got on for myself.R
Similar books:
|
