Rakim Allah, legendary as half of Eric B. & Rakim, was born William Michael Griffin Jr. on Lengthy Island, New York. As a scholar at Wyandanch Excessive College he often skipped class, and someday his English trainer, Miss Bonaparte, noticed him within the hallway, tapped him on the shoulder, and requested, “You’re a rapper, proper?” Shocked, he hesitantly answered, “Uh, yeah.” She replied, “Effectively, you’re alleged to be in my class,” and walked away.
Rakim was dumbfounded.
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“The entire remainder of the interval, I used to be strolling round in sluggish movement, like, ‘Wow, she’s 100% proper,’” he tells me. “After that, I by no means missed an English class except I used to be sick. I went in there and robbed that class for each phrase, each phrase, something I might get out of that class.”
His family overflowed with music—his father was a collector of jazz and R&B data, whereas his mom sang every part from jazz to opera. “She even sang at The Apollo on beginner evening,” he proudly notes. And he’s associated to Ruth Brown, nicknamed the “Queen of R&B,” who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame in 1993.
Each Rakim and his older brother Steve Griffin performed the saxophone. Listening to John Coltrane’s 1961 album My Favourite Issues as a teen modified Rakim’s life.
“This was a report we performed not less than as soon as a day, and we’d been listening to it for 2 weeks,” he says. “I dropped the needle, we listenin’ to it and listen to two notes performed on the identical time. We have a look at one another, and I’m like, ‘Yo, did you hear that?’ And he was like, ‘Play it once more,’ so we performed it once more. Me and my brother nearly ran out the home [Laughs]. We each play the sax, and we knew that was unimaginable. We didn’t know what to do. However me, every part I see, I convert into music concept, vocabulary, and rhythms.
“So I’m saying to myself, ‘How might I take advantage of that as inspiration?’ This man simply performed two notes at one time. I can’t say two phrases at one time. Simply the truth that he was ready to try this let me know that there’s at all times one other stage.”
As hip-hop blossomed within the Bronx within the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, Rakim turned enthralled with the rising subculture. He penned his first rhyme in 1976 on the age of seven about Mickey Mouse. After being launched to Eric B. through native promoter Alvin Toney in 1985, Rakim—then generally known as Child Wizard—quickly made his first recordings stay at his highschool. Filled with Coltrane braveness, Rakim started experimenting with totally different strategies and patterns.
On the time, many future hip-hop icons had been executing their verses in a simplified, nursery rhyme model. However Rakim, believing something was doable, tapped into his love of jazz to give you a free-rhythm model that ignored bar strains and completely expanded rap’s perceived boundaries.
“Jazz is basically what gave me the understanding of time and house,” he explains. “I bear in mind listening to jazz and making an attempt to get the timing. R&B and every part else is in 4/4 time, largely. However jazz was at all times a unique time.
“I’d pay attention and be like, ‘Yo, the place’s the one?’ And one in every of my favourite joints and what helped me perceive, was ‘Take 5’ by Dave Brubeck, 5/8 timing. I’m sitting there like, ‘What the…’ So it was one, two, three, 4, 5. It simply helped me write rhymes another way.”
Rakim’s clean but unconventional supply paired with Eric B.’s deep-rooted love of soul, funk, and R&B samples led to him flowing effortlessly over data like Fonda Rae’s 1982 single “Over Like a Fats Rat” and Kool & the Gang’s 1969 hit “Give It Up.” Impressed by “Fats Rat,” Eric B. & Rakim dropped their first single, “Eric B. Is President,” with manufacturing assist from native beat magician Marley Marl.
Eric B. instructed spin.com in February 2024, “We had been listening to data like James Brown’s ‘Funky President (Folks It’s Dangerous).’ I mentioned we would have liked to get a bass line, one thing like Fonda Rae’s ‘Over Like a Fats Rat.’ Rakim was ingesting a beer, and he spit it all around the wall. He thought it was so humorous. He was like, ‘Eric, who the hell goes to take a bass line and put it over this factor?’ So that is what I mentioned—I’ll always remember—I mentioned, ‘I need you to snicker like that after we receives a commission in full.’”
It wasn’t lengthy earlier than they had been. Their debut album, Paid in Full, arrived with a powerful increase in 1987, anchored by the title monitor and “Eric B. Is President.” Three extra albums adopted with various ranges of success: Observe the Chief (1988), Let the Rhythm Hit ‘Em (1990), and Don’t Sweat the Approach (1992), cementing their standing as probably the most influential DJ/MC duos in hip-hop historical past. However stress between them reached a boiling level, and so they went their separate methods.
Apart from for a short reunion tour in 2016-2017, the duo has primarily remained of their respective corners. Eric B. went on to star within the TV crime drama Blue Bloods, alongside New Child on the Block alumni Donnie Wahlberg, whereas Rakim launched three solo albums, culminating with 2009’s The Seventh Seal.
Rakim was reluctant to debate his relationship together with his former accomplice, saying relatively cryptically, “Let’s hope that he comes round and do the suitable factor.”
For now, Rakim is concentrated on his new album, G.O.D’s Community (REB7RTH), which formally introduces Rakim the producer. The report, govt produced by Matthew “M80” Markoff, isn’t a Rakim solo album in any respect. As a substitute, harnessing jazz and hip-hop, he was capable of craft beats for fellow MCs like Kurupt and Wu-Tang Clan member Masta Killa, who seem alongside Rakim on the lead single, “Rebirth (N.M.A.).”
“I mainly did all of the tracks and a lot of the DJing, and we’ve a bunch of options on the album,” he says. “I lastly obtained an opportunity to point out my producer facet. My jazz music is closely represented in what I do. I at all times like selecting very melodic samples. The model of music that I gravitate towards could be very rhythmic.
“I don’t like regular-sounding melodies or common beats, so I believe that comes from jazz, that point and house. I just like the house to be stuffed a sure manner, so I gravitate to a sure sort of music. And I believe it reveals with the tracks that I did for the artists. And it’s a dope joint. I get to point out that I do beats as effectively.”
Unbeknownst to even probably the most ardent Eric B. & Rakim followers, he helped produce a variety of their early materials, together with Paid in Full and Observe the Leader. “I at all times did music on all my albums for the reason that first. I’d convey Eric a beat that I used to rhyme on on the events. Typically Eric might need a bass line, or the beat is perhaps completed or almost full already. However I did rather a lot on the primary album and a variety of manufacturing on the second. And as time went on, I did nearly all of the manufacturing. However I by no means mentioned nothing. It appeared good for the group—Eric do the beats and Ra do the lyrics. On the finish of the day, it made me grand.”
The album additionally gave Rakim the chance to play his personal devices and dig for samples that enchantment solely to him. He hopes his work on REB7RTH will result in different alternatives and present his savvy behind the manufacturing board.
“Folks will get an opportunity to see what I do,” he says. “I at all times did beats and performed a few devices. I can’t actually play the guitar, however I play with one finger and get what I want [laughs]. Identical factor with the piano.
“It’s taking a look at hip-hop from a unique angle and getting an opportunity to point out how I like hip-hop displayed, so it’s enjoyable. The vitality is loopy. Writing rhymes and going into the sales space and getting on stage is a sense you possibly can’t actually clarify. It’s a bit of totally different with the beats. I’m not as caught up in it as after I’m doing rhymes. But it surely’s mainly the identical feeling.”
Rakim, now 56, acknowledges occasions have modified and that the hip-hop panorama is not the “golden period” it as soon as was. However he has lifelike expectations for his music in at present’s local weather.
“Music is so within the open proper now,” he says. “Again then, I had an thought of a lot of the artists that was out in the USA. Now, there’s so many artists out I can’t sustain. I believe now it’s nearly doing good music, particularly for any person like myself. I’ve my very own fan base, and my factor is to only attempt to cater to them as a result of if Rakim would attempt to make a high track proper now, I don’t assume it’d sound like Ra. I gotta simply make music for the individuals who search for Rakim.”
Greater than 35 years after releasing Paid in Full, Eric B. & Rakim had been nominated for induction into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame, for a second time, in February, though they didn’t make the ultimate checklist of inductees. Eminem and JAY-Z cite Rakim as a significant affect, and he’s thought of one of many best MCs. However he nonetheless wonders if navigated his profession accurately.
“Eric used to at all times inform my father—as a result of he knew how a lot I cherished and revered my father—‘Ra don’t do that, Ra don’t try this.’ My pops pulled me to the facet someday and mentioned, ‘What’s happening? You don’t wish to go to the reveals and the studio and this and that?’ I mentioned, ‘Yo, dad, it’s totally different, man. It’s not like different music. Folks get uninterested in you fast, and I wish to be round for a very long time.’ That is ’86.
“‘If I’m not performing then I’m not going to the present simply because it’s the large factor this week,’ so I allow them to know I’d relatively not put on out my welcome mat. My father, realizing music and realizing the enterprise, mentioned, ‘You gotta hit whilst you sizzling.’ And I instructed my pops I assumed it was a bit of totally different in rap. However behind my thoughts, I’d at all times hear my father, ‘You gotta hit whereas it’s sizzling.’
“After I would flip issues down and never do sure issues, or hear individuals say it’s laborious to see me out wherever, I’d at all times hear my father saying that. So over time, I’d marvel which one could be proper. I simply hope he’s trying down and saying I did it.”
Odds are, he’s.
In 2023, Rakim and Geto Boys founder Scarface every obtained a $500,000 grant from the Paid in Full Basis. Based by Ben and Felicia Horowitz, the non-profit group is devoted to music schooling, encouraging music-making by way of philanthropic giving and public service packages, and offering monetary help to musicians.
Their annual Hip Hop Grandmaster Awards happened October fifth at The Aria Resort and On line casino in Las Vegas, the place grants had been additionally introduced to Roxanne Shante, Grandmaster Caz, and Kool Moe Dee.
Rakim says, “We making an attempt to make a press release and present what occurs once you’re genuinely a great individual and love your music. All these years later, Grandmaster Caz loves hip-hop a lot, he’s nonetheless informing and provoking. After I see Caz on the ‘Gram, it let me know, ‘Yo, there’s no age on this.’
“You don’t must be standing on each stage to like hip-hop.”
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