Take this one influential example that I used to think was attributable to Mos Def until I learned the lyrics of the God MC who came before him: “I start to think and then I sink / into the paper, like I was ink/ when I’m writing, I’m trapped in between the lines / I escape, when I finish the rhyme.” It’s a well-structured metaphor that speaks to the pen-and-paper process he used to elevate himself above more off-the-cuff MC’s.
By essentially inventing the concept of the internal and multisyllabic rhyme schemes, forever relegating the rhyming couplet style of MC’s who came before him to the realm high school math projects and people who want to make fun of Hamilton. But he didn’t just talk the talk, he ran circles around his rivals as a sharp-tongued assassin who subverted rap’s prevailing rhyme structure. Togethers, so Rakim’s creative rhymes about besting MC’s and busting mics was the norm.
On the surface, most of his verses seem like a vestige from the days when the five pillars of hip hop were more intertwined and MC truly meant master of ceremonies. It’s hard to mention Paid in Full without acknowledging that Rakim more or less revolutionized the process of not just how rappers work, but how they structure their rhymes. Rakim’s rhymes and Eric B’s beats opened up new pathways in the young genre, blazing a trail that countless rappers would follow (whether they knew it or not) ever since.
and partner MC Rakim established a high-water mark in hip hop’s golden age just over thirty years ago with their debut album Paid in Full. We’ll probably never have the chance to Pokemon Go to the polls to vote for the pioneering DJ, but at least we can always look back on how Eric B. We’d only build walls to cover them in graffiti. NFL players would be required to breakdance during the national anthem, which would be changed to “Eric B. There’d be two turntables and a microphone in every home. If only we lived in a universe where Eric B was president.
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