.com - Now I have never really asked this question to many artists because it gets asked by all the magazines, but I got to ask you this one because many of the new heads need to know. What artists if any influenced you to start rockin' the mic?
Rakim - When I came out it was different man because I was a fan. I was influenced by the whole nation of Hip-Hop. From the Fantastic 5, uh, my favorites was the Cold Crush 4, Treacherous 3, Melle Mel, Grandmaster Flash, Furious 5. I had a lot to pick from. We had the Force MC's back in the day. So Hip-Hop as a whole was just the craziest shit a young teenager from the suburbs or the ghetto or anywhere, it was the craziest shit to experience man. So I think listening to Melle Mel, Grandmaster Caz, Kool Moe Dee, definitely put me on the track that I'm on now.
.com - Now you completely changed the game when you dropped Rah, no one had ever done anything like what you dropped with the "Paid in Full" LP. What made you say, "Yo this is how I'm comin' out?"
Rakim - I think what had a good thing to do with that was my musical influences man. Moms and Pops listened to a lot of different music. Listening to Jazz so much and liking instruments, I also played the Sax when I was young and just knowing the different melodies and the different rhythms that people like John Coltrane was doing on the Sax and Thelonious Monk was doing on the keyboard. They was trying to change Jazz and keep taking to the next level when it was already as crazy as it could get. But I incorporated all them styles and rhythms and ideas of expression and just took it to that level man.
.com - Now many people look at you as the mic god and as the MC who revolutionized MC'ing. Did you ever think that you would be looked at this way comin' up?
Rakim - Nah, not at all man. I didn't have no idea of how things would turn out to be. Just trying to be competitive at that time and trying to be original 'cause at that time you couldn't come out biting nobodies style or sounding like this dude, or using the same whatever all the time. So it was just me trying to be creative and trying to get to that next level.
.com - Prior to releasing the "Paid In Full" LP, who were you runnin' with at the time?
Rakim - Oh yeah. Biz Markie in Long Island back in the day when I was in High School used to come around to the little high school parties, park parties, block parties and all that. He would do the beat box and I would spit rhymes. So yeah it was crazy man. I was in rap since 11 or 12 years old. I owe a big part of that to my brother cause he was listening to Hip-Hop as soon as it came out. Whatever he put on in his box is what I listened to also. Hip-Hop was big.
.com - So your brother was one of the main people that got you into Hip-Hop?
Rakim - Oh, no doubt. What was good about that was that he had people who had equipment. They would bring the turntables to the crib so I got a chance to experience that at a real young age. Where other kids had to watch it from the other side of the ropes or just think about DJ'ing, I had access right there at the crib. So touching that at a young age, it stuck with me.
.com - So how many years before you actually dropped "Paid In Full " did you begin rhymin?
Rakim - Well the album didn't drop till I was in the 12th grade and I been rhymin' since the 4th or 5th grade. The years, I don't even count them no more.
.com - So you wrote the rhymes to "Paid in Full" when you were in high school?
Rakim - Oh no the rhymes for "My Melody" was written about 3 years before it came out. A lot of them rhymes was just rhymes I had on tapes. Those rhymes I used to say at the park and things like that. But everything else came after I signed and started making records.
.com - So then you were about 17 or 18 when you dropped the album?
Rakim - Yeah, no doubt. I turned 17 when I was out doing a show in North Carolina.
.com - It's funny to me how you at 17 years old could write rhymes like that back then, but a kid at 17 in 2003 couldn't write a half decent rhyme?
Rakim - Well that right there is a compliment man. Again man I gotta give that to my influence man comin' up and listening to music so much. My mom she sang Jazz so it wasn't' just cuttin' the radio on in my house. It was therapeutic. It was what we did from day to day, listening to all the music and getting to understand music. All my brothers played musical instruments and my sister sang so it was in my ears. So when Hip-Hop came out it was like, "oh okay this is for me right here." We got a music for the kids, so I quickly adapted to that and enjoyed it from DJ'ing, to writing rhymes, to trying to pop-lock, to spinning on my back, to drawing graffiti on the walls, to rolling your pants leg up. The whole sha-bang man. I enjoyed every angle of Hip-Hop man and its just something I loved from the beginning man.
.com - What about battling Rah?
Rakim - Ohhh! Coming up back then, rappin' was mostly battle rap. You was always tellin' somebody how nice you was, but it was always, uh, we always did it intelligently or with wits or made you think. But there was always battle rhymes coming up in the park. You get on the mic and somebody comes out the crowd and think they could smoke you so its on man.
.com - Did you ever enter any serious MC battles?
Rakim - As far as anything on a big scale, the only thing that I did was I entered a MC contest at Harriet Tubman School. It was brothers like Doug E. Fresh that was hostin' it. It's when Doug had his first single out. It was produced by Mike and Dave of Crash Crew. They used to throw a lot of parties Mike and Dave. Mike and Dave was hosting the joint. Melle Mel came down and did a little somethin' and it was a battle for the kids on the street. It was a lot of Harlem cats in there. Me and my crew came all the way from Long Island. Biz was with us. Biz did the beatbox. I spit a little something and then I had this DJ throw in a couple of beats for me, but most of the battles that I came across myself was like battles in the park. Battles in the high schools, block parties and I'm sure you know everybody got toasted!! It was all good though.
.com - So can you say Rakim that throughout your whole career you never lost a battle comin' up ?
Rakim - Yeah, I would say that man. Nobody never got the best of me man.
.com - Let's talk about the famous Big Daddy Kane situation?
Rakim - Well that was about to happen the same way battles is happening now, but back then what it was, uh, it was we came from a era in the beginning where you know Cold Crush 4, Fantastic 5, Force MC's all these brothers are battlin' and you know it was done the way it was supposed to be done. We came out of that era and started making wax where everybody kind of backed up from battling each other but battle rhymes were still big. Then you got brothers that people felt every time they said something they were referring to somebody and I felt Kane was trying to say some shit under his breath. You know I didn't ask no questions, I just went and did "Let the Rhythm Hit Em" and Eric B's brother played it for him. Kane called the crib and he said, "Yo Rah, niggaz is gassin' it up, they tryin' to get us to battle and whatever." So I said all right and I changed like 6 bars where it kind of got personal but yeah its like I said, the same way its going down now. People hear something and its like, "Yo son, this kid is talkin' about you." This kid will go write some shit about him and then before you know it they battlin' in they records and then it gets personal man and then they sayin' names in records and then it's on.
.com - Why are the battles of today so wack when compared to the battles of the past. I mean the MC's battlin' are wack, the rhymes are wack and the tracks are wack. What do you think happened?
Rakim - I think it's the content man. It's like battlin' back in the day, MC's was trying to really dismantle a rapper and show him how slick he was with his words. Now it's more like "I'll shoot you, Ill kill you." That's not really nothing exciting man. You know we heard it before, we seen it on TV but back in the day we was thinkin' of better and wittier ways to say "Yo I'll rip your arm off your body." We found better ways to say it man and I think that's the difference man. Like Moe Dee and Busy Bee back in the day. That's still a classic.
.com - No doubt that was classic right there. How does Rakim look at a Nelly vs. KRS battle?
Rakim - That don't even match man. It's like a rapper battlin' a R&B cat. Nelly do what Nelly do well man. Let Nelly do that. KRS did what he did well. I don't know what sparked it off. I think it was the little number one thing. Personally I don't think Nelly was pointing at KRS-One as far as I'm number one, but like I said man, brothers hear shit in records and they might feel they speakin' on him.
.com - It's funny how the young MC's of today that only been around for one or two years have no respect for the MC's that paved the way for them to do what they do. Nelly should have just avoided that beef no matter what? Artist Interview
Rakim - I feel you. It's like leave the elders alone nah mean. If they check you, take that as that and walk with it. And see that's what we don't have. We don't have order in Hip-Hop. Its like you look back at R&B awards shows and shit. You know a lot of the old legends be havin' a good time man. They talkin' to each other, they huggin' and kissin'. Everybody didn't get along but for the most part everything was love. But with rap man it's much different man. It's a lot of hatred and shit. It's a lot of niggaz double crossing niggaz man. It's like we gonna let us run this shit and like people say we always fuck shit up or we gonna sit down and try to get some order man and try to have some kind of rules man. Otherwise, somebody else is gonna take control of this shit and that's what's happening right now.
.com - Now I speak to a lot of MC's about the Yo! MTV Raps last episode but I wanted to ask you about that episode because you are the MC I remember the most that day that it aired. How do you look at that show man 'cause it was definitely something that you will never see again?
Rakim - Yeah that was crazy. The energy in the room was crazy man. What was crazy about it is like the room was lit dim but you could see everything in the room clear. It was like it wasn't real to have all those MC's in one spot like that. Everybody was chillin' and everybody was there for the cause man. Yo! MTV Raps man, we felt that was ours. Everybody came to the table man, so like I said it was a good thing, plus I mean that showed a little unity there man. So you need more things to you know show more unity instead of just the parties and shit and the celebratin'. We need to get together and like I said man get a little order in this shit man.
---
peace.
Rakim - When I came out it was different man because I was a fan. I was influenced by the whole nation of Hip-Hop. From the Fantastic 5, uh, my favorites was the Cold Crush 4, Treacherous 3, Melle Mel, Grandmaster Flash, Furious 5. I had a lot to pick from. We had the Force MC's back in the day. So Hip-Hop as a whole was just the craziest shit a young teenager from the suburbs or the ghetto or anywhere, it was the craziest shit to experience man. So I think listening to Melle Mel, Grandmaster Caz, Kool Moe Dee, definitely put me on the track that I'm on now.
.com - Now you completely changed the game when you dropped Rah, no one had ever done anything like what you dropped with the "Paid in Full" LP. What made you say, "Yo this is how I'm comin' out?"
Rakim - I think what had a good thing to do with that was my musical influences man. Moms and Pops listened to a lot of different music. Listening to Jazz so much and liking instruments, I also played the Sax when I was young and just knowing the different melodies and the different rhythms that people like John Coltrane was doing on the Sax and Thelonious Monk was doing on the keyboard. They was trying to change Jazz and keep taking to the next level when it was already as crazy as it could get. But I incorporated all them styles and rhythms and ideas of expression and just took it to that level man.
.com - Now many people look at you as the mic god and as the MC who revolutionized MC'ing. Did you ever think that you would be looked at this way comin' up?
Rakim - Nah, not at all man. I didn't have no idea of how things would turn out to be. Just trying to be competitive at that time and trying to be original 'cause at that time you couldn't come out biting nobodies style or sounding like this dude, or using the same whatever all the time. So it was just me trying to be creative and trying to get to that next level.
.com - Prior to releasing the "Paid In Full" LP, who were you runnin' with at the time?
Rakim - Oh yeah. Biz Markie in Long Island back in the day when I was in High School used to come around to the little high school parties, park parties, block parties and all that. He would do the beat box and I would spit rhymes. So yeah it was crazy man. I was in rap since 11 or 12 years old. I owe a big part of that to my brother cause he was listening to Hip-Hop as soon as it came out. Whatever he put on in his box is what I listened to also. Hip-Hop was big.
.com - So your brother was one of the main people that got you into Hip-Hop?
Rakim - Oh, no doubt. What was good about that was that he had people who had equipment. They would bring the turntables to the crib so I got a chance to experience that at a real young age. Where other kids had to watch it from the other side of the ropes or just think about DJ'ing, I had access right there at the crib. So touching that at a young age, it stuck with me.
.com - So how many years before you actually dropped "Paid In Full " did you begin rhymin?
Rakim - Well the album didn't drop till I was in the 12th grade and I been rhymin' since the 4th or 5th grade. The years, I don't even count them no more.
.com - So you wrote the rhymes to "Paid in Full" when you were in high school?
Rakim - Oh no the rhymes for "My Melody" was written about 3 years before it came out. A lot of them rhymes was just rhymes I had on tapes. Those rhymes I used to say at the park and things like that. But everything else came after I signed and started making records.
.com - So then you were about 17 or 18 when you dropped the album?
Rakim - Yeah, no doubt. I turned 17 when I was out doing a show in North Carolina.
.com - It's funny to me how you at 17 years old could write rhymes like that back then, but a kid at 17 in 2003 couldn't write a half decent rhyme?
Rakim - Well that right there is a compliment man. Again man I gotta give that to my influence man comin' up and listening to music so much. My mom she sang Jazz so it wasn't' just cuttin' the radio on in my house. It was therapeutic. It was what we did from day to day, listening to all the music and getting to understand music. All my brothers played musical instruments and my sister sang so it was in my ears. So when Hip-Hop came out it was like, "oh okay this is for me right here." We got a music for the kids, so I quickly adapted to that and enjoyed it from DJ'ing, to writing rhymes, to trying to pop-lock, to spinning on my back, to drawing graffiti on the walls, to rolling your pants leg up. The whole sha-bang man. I enjoyed every angle of Hip-Hop man and its just something I loved from the beginning man.
.com - What about battling Rah?
Rakim - Ohhh! Coming up back then, rappin' was mostly battle rap. You was always tellin' somebody how nice you was, but it was always, uh, we always did it intelligently or with wits or made you think. But there was always battle rhymes coming up in the park. You get on the mic and somebody comes out the crowd and think they could smoke you so its on man.
.com - Did you ever enter any serious MC battles?
Rakim - As far as anything on a big scale, the only thing that I did was I entered a MC contest at Harriet Tubman School. It was brothers like Doug E. Fresh that was hostin' it. It's when Doug had his first single out. It was produced by Mike and Dave of Crash Crew. They used to throw a lot of parties Mike and Dave. Mike and Dave was hosting the joint. Melle Mel came down and did a little somethin' and it was a battle for the kids on the street. It was a lot of Harlem cats in there. Me and my crew came all the way from Long Island. Biz was with us. Biz did the beatbox. I spit a little something and then I had this DJ throw in a couple of beats for me, but most of the battles that I came across myself was like battles in the park. Battles in the high schools, block parties and I'm sure you know everybody got toasted!! It was all good though.
.com - So can you say Rakim that throughout your whole career you never lost a battle comin' up ?
Rakim - Yeah, I would say that man. Nobody never got the best of me man.
.com - Let's talk about the famous Big Daddy Kane situation?
Rakim - Well that was about to happen the same way battles is happening now, but back then what it was, uh, it was we came from a era in the beginning where you know Cold Crush 4, Fantastic 5, Force MC's all these brothers are battlin' and you know it was done the way it was supposed to be done. We came out of that era and started making wax where everybody kind of backed up from battling each other but battle rhymes were still big. Then you got brothers that people felt every time they said something they were referring to somebody and I felt Kane was trying to say some shit under his breath. You know I didn't ask no questions, I just went and did "Let the Rhythm Hit Em" and Eric B's brother played it for him. Kane called the crib and he said, "Yo Rah, niggaz is gassin' it up, they tryin' to get us to battle and whatever." So I said all right and I changed like 6 bars where it kind of got personal but yeah its like I said, the same way its going down now. People hear something and its like, "Yo son, this kid is talkin' about you." This kid will go write some shit about him and then before you know it they battlin' in they records and then it gets personal man and then they sayin' names in records and then it's on.
.com - Why are the battles of today so wack when compared to the battles of the past. I mean the MC's battlin' are wack, the rhymes are wack and the tracks are wack. What do you think happened?
Rakim - I think it's the content man. It's like battlin' back in the day, MC's was trying to really dismantle a rapper and show him how slick he was with his words. Now it's more like "I'll shoot you, Ill kill you." That's not really nothing exciting man. You know we heard it before, we seen it on TV but back in the day we was thinkin' of better and wittier ways to say "Yo I'll rip your arm off your body." We found better ways to say it man and I think that's the difference man. Like Moe Dee and Busy Bee back in the day. That's still a classic.
.com - No doubt that was classic right there. How does Rakim look at a Nelly vs. KRS battle?
Rakim - That don't even match man. It's like a rapper battlin' a R&B cat. Nelly do what Nelly do well man. Let Nelly do that. KRS did what he did well. I don't know what sparked it off. I think it was the little number one thing. Personally I don't think Nelly was pointing at KRS-One as far as I'm number one, but like I said man, brothers hear shit in records and they might feel they speakin' on him.
.com - It's funny how the young MC's of today that only been around for one or two years have no respect for the MC's that paved the way for them to do what they do. Nelly should have just avoided that beef no matter what? Artist Interview
Rakim - I feel you. It's like leave the elders alone nah mean. If they check you, take that as that and walk with it. And see that's what we don't have. We don't have order in Hip-Hop. Its like you look back at R&B awards shows and shit. You know a lot of the old legends be havin' a good time man. They talkin' to each other, they huggin' and kissin'. Everybody didn't get along but for the most part everything was love. But with rap man it's much different man. It's a lot of hatred and shit. It's a lot of niggaz double crossing niggaz man. It's like we gonna let us run this shit and like people say we always fuck shit up or we gonna sit down and try to get some order man and try to have some kind of rules man. Otherwise, somebody else is gonna take control of this shit and that's what's happening right now.
.com - Now I speak to a lot of MC's about the Yo! MTV Raps last episode but I wanted to ask you about that episode because you are the MC I remember the most that day that it aired. How do you look at that show man 'cause it was definitely something that you will never see again?
Rakim - Yeah that was crazy. The energy in the room was crazy man. What was crazy about it is like the room was lit dim but you could see everything in the room clear. It was like it wasn't real to have all those MC's in one spot like that. Everybody was chillin' and everybody was there for the cause man. Yo! MTV Raps man, we felt that was ours. Everybody came to the table man, so like I said it was a good thing, plus I mean that showed a little unity there man. So you need more things to you know show more unity instead of just the parties and shit and the celebratin'. We need to get together and like I said man get a little order in this shit man.
---
peace.
