Eric B & Rakim - Paid In Full

Brian Coleman interviewed Rakim for XXL in 2003 and revisited the feature recently in the superb Wax Poetics magazine. Amazed at Rakim’s open attitude, Coleman enthused about Eric B And Rakim’s landmark album Paid In Full , from 1987: “When you hear the intro to ‘Eric B Is President’, your whole body starts to shiver. You’re instantly transported to New York in 1986.” Mid-‘80s in the USA was a time of political intrigue, the Iran Contra affair was in full flight and America had just bombed Tripoli. Eddie Murphy was the new pull at the movies and Starship, Heart and Rock Me Amadeus by Falco were ruling the charts. In New York, the Mets had won the World Series and James Brown was being sampled wholesale for Paid In Full. The album was a huge success but it was almost the last throw for Rakim. “I had no idea it would impact like that,” he told Coleman, “I had already been rhyming for so long I wasn’t looking to pursue a recording career. To be honest I was hoping to play football at Stony Brook.” Luckily, Eric B And Rakim’s Paid In Full changed all that. A collection of their singles – title track, I Know You Got Soul and Eric B For President - gathered together under one roof, with the awesome My Melody and I Ain’t No Joke among others, Paid In Full brought hip hop to the masses and into new realms with its tight arrangements and Rakim’s spiritual banter which was especially powerful on their slower tracks. “Whenever I heard a slow track I could put more rhythms into it. I could triple up on words, take the rhythm, syncopate it and take it where you’ve never been before.” Paid In Full is over 20 years old now. Hip hop has moved on apace but Eric B’s creative use of samples and Rakim’s deep vocal and intricate wordplay take you way back to the Brooklyn block parties that nurtured their early experiments. Eric.B & Rakim - Paid In Full Eric.B & Rakim - Don’t Sweat The Technique Eric.B & Rakim - Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em