Eric B. & Rakim — Paid in Full

«Rakim was the best of all in the only thing that really matters in rap: saying bullsh*t about how much better one is than the others.»

Eric "Eric B." Barrier was born in East Elmhurst, Queens, a music passionate, he played trumpet and drums in high school, also approaching the turntables in the last years of school, to then become a DJ for the radio station WBLS. Here, the boy goes in search of an artist to rap with over his DJ performances and turns to the promoter Alvin Toney, who recommends Freddie Foxxx: unable to find the emcee from Long Island, the promoter recommends William "Kid Wizard" Griffin.

With the help of Kid Wizard's brother, Eric B. convinces the rapper from Wyandanch to record with him. In the same period, the emcee approaches the Nation of Islam and then the 5 Percent Nation and from Kid Wizard takes the name Rakim Allah. The duo records their first single, "Eric. B is President" (aka "Eric B. for President"), and releases it with the independent label Zakia Records. The production is credited to Eric B., although there are some debates about who actually created the beat of the piece, which is based on a Fonda Rae sample that Eric B. played to Rakim, who convinced the latter to start the duo: In the meantime, the boys ended up under the wing of Marley Marl, to whom Eric B. turns to in order to mix the record with his equipment, which is why Marl gets credits as an engineer (together with MC Shan) but not as a producer.

The song is a hit, everyone listens to it, even Russell Simmons, who doesn't miss anything and signs the boys with Island Records. The song is paired with a b-side ("My Melody", one of the best cuts of the entire eighties) and is reissued by 4th & Broadway in the same period. In early 1987, the duo begins recording their debut studio album, "Paid in Full", a title inspired by the eponymous posse composed of rappers and gangsters, including Kool G Rap, Freddie Foxxx and 50 Cent, a gangster who will inspire the name of the future rapper — an image of the crew is present in the bottom left of the back cover of this album.

Rushed to fit in the budget the label gave them, the entire effort was completed in a week, with sessions lasting two full days, Rakim lays down the beat, writes his lyrics in about an hour, and delivers them all in one take. The guys simply try to put one track that sounds good after another, and in this way one of the best albums ever in the history of hip-hop is born.

The lyricism of the project is quite similar to that of other records of the period in the genre, the author boasts of his skills and his superiority over other emcees, yet Rakim earns comparisons to Thelonious Monk for his way of interpreting the lyrics with ease and ignoring the bar lines, he demonstrates the potential of writing in a period in which the majority of hip-hop tracks are recorded through freestyle and improvisation, writing a series of lyrics full of complex internal rhymes — never seen in hip-hop before —, metaphors, assonances and double entendre, also his delivery is precise, tidy, relaxed, calm, slow, melodic, relentless, unstoppable, unlike that of his contemporaries who prefer dropping bars with a energetic, quarrelsome, fast, violent and shouted performance, revolutionizing rapping with his own original style. It's an extraordinarily new, fresh and excellent technique that will be copied by everyone in the decades to follow.

The production credited to Eric B. is impeccable, hard, tough, dark, rich in samples, according to music critics it marks the beginning of heavy sampling in hip-hop and also leads James Brown to sue the duo for having inserted an unauthorized sample of "Funky President" for the single "Eric B. is President". In retrospect, we have to take several merits away from Eric B.'s excellent minimal production, since it turns out that, except for the scratches and rhythms produced by Marley Marl ("My Melody" & "Eric B. Is President", both classics), the remaining music is due to the productive talent of Rakim himself.

Rakim single-handedly (or almost) changes the genre, elevates himself to the North Star of hip-hop, with this effort establishes a necessary standard for all other rappers, cements the position of the East Coast as the lyrical capital of rap, innovates the genre and proves to be one of the best emcees to have ever blessed the microphone, if not the best, as most fans and critics claim.

Released by 4th & Broadway and distributed by Island, the album spawned four singles ("Eric B. is President", "I Know You Got Soul", "I Ain't No Joke" and "Move the Crowd") that carved out their own space in the charts, pushing the disk into the top ten of the Top Black Albums and also entering the charts in the British market. It went gold in a few months, and was certified platinum in 1995. Released during what would be defined as the «golden age of hip-hop», the album was well received by critics, it's perfect, production and rapping are amazing for ten complete tracks, very few LPs are made this way. Forty-five fundamental minutes in the musical life of anyone who approached hip-hop, one of the purest products ever made in the genre, the finest rap album of the eighties and in retrospect is considered one of the best albums ever, 10/10.