The enormous success of the duo's debut album convinced MCA to sign the duo to a three-album deal worth $1 million, the first rap group to do so. Eric B. & Rakim's second album is similar to the previous one. The production of Eric B. (or whoever for him, several beats are realized by DJ Mark the 45 King) is more developed, clear and well executed compared to the debut, makes a more frequent and accurate use of the samples, often giving up the usual James Brown in favor of sounds closer to jazz: one of the rare samples from Godfather of Soul is featured in "Lyrics of Fury", while Bob James' "Nautilus" is the perfect soundscape for the title track, where the rapper delivers one of the best hip hop tracks ever with an incredible unstoppable flow, Rakim seems to be able to go on forever and still proves to be the best.
These cuts mentioned above, together with the sensationally lethal "Microphone Fiend", form one of the strongest opening trios in the history of the genre: the MC from Long Island offers one of the best performances of the '88. In his second album, Rakim is more aggressive, naughty, gritty than before, he's still solid, he never seems to hesitate, he's confident, and he offers a crystalline class performance, dominating the cuts as he wishes. He maintains the braggadocio theme and updates his flow, faster and more colorful, extracting an excellent lyricism: in general, his rapping is better than the year before, however there are fewer quotable lines (albeit still numerous).
The first fifteen minutes of the album, automatically elect it to classic and are clearly stronger than "Paid in Full". Then, the level absurdly beyond the excellence of this first quarter of an hour, physiologically drops, while remaining quite high with excellent cuts; it has three non-essential instrumentals and is the only reason why the record is slightly less consistent than the debut.
Released by Uni Records, a sub-label of MCA, the record peaks seven among Top Black Albums, reaching #22 in the pop chart, and the gold disk by RIAA in a couple of months, supported by the singles "Follow the Leader" and "Microphone Fiend". Specialized reviewers describe it as an even better project than the debut and in retrospect it's hailed as one of the best albums of the decade.
Highlights: "Follow the Leader", "Microphone Fiend", "Lyrics of Fury". It's easily understood that seven of the other eight cuts would be classic in any other rap album, any era.
Rating: 9.3/10.
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