Eric B and Rakim are a bit like my mother. I respect the work they did, the blueprints they laid for me, but I don’t fancy them. You might, but I just don’t.

They personified innovation and pushed the boundaries of hip-hop with Eric B’s soul-sample infused backdrops and Rakim’s internal rhyming and extensive, creative metaphors. They influenced not only artists to come, but even artists before such as Run DMC and KRS-One who became mesmerized by Rakim’s inventive rhyme-scheme. DJ Premier may have held high the torch for hip-hop production, but Eric B gave it to him in the first place.

With that last metaphor in mind, I therefore don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that other producers have since improved those original, important foundations and taken the genre onto the next level. And that, is why I just can’t fancy them. (And I don’t fancy my mother because that’s just plain wrong – No matter where you’re from).

With all that said, I love this song.

→ Continue Reading Throwback Thursdays Vol 37

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