RhoDeo 2011 Grooves

Hello,  as societies get tested on their resistance to the current destabilizing environment, the future is very uncertain because countries like UK and USA so important for global economics are unable to change their laissez faire attitude, these countries that once were the leading lights in the world are now losing the respect and see Asia rise, today China delivered a lot of support goods to Italy, Italians will remember. Other countries will probably follow and should find it easier to trust the Chinese. Currently California governor issues statewide 'stay at home' order , New York has closed restaurants and bars but the rest of America seems to believe they can kill the virus by shooting at it. It could become a huge disaster, beyond Italy. In the end the best prepared/organised countries will survive this mostly unscathed, but as this world is so economically connected it looks this world is in for a serious depression. One good thing that might spring from it is a revaluation of the value to society of what now are called essential services not just nurses and doctors but teachers, drivers , supermarket staff, police, local government yes in general the underpaid in Western Society...



Today's Artists never had a mainstream hit of their own, but during rap's so-called golden age in the late '80s, they were almost universally recognized as the premier DJ/MC team in all of hip-hop. Not only was their chemistry superb, but individually, each represented the absolute state of the art in their respective skills. Eric B. was a hugely influential DJ and beatmaker whose taste for hard-hitting James Brown samples touched off a stampede through the Godfather of Soul's back catalog that continues up to the present day. Rakim, meanwhile, still tops fan polls as the greatest MC of all time. He crafted his rhymes like poetry, filling his lines with elaborate metaphors and complex internal rhymes, and he played with the beat like a jazzman, earning a reputation as the smoothest-flowing MC ever to pick up a mic. His articulation was clear, his delivery seemingly effortless, and his influence on subsequent MCs incalculable. Together, their peerless technique on the microphone and turntables upped the ante for all who followed them, and their advancement of hip-hop as an art form has been acknowledged by everyone from Gang Starr to the Wu-Tang Clan to Eminem......N Joy

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Eric Barrier was born and raised in the East Elmhurst section of Queens, New York. He played trumpet and drums throughout high school, and later switched to experimenting with turntables prior to graduation. The newly dubbed "Eric B." soon began DJing for radio station WBLS in New York City, including WBLS' promotional events around the city. Barrier wound up meeting Alvin Toney, a promoter based in Queens. Eric B. had been looking for rappers and Toney recommended he use Freddie Foxxx, a Long Island MC. Toney took Eric B. to Foxxx's home, but Foxxx was not there, so Toney suggested another option: William Griffin, a.k.a. Rakim. Eric B. & Rakim began their critically acclaimed partnership in 1986 with the release of "Eric B. is President" / "My Melody". Griffin had begun writing rhymes as a teenager in Wyandanch and had taken the name "Rakim" as a result of his conversion to The Nation of Gods and Earths. Eric B. borrowed records from Rakim's brother, Stevie Blass Griffin (who worked at a plant pressing bootleg albums) and began cutting them in the basement for Rakim, who was down there drinking a beer and relaxing. Said Eric B., "I took Fonda Rae's "Over Like A Fat Rat" and said 'This is the bass line I'm going to use for this record.' Rakim spit the beer all over the wall and thought it was the funniest shit in the world. I told Rakim, just like you laughing now you going to be laughing all the way to the bank and be a millionaire one day because of this record.".Eric B. & Rakim decided to record together and came under the tutelage of Marley Marl. Stories vary over who actually produced their first single, 1986s "Eric B. Is President" (often cited as "Eric B For President" because of a mistake made when licensing the recording). Built on the Fonda Rea bass line sample, Eric B. later told AllHipHop, "I took the records to Marley Marl's house in Queensbridge and paid Marley Marl to be the engineer. Marley got paid. That's why he's not a producer; that's why he is not getting publishing. I brought the music. I just couldn't work the equipment because that's not what I did..."

The duo recorded its debut album, Paid in Full, at Power Play Studios in New York. The album was named in part after the Paid in Full posse, a notorious New York collective of gangsters and rappers: including the original 50 Cent, Killer Ben, Kool G Rap and Freddie Foxxx. The Paid in Full posse are featured on the back cover of the album. In 1987, 4th & B'way Records issued the album. After the success of "Eric B. is President", the album climbed into the Top Ten on the US Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Eric B. would later admit that the album was rushed. "The reason Paid In Full is so short is because we stood in the studio for damn-near a week. The whole album came together in a week. Listen to the lyrics on it and listen to how short they are. That's because Rakim wrote it right there and we'd been in the studio like for a whole forty-eight hours trying to get the album finished." Rakim agrees: " I used to write my rhymes in the studio and go right into the booth and read them. When I hear my first album today I hear myself reading my rhymes - but I'm my worst critic. That's what I hear, though - because that's what it was. I'd go into the studio, put the beat down, write the song in like an hour, and go into the booth and read it from the paper..." Marley Marl stated that his cousin MC Shan was an assistant engineer on some tracks, including the single "My Melody," though Eric B. denies this. MTV listed the album as the greatest in hip hop history: 'When Paid in Full was released in 1987, Eric B. and Rakim left a mushroom cloud over the hip-hop community. The album was captivating, profound, innovative and instantly influential. MCs like Run-DMC, Chuck D and KRS-One had been leaping on the mic shouting with energy and irreverence, but Rakim took a methodical approach to his microphone fiending. He had a slow flow, and every line was blunt, mesmeric. And Eric B. had an ear for picking out loops and samples drenched with soul and turned out to be a trailblazer for producers in the coming years.' The record has sold over a million copies and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified it platinum in 1995. On the heels of the albums' success, the duo signed a deal with MCA.

Follow the Leader, the duo's follow-up to Paid In Full; saw their production move away from the blunt minimalism of their debut. The title track and "Lyrics of Fury" were two of Rakim's most acclaimed lyrical performances. In 2003, comedian Chris Rock referred to Rakim's rhymes on the "...Fury" as 'lyrically, the best rapping anyone's ever done...' Rock also listed Follow the Leader as 12th on his Vibe magazine's list of the Top 25 Hip Hop Albums of All-Time. At the time, the record went largely unnoticed by the mainstream music industry.In 1989, the pair teamed up with Jody Watley on her single "Friends" from the album Larger Than Life. The song would reach the Top Ten on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was one of the first notable collaborations between hip hop and dance pop. Eric B. & Rakim rarely collaborated with other rappers. This was evident in early 1990, when KRS-One's Stop the Violence Movement put together the charity single "Self-Destruction". The song featured numerous notable rappers, but Rakim was noticeably absent from the proceedings. He told HalftimeOnline.net years later, "I don't think they hollered at me or they hollered at Eric B. and he didn't say anything to me. I was a little bitter with that shit because I felt I had something to do with bringing consciousness in hip hop to the table. I came out and did what I did in '86 and then you know people started running with it. Then when it comes time to do something they didn't holler at me so I was a little bitter. At the same time a lot of reasons I didn't do records with people is because I never wanted their light to reflect on me. I don't have a problem with it but everybody who knows at that time knows they were trying to say I was responsible for gangsta rap, too. They thought I was that dude in the hood so maybe they didn't holler at me for a reason. I love Kris, though — he definitely contributed a lot to hip hop. I've been on tour with him and I know him as a person. He's a good dude. I like Kris, but they definitely didn't holler at me for that man because I would have definitely did it."

Their 1990 album Let the Rhythm Hit 'Em was not as successful commercially as their first two LPs. Rakim referenced his enigmatic reputation on the song "Set 'Em Straight": "Here's the inside scoop on the fiend/They want to know why I'm seldom seen/'Cause who needs the TV screens and magazines/Or shooting through the city in fly limousines/'Cause one thing I don't need is a spotlight/'Cause I already got light..." He later said about his relative lack of commercial success: "You could sell a couple records and keep your integrity or you could go pop and sell a bunch of records and be gone tomorrow. I was trying to stick to my guns at that point." The album was one of the first to receive the honor of a 5 mic rating in The Source. But, much like their debut album, there exists controversy over the production credit. The duo made an appearance on the soundtrack for the 1991 comedy House Party 2, ("What's On Your Mind") and also recorded the theme for the film, Juice. Both singles were included on what would become the duo's last album together. Don't Sweat the Technique was released in 1992. The album was not supposed to be the last; but their contract with MCA was due to expire. During the recording of the album, both members expressed an interest in recording solo albums. However, Eric B. refused to sign the label's release contract, fearful that Rakim would abandon him. This led to a court case involving the two musicians and their former label. The legal wrangling eventually led to the duo dissolving completely. Eric B. has clarified that the monetary problems stemmed from labels like Island and others claiming ownership of the masters — not from any financial disputes between him and Rakim:

    "The money got split 50 /50 from the door, because I remember people would try to keep shit going. When we first came out, people were saying 'Eric was getting all the money' and 'he was trying to shine more than Rakim,' but that's not true.[I would go to all the interviews, [because] Rakim didn't want to go to the interviews. He didn't like that part of the business. [But] we split all the money from dime one. I don't care what money I spent in the past, that money is never coming back. Whatever money we made, we split 50/50. Even up until now, we split every dime 50/50."

Post-breakup and legacy

Eric B. released a self-titled solo album in 1995 on the independent label 95th Street Recordings. Legal issues continued to delay Rakim's solo career, but he finally released The 18th Letter in 1997. In 1999, Rakim's second solo album The Master was released to less favorable reviews. By the turn of the millennium, Eric B. was pursuing other business interests outside of music. Rakim signed with Dr. Dre's Aftermath label in 2000, but the expected album never materialized. Since then, Rakim has made guest appearances with numerous other artists such as Jay-Z ("The Watcher, Part 2"), Truth Hurts ("Addictive"), Nas, KRS-One and Kanye West ("Classic"). In 2002, "Don't Sweat The Technique" appeared in the video game Aggressive Inline. In 2004 "I Know You Got Soul" appeared on the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, playing on Playback FM. In November 2009, Rakim released The Seventh Seal.


Reunion

On October 20, 2016, Eric B. announced via Twitter that he and Rakim have reunited as a duo after 23 years and would tour in 2017. This was confirmed by Eric B's business representative Uncle Louie during an interview with Rolling Stone.
The duo's first reunion concert was held at the Apollo Theater in New York City on July 7, 2017.[16] In 2018, they announced a 17-date American tour for that spring. On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Eric B. & Rakim among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire

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Yup.  This is the most influential hip hop album of all time.  Hip hop would never be the same.  Rakim's lyrics on this album are out of this world.  He is just SO GREAT.  At the time, no rapper could even touch Rakim's lyrical abilities.  He came out with a whole new multi-syllabic flow and the most complex, impressive lyrics that had ever been written in the history of hip hop.  I mean, how could anyone listen to this album without being blown away by several lines!?

"I start to think and then I sink
Into the paper like I was ink
When I'm writing, I'm trapped in between the lines
I escape when I finish the rhyme"

The production on Paid In Full was also better than any production before it.  These beats still sound fresh 25 years later.  Who doesn't love the funky "I Know You Got Soul" and "Move the Crowd," the horns on "I Ain't No Joke," and the killer bass lines on "Paid In Full" and "As the Rhythm Goes On"?

The only "weak points" that this album has are the instrumentals and they aren't really even weak points.  They're actually good instrumentals, especially "Extended Beat."  Basically, I have no criticisms of this album.  It's hip hop perfection.  Every hip hop fan should listen to this and love it.  If you don't love it at first, you're just not ready for it's amazingness yet.  Give it time and you'll come around.

Eric B n Rakim - Paid In Full: The Platinum Edition    (flac   449mb)

01 I Ain't No Joke 3:54
02 Eric B. Is on the Cut 3:44
03 My Melody 6:47
04 I Know You Got Soul 4:46
05 Move the Crowd 3:47
06 Paid In Full 3:49
0.7 As the Rhyme Goes On 4:01
08 Chinese Arithmetic 4:08
09 Eric B. Is President 6:18
10 Extended Beat 3:51

Eric B n Rakim - Paid In Full The Remixes  (flac   449mb)

11 Paid In Full (Seven Minutes of Madness - The Coldcut Remix) 7:10
12 I Know You Got Soul (The Richie Rich Megamix) 4:56
13 Move the Crowd (The Wild Bunch Remix) 4:24
14 Paid In Full (Derek B's Urban Respray) 5:13
15 As the Rhyme Goes On (Pumpin' the Turbo - Chad Jay in Effect) 6:11
16 Move the Crowd (Beatmix by The Democratic 3 featuring DJ Slack) 7:10
17 My Melody (Original Mix) 5:57
18 I Know You Got Soul (A Cappella) 4:42
19 I Know You Got Soul (Dub) 4:45
20 Eric B. Is President (Dub) 4:05
21 My Melody (Dub) 6:31

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So Rakim! You just revolutionized hip-hop lyricism and delivery forever! What'll you do next! Not gonna change a damn thing baby. Rakim leaps right back into the game only a year later and blows away any concept of sophomore slump without even trying. Making an album that's pretty much the equal of their debut, superior to it in some ways. Rakim himself hasn't changed a note, his MO is exactly as it was, razor sharp lines and breathless assured low key delivery that just cuts in and leaves no room to survive. He sounds even more confident here too, there's a hint of satisfaction in his voice this time that comes from the triumph of the last album no doubt. What has changed is the production style, for the better. The beats on the original, the standouts, were little masterpieces but they lacked a truly cohesive and fitting sound mostly. This is battle rap! Shouldn't the beats be hard? Here we get that in spades, the new sound is deep and heavy as hell for the time, smoldering and sparce. The duo really studied exactly what it was they were doing and tailored a new sound to best fit Rakim's style, so well they kept it up until 92', and influenced people from Ice T, Kool G Rap, and Paris with it. Sure there's still some questionable instrumentals from Eric, but when stuff comes together? When it all aligns? Fuck. Microphone Fiend is one of the dopest tracks ever made period. This album defines the term "victory lap", and made clear that Rakim wasn't just the guy who made golden age emceeing possible, but a guy who could emcee among the best within the age itself.

 Eric B & Rakim - Follow The Leader  (flac   245mb)

01 Follow the Leader 5:36
02 Microphone Fiend 5:17
03 Lyrics of Fury 4:15
04 Eric B. Never Scared 5:21
05 Just a Beat 2:07
06 Put Your Hands Together 5:15
07 To the Listeners 4:32
08 No Competition 3:52
09 The R 3:55
10 Musical Massacre 4:29
11 Beats for the Listeners 4:08

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Let the Rhythm Hit 'Em - title track aside - is not a hit-laden record, but that's in keeping with every non-Paid in Full Rakim release, honestly, so that's not really the issue. And all the ways in which Rakim refuses to accept the challenge of those rappers orbiting him while continuing to hone his craft in a very specific way is admirable. Jonathan Gold of the LA Times wrote a markedly self-aware review in which he backhandedly noted the album's "old school" style (in 1990!) while comparing Rakim's voice to infamous jazz instruments like Miles' trumpet and Coltrane's sax; also, as I shrug, attributing each and every production to Eric B. because he couldn't have known any better all the way over there in Los Angeles with a deadline to meet.

Rakim's imagery is still as potent as ever, and when he brags he's still better at it than most anyone else who was kicking brag raps. It's just hard to find him as purely engaging (fka "exciting") as other rappers who were beginning to put more of their personal lives out there for public consumption, or at least finding ways to do more with rap than merely talk about how good they were at it.

For better and worse, Rakim's best rhymes still have to do with how he leaves his mark on people, places and things with a mic in his hand - this is the same year Q-Tip gave "Bonita Applebum" the cold holler; KRS-One made a full album about health topics, gang violence, and hood-raised archetypes; Ice Cube explicitly called white and Korean men the devil; Flavor Flav declared 911 a fallacy in black neighborhoods while Chuck D turned a movie theme song into a political anthem for generations to follow; Shock G invented the Humpty Dance.

None of this is to say Let the Rhythm Hit 'Em is a bad record or anywhere near it; I'm even underplaying the moments when Rakim does do more conceptually work, like the grown man lady track "Mahogany", intellectualism appraisal of "In the Ghetto" or most direct addressing of his Five Percenter beliefs yet on "No Omega"

Eric B & Rakim - Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em (flac   292mb)

01 Let the Rhythm Hit 'Em 5:30
02 No Omega 4:45
03 In the Ghetto 5:22
04 Step Back 4:24
05 Eric B. Made My Day 5:05
06 Run for Cover 4:46
07 Untouchables 4:15
08 Mahogany 4:41
09 Keep 'Em Eager to Listen 4:40
10 Set 'Em Straight 4:25
11 Let the Rhythm Hit 'Em (12" Vocal Version Remix) 6:23

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Starting with their 1986 debut, Paid in Full, Eric B. and Rakim earned raves for Eric B.'s often flawless, judicious productions and Rakim's serious yet relentlessly rhythmic rhyming style. This 1992 album finds the duo picking up from where they left off of 1990's Let the Rhythm Hit 'Em. "What's on Your Mind" has Rakim with intents to woo under a bubbling track. That track aside, Don't Sweat the Technique has Rakim in bleak spirits as thoughts of combat, revenge, and unfortunate "accidents" are not far from his mind. "Casualties of War" has Rakim as an all-purpose psycho with the unsettling hook, "I get a rush when I see blood and dead bodies on the floor." Although it's supposed to be gripping, the thought of a war-ravaged Rakim with his pistols blazing after hearing a truck backfiring is hilarious. All of Don't Sweat the Technique would be more disturbing if it wasn't for the brilliant ear of Eric B. who can cut the tension and exact magic out of a going-nowhere track. Although the lyrics and premise of "What's Going On" aren't extremely sharp, the cracking snare drums and low bass riffs are a perfect compliment to Rakim's delivery. The title track is also jazz influenced, but not as potent as the Simon Law and Mr. Lee's Funky Ginger remixes that don't appear here. Like many albums of this type, Don't Sweat the Technique ends on tracks of little distinction but it is another strong effort from one of rap's most respected acts.

Eric B and Rakim - Don't Sweat the Technique (flac   282mb)

01 What's On Your Mind 5:30
02 Teach The Children 2:59
03 Pass The Hand Grenade 3:12
04 Casualties Of War 4:01
05 Rest Assured 3:38
06 The Punisher 4:06
07 Relax With Pep 3:59
08 Keep The Beat 4:16
09 What's Going On 3:49
10 Know The Ledge 4:00
11 Don't Sweat The Technique 4:22
12 Kick Along 3:29

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