Source: Power 105 / Power 105
Before Nas was dubbed the prophet or The Notorious B.I.G. was crowned the King of New York, Rakim was known as The God MC and though he’s hasn’t dropped anything new in a hot minute he’s still nicer than 95% of rappers from the past and the present. Now with his book Don’t Sweat The Technique hitting bookstands, Rakim Allah checked in with The Breakfast Club to build with Charlamagne Tha God, Angela Yee, and DJ Envy while getting into his historic run in Hip-Hop.
Getting into his legendary rap beef with fellow OG Hip-Hop legend Big Daddy Kane, his issue with KRS-One, and why he had a problem with Nas’ “Autobiography of Rakim,” The 18th Letter MC showcases how he can command the crowd even when he’s not spitting rhymes on a mic.
Here are the 11 things we learned from Rakim on The Breakfast Club.
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Though he’s a legend now, Rakim admits that before he ever cut a record he “was content with being a neighborhood rapper and wanting to go to college” where he planned on playing quarterback for the football team. It wasn’t until his man convinced him to get down with Marley Marl that he decided to pursue a rap career.
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When Rakim’s rap career began to take shape he was in high school and he says Eric B. let him know he’d have to drop out if he wanted to go on tour. After consulting with his parents about the business move, his mother was skeptical about his decision while his father was more supportive of it. He had to promise them he’d get his GED in order for them to sign off. Decades later he’s a rap icon but still no GED on the wall.
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Naming rappers who he thinks are lyrically inclined in today’s game, Rakim names Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole as a few who continue to “let everyone know what it’s supposed to be” in a rap era he feels is driven by “adlib” kind of rhymes. Most of us older heads absolutely feel the same.
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Talking about his days on Dr. Dre’s Aftermath label, Rakim says part of the reason it never really materialized into an album is because Dr. Dre wanted Rakim to get into some street and gutter sh*t that the science dropping Gawd just didn’t feel comfortable doing. He also remembers that Jay-Z’s track “The Watcher 2” was originally a Dr. Dre song that was meant for an movie Dre was involved in. After laying his verse down, Dre sat on it for a minute until Jay heard it and bought it off of Dre and threw it on The Blueprint 2.
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Rakim says he ghostwrote verses for both Dr. Dre (“We Don’t Give A F*ck”) and Shaquille O’Neal but none of them were used. Probably would’ve been too obvious Ra had penned them once they started spitting about being the 4th and 19th letter in their rhymes or something. That being said Rakim says he did not write “Summertime” for Will Smith though he does say Will owes him money for stealing his style on that joint.
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Speaking on past rap battles, Rakim says he felt Eric Sermon “tried to get fly with me one time… It was dealing with Hip-Hop but kind of outside EPMD and Eric B and Rakim. Something happened with somebody that they met and somebody that I met and it got a little funky.”
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Proving that he was always ahead of his time, Rakim says he wrote his first rhyme at 7-years-old and caught a gun charge at 12-years-old. Gotta grow up fast when living in the hood, b.
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Touching on the classic rap battle that never was, Rakim remembers his people questioning whether Big Daddy Kane was taking subliminals at him. After hearing the line “I see leaders and I laugh,” Ra says he went into the studio to lay down “Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em” and had four bars going right at Kane. After a mutual friend of theirs took it to Kane to let him hear it, Kane called up Rakim and let him know he didn’t have no personal beef with him and he never wrote rhymes about him. As for the bars, “Rippin’ your wrath in half, who gets the last laugh? Followers become leaders but without a path you’re mentally paralyzed/crippled your third eye/rhymes are blurred then it occurred that you heard…” Whew! We not condoning retro beef but that’s a battle that should’ve happened but strictly been kept on wax. Just sayin.’
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As for his situation with KRS-One, Rakim says it was more of a “tug-o-war” thing but he never thought it was serious. He did feel a ways about KRS dropping the star studded cut “Self Destruction” without hollering at him to hop on the track. Man that would’ve been next level.
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Rakim revealed that he was originally asked to appear in the cult classic flick Juice. He turned it down because he didn’t want to play a stereotypical role of a robbery in the flick, but when they asked him to make a song for the movie he accepted. “Know-The-Ledge” turned out to be one of his dopest tracks ever.
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As for “The Autobiography of Rakim” that Nas dropped, Rakim admits that in the beginning he “had a problem with it” because he always tried to be a private person and would refrain from putting too much of his life in his own rhymes and Nas going as far as to mention his kids name had him feeling “violated.” But still he has mad love for his “little brother” Nas and was able to get over it and be okay with the way Nas was trying to pay homage to him.
