Day 307: Eric B. & Rakim – Paid in Full

My Liverpudlian excursion was fun but now it’s sadly over, I’m back home and ready to dive into something I don’t explore here often: it’s time to get into some hip hop history. I don’t think I’ve ever listened to Eric B. and Rakim before, so it seemed like an obvious choice – I’m semi-aware of hip hop from my era but I want to go back to look at the seminal records from the ‘80s, and this is definitely one of them.

Album cover courtesy of Island Records

Eric B. & Rakim was an East Coast DJ/MC duo formed in 1986 by Eric Barrier and William Griffin. They met when Eric B. was looking for an MC for his radio show to rap over his turntable work and recorded their first song, “Eric B. Is President”. It made its way to Def Jam’s Russell Simmons, who signed them to Island Records. Their 1987 debut, Paid in Full, became a phenomenon and is widely regarded as one of the best hip hop albums of all time.

This is definitely one of those albums that’s best appreciated when you know its history, because listening to it today, it doesn’t sound that ground-breaking, but that’s only because of the influence that they’ve had on the artists that came after. Rakim’s slow and mellow flow was unusual at a time when other rappers were doing high-energy shouting, and Eric B.’s jazz-inspired funk sampling was massively influential to the genre. Rakim’s complex rhyming schemes are also credited with bringing forward a bigger focus in lyricism in rap.

Paid in Full is definitely an interesting delve into music history – compared to today’s music, it sounds pretty pared back and simple, but the impact it has had is huge. But it’s probably unfair to compare it to where the genre went, since they’re at least partially responsible for its development. However, it’s a one and done for me, I probably won’t listen to it again – for the hip hop heads it’s probably a winner, but for casuals like me, the sound just reads as a bit outdated. The impact it had is 10/10, but it’s a 7.5/10 for me.