Rap legend Rakim will let it flow at Freedom Days
Hip-hop, hitting its eighth birthday, did a lot of accelerated growing up in 1987. Public Enemy dropped a political bombshell with its debut album, “Yo! Bum Rush the Show,” while Ice-T and Boogie Down Productions, on opposite coasts, were unleashing gangsta rap on the world with “Rhyme Pays” and “Criminal Minded,” respectively.
From Long Island, N.Y., came the more subtle Eric B. & Rakim with “Paid in Full,” a groundbreaking album that influences rappers to this day, whether they know it or not. Working on rhymes right in the studio, Rakim pioneered a new style of jazz-inflected flow based, in part, on the John Coltrane riffs that ran through his brain.
In 2006, it topped the MTV list of The Greatest Hip-Hop Albums of All Time, and in 2012, The Source ranked Rakim No. 1 on the list of the Top 50 Lyricists of All Time.
But you don’t have to take their word for it. You can get it from disciples like Nas and Eminem.
“I never heard a flow like his,” Nas has said of the 2004 single “U.B.R. (Unauthorized Biography of Rakim).” “I heard a lot of dudes’ flow, a lot of dudes screaming on the mic. So when he came with the total opposite of that, it made everybody freeze. The way he flowed was like an instrument.”
Eminem has praised Rakim as “the first person I heard using inside rhyme schemes and coming back at the end and hittin’ it. ... He did something that hadn’t even been thought of yet. He single-handedly pushed the genre forward to be more complex lyrically.”
One of the pioneers of the West Coast sound said succinctly, “If I wasn’t Snoop Dogg, I wouldn’t mind being Rakim.”
Rakim, who headlines Freedom Days celebrating Juneteenth on Saturday at Point State Park, maintained his partnership with DJ Eric B. through four albums, culminating in 1992’s “Don’t Sweat the Technique,” before splitting due to label issues.
In 1997, with the hip-hop world focused on the fallout from the assassinations of Biggie and Tupac, he returned in fine form on the acclaimed solo album “The 18th Letter,” followed by 1999’s “The Master.” His 2000 signing with Dr. Dre’s Aftermath may have sounded great on paper, but that’s all it was, as the partnership dissolved three years later with a shelved album and mutterings of creative differences.
The result was a decadelong lag before the 2009 comeback “The Seventh Seal,” which most critics and fans found underwhelming. Since then, he’s done a onenight reunion with Eric B. to play “Paid in Full,” released singles with DMX and Linkin Park and a song, “King’s Paradise,” for “Luke Cage” season 2 in 2018. It was played beautifully, with a string/horn section, in an NPR Tiny Desk Concert.
Saturday will be his first big show since the start of the pandemic, as he notes in this email interview. He didn’t respond to questions about Dre or Eric B., but here’s what he had to say on some other things:
What was your experience like of getting through the pandemic (if, in fact, we have)?
We’ve come this far with my family staying healthy, so that’s a blessing I’m thankful for every moment. The biggest change for me was not touring, something I’ve been wanting to take a break from for a while and spend some time close to home, close to the family, close to the studio. ... But I never thought we’d be over a year without a big concert and feeling the love of the fans. The Juneteenth Pittsburgh celebration will be our first major show now that the world is opening up, so it’s going to be a high-energy return.
Going back to the beginning, can you tell us a little about how you developed your sound in a way that set you apart from other rappers?
I had a couple of advantages going in. My parents brought us up in a house filled with music of all types and encouraged us to explore. I learned how to play instruments, learned how to read music, got to watch my Aunt Ruth [Brown] and my brother Ronnie play The Apollo. So there was a lot of talent and a lot of joy to absorb. I also wanted to prove I was nice with a notebook early, so when I started writing rhymes as young as 10 years old, I always made things a little more complicated and a little more substantive than the next guy ... ’cause that was the guy to beat.
How did jazz influence your flow?
A lot. It taught me that you don’t need to rhyme in 4/4, you don’t need to trap yourself between lines. When I used to listen to Coltrane, some of the things he would do, like play two notes at the same time or incorporate multiple melodies, it just made me think that you could do more than just the regular “keep steady time and finish a bar with a rhyme.” You could use the whole music sheet and introduce elements within bars, after the end beats, wherever you could fit them, but then deliver it all in a relaxed, seamless flow.
When did you realize you were wielding an influence on other MCs?
At first, I didn’t really recognize it at all. Like every rapper in the park, I was trying to just be the best and if someone sounded like me then they were just some crab biting my style. But a lot later I heard Chuck D say that when he heard “Paid in Full” the first time, he saw it as a game changer and made him want to go back in the studio and write differently. ... Not write like me, just elevate his game. That’s kind of when I realized that what I was doing might push others to be more complicated in their patterns, pay more attention to lyricism and that came full circle pushing me to be a better MC.
Are you working on material that would make for a new album?
During the pandemic, I converted an old barn into a full-on recording studio, and I’ve been basically living in there. I’ve been getting with producers that I’ve wanted to work with for a while and putting together tracks that we love making. Nowadays, you have a lot of channels to get music out, so, yeah, we’ve got an album in mind or maybe it’s a series of EPs that are bound together or it might be soundtrack projects or standalone multimedia projects or probably all of the above. The first step is just enjoying this creative moment I’m in. How we release what comes out of it will be the next focus.
It seems to me the rock genre has better avenues to honor its pioneers and icons, particularly with radio. Do you feel that is lacking in the hip-hop space?
Hip-hop’s had an issue with one generation ignoring the previous ones’ contributions in the way that rock and R&B never have, but I think that’s starting to change.
We’re starting to mature, we’re seeing artists release successful projects later in life, we’ve got rappers in the Rock Hall of Fame every year and they just broke ground on the Universal Hip-Hop Museum in the Bronx, so it’s coming along. Some people say it’s just that the entertainment business is a young person’s game, but I’ve been blessed that people still give me accolades whether they were 16 when my first album came out or not even born yet. Hopefully we’ll keep moving in that direction for everybody.
Do you keep track of what contemporary MCs are doing, and what are your impressions of hip-hop right now?
No doubt. I’m a hip-hop fan first and I’ll always be, so I’m always checking new artists and new releases. My takeaway from it all is excitement that this thing men like Melle, Herc and Caz started almost 50 years ago is now a global phenomenon. And like anything that’s gotten so big, there’s some good and some bad and some memorable and some not, but what’s important is this new worldwide community. We are still pushing boundaries, breaking barriers and we are all still evolving.
Do you have any thoughts on the two big stars who rose out of the scene here: Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller?
They are both perfect examples of that evolution of hip-hop and what we should keep striving for. Wiz and Mac’s sound and style are unique to themselves, and following what’s true to yourself — not just copying what the last hitmaker did — is the essence and core of the culture. They created from their own experience, never laid down from the pressure to conform and those principles manifested in an energy that a huge fan base can connect to. That’s pretty much the story of hip-hop.
FREEDOM DAYS
Friday
11 a.m.: Juneteenth Consecration Service and Sankofa Dance & Drum Team
2 p.m: Dr. Jay and Pittsburgh Jazz AllStars
4 p.m.: Bill Henry Band
6 p.m.: Raheem Devaughn
7:30 p.m.: The Ohio Players
Saturday
11 a.m.: DJ set
1 p.m.: Soul Raydio Band
2 p.m.: Dr. Jaki Young & JWI Sextet 3 p.m: House of Soul Band
5 p.m.: Sound Kodz
6 p.m.: Big Daddy Kane
8 p.m.: Rakim
Sunday
11 a.m.: DJ set
1 p.m.: Motor City Revue — Sounds of Motown
4 p.m.: Who’s Bad: Michael Jackson Tribute Band
6 p.m.: New Cupid Shuffle
7:30 p.m.: Shining Star Band