Halftimeonline: When you were going through the whole thing about Pac and Biggie leaving a bitter taste in people’s mouths, over the past ten years we’ve had some crazy shit happening like when the Game came out he had some shootings and the incidents with 50 Cent and Lil Kim. What’s your perspective on hip hop going in that direction?

Rakim: After a while you basically make the environment around yourself. A lot of the things that go on we can avoid some of it. A lot of the things we get into are situations through our lyrics. If I was the type that was like I dare someone to step to me, I got big guns, and whatever ya’ll want to do we can do it right that’s going to bring that attention to me. I’m walking through the street and somebody’s gonna say let me see what’s good with this dude cuz he talking all that crunchy shit. I bring that attention to myself if that’s what I ask for. That’s why I say a lot of this shit we do it to ourselves but it’s a sticky situation cuz brothers want to keep it hood but you gotta understand once you start making money you have to put things into perspective. Like me I was making money but still trying to hang out on the corner till 2 or 3 in the morning. I loved the hood and still love the hood but I had to realize like Ra you a rapper now you’re in the public eye. What was funny about it was when I was out there doing it people was like why he still on the block hanging out with everybody. Then when I stopped doing it, it was like oh he too good to come out on the block. You can’t win for losing. We’ve all been through it but its knowledge and experience. Some brothers experience certain shit and they have to start making different decisions. I’ve been through a lot of that and I try to keep myself out of the unnecessary bullshit. I got a family and I love coming home to them and I’m not gonna jeopardize that by talking shit to somebody I don’t know and somebody that ain’t taking money from the table. In other words its like I shouldn’t even be studying you but a lot of it jumps off. I just try to do me and stay out of harms way. If something comes at me of course I’m gonna handle my business but I’m not the type to provoke the bullshit so I don’t really get a lot of that.

Halftimeonline: We saw you on MTV with Nas talking about your style of dress and your jewelry. You were saying how you had another piece that was heavy enough so you could take it off….

Rakim: And beat the shit out of someone! Nahmean.

Halftimeonline: Haha

Rakim: My jeweler used to laugh at me man. I’d go get my chain specially made and I’d be like yo I want it heavy man. They’d be like but Ra its solid and I’d be like nah nah I didn’t say solid I want it heavy man. How heavy? I want it heavy enough so that when I take it off and smack somebody in the face with that shit and put it back on there’s not a diamond out of place. They would always laugh at me but that’s what it is. I used to get big rings and use them for brass knuckles man. Bong! How’d he knock him out with one punch? It was them big ass rings I had on.

Halftimeonline: I heard ya’ll would be wilding back in the days that your crew was not taking any stress on the road back then.

Rakim: Yea, it was kinda crazy man. Whether it was a dunk cat or somebody who didn’t understand and you’d have to straighten him up a little bit. It’s good though I been through all that and now when I go out I get so much love I gotta change my way of thinking. Sometimes you have your shield up and you got your game face on and somebody over in the corner keeps watching you. Eventually he’ll come up to you and he’ll be like peace. But back in the days it wasn’t like. That cat over in the corner who was scheming would try and rob you later on so you had to react.

Halftimeonline: I guess that was another thing Eric B. brought to the table. He was ready to throw the hands.

Rakim: Yea, nahmean.

Halftimeonline: Twenty years later somebody is like I got punched in the face by Rakim.

Rakim: Haha yea like wow. Hopefully he looks at it like that and don’t come back and try to get revenge on me. It definitely went down a few times man.

Marcus: Yo did you really hit Special Ed? I heard some niggas saying that when I was in the 6th grade.

Rakim: Nah. I seen him at this party in Queens for one of the O.G’s who used to run with the J-Team. He was a big time cat. We was up in the little spot and I was in there with like 2 people and Special Ed came through with like 15 people. Something happened that I ain’t like and I confronted him which was kinda crazy cuz he had 15 people with him and I was by myself. It was a misunderstanding and he told me that wasn’t what it was and everything was good but I never swung on him. Matter of fact I seen him in Cali a few times. That’s my man he’s good peoples.

Marcus: I always wanted to ask you that question.

Jbutters: Something I always wanted to ask was I always heard cats being like Rakim made smart moves with his money blahzay blah and I heard like Rakim owns like two or three apartment buildings. Any truth to that?

Rakim: Nah, nah I had a couple different cribs. I was online for a brownstone for a while but I never owned my own apartment building. I always tried to manage my money smart. I got a good accountant, Bert Padell. In 86 or 87 he met my moms and pops. He’s a good cat. He doesn’t just care about how much money I was making but how I felt everyday and how my family was doing. He really cares for the person as well as the artist. He made sure I made good moves. I only made x amount of albums in 20 years and to still be living comfortably. A lot of people and friends look at me and be like yo Ra how do you do it? You don’t go on tour every year and you don’t make an album every year, you chill with your family and watch TV. Everyone else is out on tour getting that money. But I managed to do my thing right with the help of my accountant and I’m still comfortable. Twenty years and I do nothing on the side. I never sold drugs. A lot of people used to think I was that dude but I never sold a crumb. I used to always be upset with that. I’m one dude and when I make my bed I lay in it but don’t stereotype me. Never sold a crumb to this day and I don’t do nothing on the side. As far as work I don’t have any other hustle, no rim shop or nothing. Just pro tools and a motherfucking notebook and I manage to do what I do. It’s a blessing.

I learned early in the game when I had $15,000 stereo systems in my car in ’86. They weren’t even making them like that. I’m telling them I need two 15”s and two 18”s in the Jeep. They had to cut out a sunroof in that motherfucker. Back then a $15,000 piece was bananas. Only the drug dealers were going and getting $10,000 and $15,000 pieces back then. I was spending 15 on pieces, getting 20 pairs of sneakers and 30 Gucci suits but over time you gotta fall back and start learning how to manage your money. You have to learn how to take an allowance. It might sound crazy but you put your money up and take out a little every week. You put yourself on a salary instead of getting $7,000 this week, $20,000 next week and $5,000 the week after that. Take a $1,000. You got your toys, you got everything and your money under your mattress. Break it down and have a salary to take care of you and your family and stretch that money.

Halftimeonline: You mentioned family and I believe you have kids. What’s Rakim’s kids life like and what is the response when you are up in the parent teacher meetings? Like teachers who are in their upper 20s and early 30s came up on you. I could just see you asking how your kid is doing in class and the teacher is like yo that Paid in Full album is classic son!

Rakim: Since kindergarten G wifey would try to choke em out. It’d be like Ra’s kid did this or Jabbar did this. That’s my two sons, I ain’t have to go up there for my daughter yet she’s the good one, so you got to go up to the school. I’m like cool. It’s for a couple reasons. I sacrificed a lot of my career for them. Even when I was out on tour I used to fly home on the weekends to be with my girl and be with my family to see my kids grow up and just be there for them. When they started going to school it was like that too whether it was homework or if I have to go up to the school I was there. One of the things I wanted the teachers to understand is that I’m not just no rapper. I’m not sending my son to school and don’t to give a fuck about what he’s doing up here. Whenever there was a problem they seen me right up in their face. It was a good thing because sometimes they think rappers don’t really care about their kids’ education. My son plays football so I coach a couple of his teams. My youngest son just started playing last year and I assistant coached for one of his teams. I try to be there as much as I can. I also want to kill the stereotype. I want them to respect me as a man and a father first and then if you like hip hop go buy my album.

Halftimeonline: Do your kids realize how much of an icon you are in hip hop?

Rakim: My oldest son just graduated yesterday. So it took a while because they were young back when I first started and when I started chillin they were just coming into the age of loving hip hop and watching videos and going to school hearing kids saying boom boom boom. They older now and they see the interviews and the people that speak about me. I take them with me and they hear people saying things and now they really understand what it is. What’s crazy is their classmates will ask them do you see your father all the time? They be like my pops is at the crib right now. I see my pops everyday and that’s what I wanted. I didn’t want my kids to not know me and come up and just be like my dad’s a famous rapper. I really wanted to be there for them and the shit worked. Sometimes it normalized things to the point where they didn’t see Rakim, it was just like that’s my father. They didn’t see me as a rapper. I’m so regular around the crib. I was telling my daughter how she brought the calmer side out. I enjoy being around them, making them laugh, watching TV with them, the fun shit, the little shit. I love it man and they realize the sacrifices I made. They see interviews with people saying I never got a chance to be around my father because he was always on the road or whatever it was and they respect the fact that I sacrificed to be around them and they didn’t miss me one bit.

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Posted by Jbutters on Tuesday, August 1st, 2006 and is filed under HIP HOP ICON SERIES.