Halftimeonline: Word up that’s how it should be. More parents should be like that. But I could just imagine the looks when you’re up in the school though.

Rakim: Yea, when I go up to the office its funny. When the kids see me going up in there they be like yo did ya’ll do something? Yo is your son aight? Is your daughter aight? I’m like ga head man everything is good. Its cool man I enjoy it.

Halftimeonline: One thing I had to ask was we were backstage at the show when you were coming out and this cat bear hugged you…

Rakim: Oh yea the big god. Word up. That’s fire right there. I love to see when people are real passionate about what they feel and what they say.

Halftimeonline: His wife was even nodding her head like he was speaking the gospel. I was like this dude is never gonna let Rakim go.

Rakim: Word, my people be getting upset sometimes when people be doing that but I understand man it’s a lot of love. I’d rather that right there then for a motherfucker to let me walk by. But it’s been crazy man. Sometimes I be with wifey and a girl will just come over to us and be a little over the top but we both know what it is. I just try to let the person know they are really reaching right now without them seeing that in my face. You gotta let the fans shine their glory the way they want. It’s like I have a million bosses and my job is to make them happy. My whole thing is if it wasn’t for people like ya’ll and people like them I wouldn’t be me. I love every minute of it.

Halftimeonline: We are trying to see who has the craziest fan story. The leading one right now is Kool G. Rap when the dude came up to him and said he’d kill for him. What’s the wildest thing a fan has done when coming up to you?

Rakim: I think on more of a respect level when I went to Japan somebody came up to me and started crying man.

Halftimeonline: Wow.

Rakim: That shit is like wow. They were just crying man.

Halftimeonline: That’s some Michael Jackson shit.

Rakim: Yea man. If the motherfucker would have fainted that would have been all I needed right there. I took it probably the same way G. Rap took it when dude said what he said but it let’s you know how the fans look at you and how they feel about you man. It makes you appreciate what you do.

Halftimeonline: We already talked about how a lot of emcees say you influenced them, you got people crying, and overall saying how you changed the game. If you could step out of yourself and be an unbiased fan who is knowledgeable about hip hop what would you say is Rakim’s influence on the culture?

Rakim: I’d say he brought consciousness to the game and to the hood and at the same time revolutionized hip hop as far as different styles and things of that nature. That’s one of the things I strived for so I hope that’s what they see.

Halftimeonline: You were talking earlier about your different writing styles. You named a couple including the one where you wrote your rhymes backwards and the other where you picked the sixteen illest words and wrote a rhyme around them. What are some songs where you can say this is a song I did this style to?

Rakim: Aiight, let me put you up on another style. Back in the day I would split the paper with two lines down the middle of the paper which left me with three sections. I would rhyme in all three sections in every bar. So not only was I rhyming at the end, I was rhyming on the first part of the rhyme, the middle part of the rhyme and the second part of the rhyme. Then when the second bar come the words would rhyme with the first part of the bar before that, and the middle would rhyme with the middle nahmean. This is how I started creating different styles and different rhyme forms and shit like that. I’ve done so many joints like that I don’t even have to split the paper anymore. It became like just knowing what I had to do. If I spit this on this bar I know what I had to do on the second bar to make it rhyme. That’s how I started creating styles man just drawing lines on the paper and putting rhymes in each section. If you take that right there and you go back to the crib or you’re at the crib you can play it and you’ll hear me rhyming in and out of the rhyme.

Halftimeonline: For the most part you and Eric B. did your own thing but being that you were into consciousness and making a difference how come you weren’t on Self Destruction? Did KRS not get at you?

Rakim: That’s funny man. I don’t think they hollered at me or they hollered at Eric B. and he didn’t say anything to me. I don’t think they hollered at me man and you know 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. If I’m not mistaken when Public Enemy came out they had a joint called “The 98s” right and they weren’t really on the Public Enemy thing. 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. If I did a joint with somebody and they said they was in the hood or whatever and a year later come to find out this dude was not who the fuck he said he was or he played himself in the worst way it would be like but damn Ra did a joint with him. I didn’t want to get too close to nobody so with that there they didn’t holler but it was a couple cats in there, most of them I loved, but at the end of the day they do what they do and I do what I do. 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. So there was a lot of little industry shit going on at that time with what I was bringing. They thought I was that dude in the hood so maybe they didn’t holler at me for a reason. As time revealed itself I’m still in the hood, never got locked up for drugs and never got interrogated. That ain’t what I do. Being in this game if you are gonna sell drugs and make records too then as many records you make is gonna be as many people that know you sell drugs. We got the hip hop cops listening now. A lot of people that were speaking consciousness back then aren’t here now so I feel my shit is perfect here. 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.

Halftimeonline: Is it true that MCA gave you a million dollar deal after you left 4th and Broadway?

Rakim: Yea no doubt. We were the first rappers to get a million dollar deal. That right there being a young dude and seeing paper like that was real brand new for me. Luckily, I took everything in stride and not let the celebrity shit get to me.

Halftimeonline: How would you rank your albums and out of all the tracks you did if you want to know anything about Rakim what joint would you be like play that track?

Rakim: That’s a hard one. I think the best joints out of the ones I did was the 18th Letter.

Halftimeonline: What stands out about that one?

Rakim: I liked where I was at the time. It was a part of my life where I was comfortable with everything. On my first album I was inexperienced. 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. Now even when I write I try to memorize it as I write it so I don’t need the book in the booth or so I can say it with feeling. I think on my first album I was inexperienced but my hunger and flow spoke for itself. On the 18th Letter I did a couple things on there. I don’t play a lot of my music but there are a couple of joints on there that stands the hairs up on my head and you know I’m bald headed man. It’s just work that was a long time coming and something that I always wanted to do. “The 18th Letter (Always and Forever),” that’s like one of my favorite joint to this day. The “Who is God” joint is always something I wanted to get off but I felt was a little too deep. The way that record is it’s not no throw it on in the club joint but I finally got comfortable enough to the point where this is what I’m doing and I have a statement to make and like it or not this is what it is. I think the 18th Letter was a little more focused as far as what I wanted to do coming out of all that turmoil. Me and Eric B. going our different ways and hip hop changing and going crazy. I finally got to the point where I was like this is what I want to do right here. Now the joint to personify Ra that’s a hard one. I like “Lyrics of Fury,” “The Punisher,” and “Juice.” The rugged style joints but I think maybe Ghetto man. It’s not real lyrical but as a person and an artist that kinda explains who I am.

Halftimeonline: And the new album is the Seventh Seal when is it dropping? You know once we put out the date cat’s gonna be like I got it on my calendar, don’t do it to me Ra!

Rakim: Yea, be like you crying wolf again. Haha. We are gonna drop the single in about two months and the album should be about a month after we drop the single. I don’t even know what the first single is going to be. I think I’m gonna go in the studio and do 20 and pick the best 15. Then after I get that I’m gonna sit back and listen to that 15 and see which one I think the single should be. I don’t try to go to the studio and make a single. I just do whatever I feel.

Halftimeonline: I think it will be good. When you started performing a couple of the new joints the crowd really took to them. So you know you’re going in the right direction.

Rakim: No doubt man. Thanks. Tell Baltimore I hope they like the new album and get ready because I’m gonna come through with a little tour when we do it, with onstage production and at least an hour and a half of Rakim.

Jbutters: What?! We were happy just with you and Kid Capri just rocking. I don’t know if you did Juice though.

Rakim: Yea, we did Juice.

Marcus: Yea, he did it. He was like I know how Baltimore get down.

Jbutters: That’s one of my favorite joints. I must have blacked out.

Rakim: That’s my shit right there. That joint right there is special. I did the track on that and I played the drums live.

Halftimeonline: Word?

Rakim: Word up next time you listen to that shit listen to the drums kid. I made the track and put a regular boom bap drum sample on it (makes drum sounds) and then I got on the drums and hit the (more drum sounds). That’s a special joint right there.

Halftimeonline: I heard you watched the movie before hand and that’s how you came up with the whole joint.

Rakim: Yea no doubt. They let me go up in a little room and see the movie. It was funny I was living in Manhattan downtown on 19th street. So when I got to the crib, me and wifey, she knew I was zoning in the cab. When I got to the crib I had my studio in a little room. I went straight up into the room and found the sample. The bass line. I took the bass line and put the regular drum sample underneath that shit. Half an hour later I had the lights off because I was in there zoning. Wifey came in I was like turn the lights off and close the door back. About an hour later I came out of there with three verses man. It was crazy. That was that shit right there.

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