The beginning of Hip-Hop for me was listening to a pre-release of The Sugarhill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight because my step-father was a DJ. I’m from the Chi but was living in Vicksburg, MS for a year, and when I moved back, I knew the song word for word. I got a lil’ street-cred for that. But at 56 now, I can also confess to watching the Source Awards some years ago and asking myself, “Who da fuck is Two-Chains?”
That’s because by the time the East Coast/West Coast feud had started and then claimed the lives of the top two rappers of each, I had soured on the direction of the genre. Sure, some jams couldn’t be denied for their infectious nature but the messages…most of them at the time, were not positive enough for me. That’s not to say that I didn’t appreciate some of the stories being conveyed, but it wasn’t my cup of tea.
So, like now, I reminisced on the early days, and, for me, Rakim was and is still Tha God. No, not that I believe in any gods. But looks at this man’s face. There is pain there. There is knowing there. And, in such, there is knowledge there. I know that look. I feel that look on a day to day basis since I’ve been able to realize what pain was and internalize it.
Rakim took that pain and that wisdom from an early age and translated it to the masses. That…was and is his power. It’s what, for me and many others, keeps him in our top 5…if not the one. When he speaks…We listen. He picked up where Martin and Malcolm couldn’t and he put it to Eric B’s cuts. Or, Vice Versa.
The article I got this pic from says he is releasing a solo album on July 26, 2024. I can’t wait.
D Jay Collins 