William Michael Griffin Jr. (born January 28, 1968), better known by his stage name Rakim, is an American rapper. One half of golden age hip hop duo Eric B. & Rakim, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential and most skilled MCs of all time.

Eric B. & Rakim's album Paid in Full was named the greatest hip hop album of all time by MTV in 2006, while Rakim himself was ranked #4 on MTV's list of the Greatest MCs of All Time. Steve Huey of AllMusic stated that "Rakim is near-universally acknowledged as one of the greatest MCs – perhaps the greatest – of all time within the hip-hop community." The editors of About.com ranked him #1 on their list of the 'Top 50 MCs of Our Time (1987–2007)'. Rakim began his career as the emcee of the rap duo Eric B. & Rakim, who in 2011 were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2012, The Source ranked him #1 on their list of the "Top 50 Lyricists of All Time."

Generation X

DO ANY OF YALL IDIOTS EVEN KNOW THE LEDGE ROUND HERE???????

LISTEN TO RAKIM

10/10

halftime from nas rlly the spiritual successor to this insanity

You know what song I love that no one talks about casualties of war? the video is everything

The story & mood

That jazzy beat is fire too

I read a interview where the interviewer went into the details of Rakim's producton process.

Basically he should be mentioned as one of the greatest producer's-mc of all time.

But he doesn't make it clear that he did 80% (Paul C contributions & Marley Marl remixes, etc not included)

Eric did the cuts but Ra did the beats, programming, record selection arrangements etc

Now think back to his duo work and that's PURE innovation. Ra should be mentioned in the same name as Premier-Sermon-Bomb Squad-D.U. DiITC TRIBE DELA The Coup, Beat Nutz, Pete Rock, Dr Dre (you name them)

He's in that CLASS Of producer. Think about that for a second, no one mentions it. Because they don't know. They have no clue that the majority of the first four albums were produced by the 18th letter.

We assume it's Eric B. But he was the dj doing the cuts. Ra is the one with the drum machines & the sp 1200

But no one really picks up on that. Not Kayslay, Hot 97, Sway

None of them picked up on the fact that RA produced the majority of his duo work. Now that's amazing.

Facts bro. I used to say jokingly that Eric B was the DJ Khaled of his era when I learned this back in the day.

Btw I'm gonna pick up Ra's book soon and keep y'all updated with my discoveries. Already read a couple pages a few days ago and his writing had me hooked.

If that song with Truth Hurts was Rakims and she only sang the hook it would be INSANE

You seen the documentary on Paul C on youtube?

I don't know about Khaled now. Eric got the street money flowing with the braids and that cold ass stare.

One of the craziest things i heard, Freddie Foxxx ditched a meeting with Eric B to be a duo and the next person they reached out to was Rakim. History forever altered because Freddie stayed at home that day.

Bro I feel terrible. Eric B's daughter just died from a car crash today.

“Deepest of condolences to my brother Eric B. and all of the extended family. This evening, his daughter Erica passed on after sustaining injuries in an automobile accident. Erica was the brightest of stars and while we miss her physical form greatly, we will celebrate her life and her energy eternally. Please put a blessing in the air,” Rakim wrote in the post.

So appalled

in

Dam 😢

This saddens me so much, bro.

Damn. RIP

I saw that ...... 😔 condolences....

beautiful song and visuals 💙

this where Common got that album title >>

Yup! Can also hear his influence on Com's flow..

real recognize real