SWEETIES

On Friday, November 20 I had the esteemed pleasure of stumbling upon yet again another amazing free concert at APPLE. My eyes thought they were playing tricks on me as I did my daily strut down Prince Street to find a sign in the APPLE store that read “TONIGHT: LIVE RAKIM“.

Say Whaaaat?

I fell in LOVE with hip-hop when I first heard “Let the Rhythm Hit ‘Em”. My friend Cora and I would watch videos while we talked on the phone for hours. We used to go NUTS over that video. Rakim had swagger before that word was ever in existence. He hands down is one of the best MC’s to ever bless the microphone.

DJ Technical did a great job of hyping up the crowd with classic hip-hop tracks from Tribe Called Quest, MOB DEEP, EPMD, and a host of others. RAKIM illuminated as he walked on the stage.  He was adorned in all white and lit the room up before he even spit out one lyric.

RAKIM was illuminating LIGHT even before he took the MIC

I hold such high regard for Rakim as a LEGEND of hip-hop  but as a critic I had to hold a sliver of skepticism before I heard anything because “The Seventh Seal” is a technically a comeback album. It has been ten years since Rakim has released an album to the public so I was on the edge of my seat awaiting to hear if the GOD MC still had the juice.

It was apparent from the MINUTE the vibrations of his voice hit the MIC that he was as fresh and fly as he was the 80s. It literally sounded as if time had stood still as far as the mind-blowing affects of his flow. He started off with a retrospective of his earlier hits. I believe all of SOHO heard the crowd go BANANAS when he performed Juice.

Rakim did give the audience a few snippets from the new album. The lyrical content is even stronger than his earlier music. The level of maturity on the tracks on “The Seventh Seal” are an indication of the philosophical and spiritual depth that RAKIM is at in his life.

In 2009 Billboard Magazine asked Rakim about the significance behind the title of the album. Rakim responded :

“The seals are from the Bible—Revelations and the coming of the Apocalypse. But Islam, Judaism, Christianity—all have a version of the same events. The Lion of Judah breaks the seven seals one by one, each imparting knowledge and inflicting catastrophe, ending with seven trumpets announcing the end of Times. After the Apocalypse, God rises from the ashes to recreate the Kingdom, taking only the greatest elements from the past with them. When you look at Hip-Hop, I want to do that: to spit fire and take our best from the ashes to build our kingdom; to recognize all the regional styles, conscious lyrics, the tracks, underground, mainstream, the way we treat each other. Lose the garbage and rebuild our scene. I’ve always tried to insert consciousness and spirituality in my records, interpreting the writings of all cultures and religions and how they apply to life in modern times”

On Friday night I had the chance to speak one on one with the GOD MC. RAKIM is gracious, humble, humorous, in addition to being a rare and amazing talent. A lot of artist have egos the size of the NYC and will speak to the press after concerts through their management only. RAKIMS’ manager Matthew Kemp gave me full access to him and told me that no question was off-limits.

RAKIM and I touched on many topics that included  hip-hop music: the past vs. today, where the passion to record “The Seventh Seal” originated from, and his children.

The most poignant answer from Rakim came when I asked him

Nightly Candy: “Is there one song on the album that is close to your heart that you want the readers to know about?”

RAKIM: “Message in a Song featuring Destiny Griffin (Track # 10) is a song that I feel is for the hood and for the streets. It’s for the people who may need that option where they can make that choice. It’s for the youth that’s going through what they are going through and might need someone to tell them that they ‘aint gotta do it that way. The track is also dear to me because my daughter is on it. I feel like with my daughter on the track that it is another link to the youth. It’s a good song and it was good vibes doing it so I hope that when people listen to it they get what we felt when we made the song.”

It was an honor to interview Rakim. I hope to have a chat with him again when he drops his next album.

Nightly Candy chats it up with the GOD MC RAKIM

The hip-hop world needs RAKIM to keep turning out stellar beats and thought-provoking lyrics because unfortunately these days those elements are hard to come by .