Halftimeonline: We were talking about the tracks you did at Aftermath. Were you planning on releasing those tracks, do you feel that they are too old or it’s not the message you want to put out right now?

Rakim: #1 they are like three years old and they already leaked a few of them out on the internet. [They leaked] “Welcome to the Hood” and “After U Die.” I forget the others but I think it’s like five altogether. As far as me putting it on my new album they are a little too old for that. You might hear a couple more on a mixtape or something.

Halftimeonline: I always hear a lot of artists talking about how location affects their writing like Wu Tang saying it when they went out to Cali. You being out there did you see any difference in your writing when you were doing some of the songs?

Rakim: Yea, what it did was give me a broader view of California. It really let me understand that rappers are separated. You got the dirty south sound, Cali got their sound but being out there it gave me a more of a universal look at hip hop because when you are out in Cali the radio is 85% west coast. It was a nice experience. It let me know what they are doing and how they are living. Hearing it on records is one thing but living out there when you are waking up and going to sleep out there you really start to feel their pain and feel their struggle and all that. I learned a lot out there.

Halftimeonline: There’s been a lot of talk about how things with you and Dre didn’t go the right way or go as planned but putting two artists like yourselves together in the room there had to be some magic happening even if it was only for one song. Were there some moments when you two were together where you like damn this is exactly what I came here for? If so what song showed that experience?

Rakim: Well I think that Truth Hurts joint for one. There were a couple other joints that we did where there was a feeling in the studio when you lay that sixteen down and the vibe in the room let’s you know what that sixteen bars was. There were definitely times where it didn’t get to the end of the tunnel. Even if it didn’t get to the end of the tunnel those were the goals we were trying to reach to get to that destination. It was definitely a good learning experience and definitely good times. Every time we got into the studio we had fun. You know what Dre like to do as far as the sound of music they create but it just wasn’t for me at the time. That was the only problem we had. He wanted me to go one way real hard but I’d touch on it and step back out of that. When you’re trying to please both sides of the fence at the same time you really can’t do that.

Halftimeonline: Obviously after that happened cats were like where’s Rakim? It’s almost to me that it’s similar to Tribe where the longer it takes for you to release something the greater the mystique grows. Do you ever think that people’s expectations will be so high that you may not be able to reach not what you feel would be good but what the fans are expecting?

Rakim: No doubt. That’s one thing that comes into the picture but I use that as fuel more than pressure. Sometimes I look at new artists trying to come out or trying to make their name and it’s like they’re coming into the game blind. They don’t really know what the world is going to expect from them and they really trying to get in where they fit in but me I almost got the red carpet. So it’s a little easier so I use it as good fuel. Like you said with Ra it’s like the longer it takes the bigger the mystique is. I use that like look dude they waiting for you, they still love you and want to hear you. So with that right there that’s all I need. Now coming out and you don’t even have a fan base I think that’s harder. I think if I was just coming out right now it would be harder for me to do what I do than to deal with what people expect who have an understanding of what I do. It’s a little easier.

Jbutters: When you came out onstage in Baltimore that’s the loudest I ever heard a crowd and I’ve seen practically everyone. We had never seen you perform so we were like we had to go but to see that happening and you haven’t put anything out and nobody cared.

Marcus: There was no introduction either. Kid Capri just put on one of the hardest beats I ever heard in my life and you just walked onstage and people was like oh shit!

Rakim: It’s love. I’m gonna tell you the truth it’s like I did BB Kings in January tore that up but that’s NY you kinda expect that. I did a few other shows in Central Park wrecked that shit but in the back of my mind I’m like damn I ain’t been to Baltimore in a while. I don’t even know what the vibe on Rakim is in Baltimore. That was one of the shows out of the two week tour that I was like when I go through Baltimore I want to leave a good impression. But when I stepped on the stage that’s what I mean bruh. It’s like that’s the welcome mat. That’s the key to the hood right there. It makes it a little easier for me to perform. It makes it a little easier for me to write and do what I do. That’s my goal right there and that’s my justice when I come out they make it easier for me. Please give Baltimore some love for me man because they definitely gave it to me. I’m gonna make sure I give them a special shout out on the album. That’s what it is.

Halftimeonline: It’s not like we saw a Rakim mixtape or things that people are doing in terms of marketing. Obviously, like you said you’re different and you don’t have to do little marketing ploys to keep your name out there but seeing how things have changed how come you didn’t approach it using some of those things?

Rakim: Well, some things are good for certain types of rappers. When 50 came out and did it you see every rapper trying to hit the mixtape circuit and it was almost like you had to do a mixtape before you get a deal. But like I said before whenever I sat down to write something it was never anything I took lightly. It was something that I’d want you, somebody in Japan, and somebody [over there to hear it]. When you do something and put your heart into it you and you think it’s that shit you want everybody that possibly listens to hip hop to listen to that shit. So I never wanted to do the mixtape circuit and 300,000 people hear it and that’s a chapter of my life and when I do another album I’m coming off of that chapter but the whole world didn’t hear that chapter so it’s like I would have to start over. I kinda write in sequences that I live through. So once I finish one album I know where to begin again. I never really liked the idea of doing mixtapes but at the same time it was a big thing a lot of people were doing it and it almost got to the point where if you didn’t touch the mixtape circuit it was like you didn’t care.

The djs were definitely supporting and in the beginning they were keeping everybody alive so it was only fair that they’d get a joint or a premier off your album or something. In my situation things are so crazy I just had to stick to my guns and get my business in order. That’s another reason why since I left Cali ya’ll ain’t hear nothing yet. The majors is what started it off but I don’t want come home back to the majors and basically get raped. So I came home and got a nice business plan together and started something different. We’re gonna kinda change the game with the way I’m doing the album. I don’t want to let too much out of the bag just yet but I didn’t go to the majors and I definitely didn’t go to the independents. We got major distribution so when it drops in NY it’s gonna drop in Japan. It’s major here. It took me a while to make it pop with the route that I took but everything is about together now. We just dotting the I’s and crossing the t’s. So hopefully in the next few months the world should hear the single and a month after that the album.
Halftimeonline: I know you don’t want to reveal too much about the situation but looking at where you’ve been at Aftermath to MCA and Universal how is this situation going to be different?

Rakim: Well it’s where every artist tries to position themselves. The money I’m gonna see for this project, I’m talking the deal that was put together, the money from every unit being sold is what I feel every artist should see. That’s what took it so long to make it pop. Cut the middle man out and you know what that means you gotta get that paper. The paper is about in place and once that’s done it’s on and popping. The difference is the money you can definitely say that.

Halftimeonline: Talking about the new album you said how each project represents a sequence of your life. Going back to the beginning could you explain what sequence you were in during each album and what sequence the new album represents?

Rakim: Right now you want to know where I’m at?

Halftimeonline: Well, I know you like to go from the end to beginning so either way you want.

Rakim: Haha. We’ll go from the top though man. In the beginning it was basically me introducing myself to the world, trying to make a name for myself and introduce my style to the world. At that point I was a young dude fresh out the streets, 16 or 17, when I wrote that album. I saw a lot when I was young. The first time I got arrested I was twelve years old. So my first album is coming from a young kid in the hood, getting knowledge of self and trying to find a different path. Once that path was dug then it was Follow the Leader. It was like yea this is what it is and this is what I’m doing. Everyone greeted me with open arms on the first album and it’s like this is what I’m doing so follow me. Not follow me but follow the lyrics. Follow me into a solo, get in the flow. I felt like I made a name for myself and the world accepted my style, then I took them a little deeper in Follow the Leader. After that it was doing different things in hip hop. My album after that was more of me introducing different styles and trying to concrete the path that I was taking as far as the righteous path. You could do hip hop, you could be a hard hip hop artist without going the other way. Back then it was pop not no killer killer shit. It was you could sell a couple records and keep your integrity or you could go pop and sell a bunch of records and be gone tomorrow. I was trying to stick to my guns at that point. At the same time me and Eric B was going through our little shit back and forth as far as what he wanted to do and what I wanted to do. I was trying to stay true to what I feel, what I started and what I felt the world definitely accepted me on.

Now we’ll take it up to The 18th Letter. Right there was the comeback. Letting the world know I grew a little bit and at the same time mature hip hop was good too. It was a little low in the hood its real low now. The hood don’t know what it is but back then it was a little more culturized. Everybody had a little culture with them. The Public Enemy fans, to the Rakim fans to the X-Can fans, to the KRS-ONE fans to Poor Righteous Teachers. There was a lot of consciousness in the air. I came back when the conscious level was low. I wanted to show that there is still consciousness in hip hop and at the same time reintroduce myself to the world that’s why we put the book of life with the 18th letter. With the Master at that point I feel that the game was so watered down that the label didn’t know what to do about it. They felt like I needed radio songs and more radio friendly with my studio work. At that point I felt like I had to make a change not knowing what the change was. The change I was supposed to make wasn’t towards that just to elevate my craft and futurize it. They had me doing some radio kinda shit and I kinda fell for it because the labels was on some Rakim is hard to work with, Rakim don’t want to do this and we can’t get Rakim to do that, he don’t want to do interviews nahmean. So I wanted to make myself a little more accessible and if ya’ll remember rap at that time it was Puff Daddy. You can tell I did not get on no Puff Daddy shit but my tracks was a little more friendly. I had to understand that what I was supposed to do then was get back into the lab and start digging through the crates and reinvent my tracks. Once I get the track I know what to do with it. With these different labels like MCA I did some things I felt I shouldn’t have done.

After that I went out to Cali to try and get with Dre to pop that off. My idea was to bridge the gap since Pac and Big left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. My thing was to try and bridge the gap and bring raw hiphop back. My main thing was I thought the last thing I’d have to worry about was tracks. Things didn’t work for a reason. I take the good with the bad and then I came back to NY and I really put my CEO cap on man. I had to go through the everyday phone calls and everyday questions and they would come back with ten more questions to get an understanding. It’s like talking apples and oranges to people because not everyone understands the record business. What I want to do right now is give hip hop back to the hood. Before it was a neighborhood thing where it belonged to the hood and the rappers were reporting and there were rules and parameters. Now it seems like the artist’s game. Now it seems like hip hop belongs to the people you see in the videos and radios. So I want to give it bring it back to the hood, make a statement for NY to put us back in our proper perspective, and of course let them know that Ra still spits fire. It’s something about this rap game that the older I get the wiser and more skillful I get. I think things are gonna change. I’m gonna take the age limit off of hip hop. It’s gonna be what they want. It’s hard to explain but I know what they want. That’s why me and Dre ain’t work out because I felt that they didn’t want me to do what I was about to do in California. I think I’m focused right now. Still hungry 20 06 no tricks in 06. The tables turn twenty years later where I’m doing an interview talking about the new album.

Halftimeonline: What can fans expect from the album in terms of who you’ve been working with and if you’re gonna get back into production?

Rakim: You know I can’t tell you what collabos I’m gonna do. I still believe in the element of surprise. That feeling of somebody getting the CD putting it in and being like oh shit! That’s the door to door salesman’s best shit when they can come through with something and wow a motherfucker. I’m not going to saturate the album with collabs but it’s a few people in the industry that I respect a lot that have been showing me love throughout the years that I want to do some joints with. People that are going to make a statement when you hear me with them. And a lot of big time producers have been showing me a lot of love. It’s gonna be something that they’re not going to expect but at the end of the day they’ll be like that’s what he was supposed to do.

Halftimeonline: You keeping it tight on us man!

Rakim: I believe in the element of surprise. And then it’s like sometimes you say I’m about to do a joint with Quincy Jones and then it’s like oh he gonna do a joint with Quincy Jones! Then when they hear it’s not what they expected. It’s a dope joint but they spent two months drawing a picture about what Rakim and Quincy Jones is gonna do. So yea the element of surprise of just throwing it in and hearing it and not dwelling on it for months is better. I think it’s better for the consumer too because they’ll be happier with it. It’s almost like Christmas man who wants to know what’s in the gift. Haha

Halftimeonline: That’s true I always think that when I hear people say something like oh imagine Jay-Z with dadada it will be a classic. It’s like you never know until you hear it. Just because you put two people together doesn’t mean it’s automatically classic. I never got that.

Rakim: Exactly. Me neither man.

Halftimeonline: Also when people say producer I think they only think beat maker. If you have a real producer who is producing the track then it’s the relationship between him and the artist that makes the ill track.

Rakim: Exactly. There are a lot of young brothers that you never heard of but they are coming to the meetings and to the studio with fire man. It’s like yo what did you say your name was bruh? It’s a beautiful thing. It’s crazy because a minute ago a big time producer would get $150K a track. Now you got these young producers coming in getting $2,500 and getting triple platinum joints so the price for tracks is coming down. The hip hop game is so crazy it moves around and changes like slang in the hood. One week the word could be good and in the next week it’s like yo duke that shit’s not good. That shit don’t even mean what you think it mean now man. It’s a good thing though because I think what we need to take advantage of is changing the game like that. Every time someone come out with an album don’t change the whole style up but don’t do what they are expecting. Surprise them. That’s another thing yo rappers are scared to bring new styles out. There’s so many different ways we can be flowing but everybody chooses to flow the generic way. Majority rules but it opened up that’s why I like people like Kanye. He do whatever track he want to do and flow how he want to flow on it and he ain’t talking the everyday bang bang and kilo. A lot of people live it and grew up around it but if you do 15 records on your joint all 15 don’t have to be the same shit.

Halftimeonline: Ok so we not getting any collabs and we not gonna know any producers…

Rakim: Haha

Halftimeonline: What about some concepts? Can you give us at least one concept for maybe a song where it’s like the normal cat wouldn’t flip it like that?

Rakim: Aiight, the name of the album is The Seventh Seal. Are ya’ll familiar with what that means?

Halftimeonline: That’s in the book of Revelations.

Rakim: No doubt. What I’m doing is taking the Seventh Seal and making it relevant to hip hop and life itself. You see it everyday with the tsunamis and the earthquakes its evident man. The glaciers are melting, global warming, we at war, planes crashing into the jump off, the flooding that’s the seventh seal. I’m gonna make it similar rap and let them know the same thing and at the same time why the seventh seal is coming about. I’m gonna have some fun with it but at the same time I’m gonna open some people’s eyes. That’s the concept of my next album. So back to that hip hop is dead thing it’s like if it keeps in the direction its going, not saying that the Dirty South, East Coast, Midwest or Cali is killing it, but if everyone keeps saying it there must be some truth to the statement. We’re nearing the end. It feels like the same thing is happening to hip hop.

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.

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.