Vintage Review: Paid In Full

Score: 4.5/5 (Hall Of Fame Album) | Released: July 7th, 1987

Written By: Anthony Seaman      

     For years growing up hearing writers and other fans alike refer to Rakim as “The God MC” made little sense to me. On the surface he was deadpan, the beats sounded very much of an era before laptops, and he wasn’t as fun of a listen as a Lil Wayne or Gucci Mane record by far. He dressed cool, head to toe in a custom Dapper Dan suit and gold chains thicker than a finger, but the rest of the Paid In Full album cover looked like it was made in an ancient version of Photoshop. The album itself only had 7 songs with verses on it, and the 4 instrumental tracks were stuffed with obnoxious scratching. In my mind he was a guy who received credit for being early, being from New York, and not for being truly great. What did everyone older than me see in this record that I didn’t? 

To understand the gravity of Paid In Full is to understand more so the gravity of what Rakim himself brought to the art of being a MC that was not there previously. Music at large in this time was full of automated drum machines, huge snares with gated reverbs, and thin wispy vocals telling you to dance, get over your ex or motivating you to get through the day. Hip-hop as a genre mixed some of these elements together, but the MC and what they rapped about was the biggest separator. As an MC Rakim single handedly hit the fast forward button on the shift of rap music out of a Renaissance period into a Mannerism period. Melle Mel, Grandmaster Caz, Run, LL Cool J, Kool Moe Dee, all mastered the basics in terms of technicality. They brought the experience of neighborhood cyphers and park jams into real life, and for flashes even peeked into the future themselves by making conceptual songs that bridged genres. The RIAA had started certifying albums Gold, and music videos from rap acts were becoming more common. Popular music stores, publications and entertainment outlets were accepting hip-hop slowly, but accepting nonetheless. For how to expand rap, Rakim drew inspiration from another artist who took a sound that seemed like it had hit a sweet spot and blew the doors open.

Rakim was inspired by every rap artist of the day, but John Coltrane, the seminal galactic jazz giant, was the North Star he followed. Raised in a musical household Rakim played multiple instruments and understood pockets as an instrumentalist before understanding them as a vocalist. He was already approaching rap at an angle few had before, by becoming one with the music. The basics of delivery were destroyed and reimagined from over the top bravado to a gold chain draped coolness. The term “flow” had to be recontextualized into the phrase we understand it to mean today because of his style. The concept of all rhymes ending and rhyming on the last word, matured into internal rhyme schemes that had been flirted with by Run at times on record, but never fully realized. Even on the production end, Rakim, Eric B. (and an already established Marley Mal, depending who you ask) cut samples in more abrupt and shocking ways comparable only to The Bomb Squad with Public Enemy and Prince Paul with a young De La Soul. Big Daddy Kane, Slick Rick, EPMD and NWA had not released official debut albums. Chuck D and Melle Mel in recent years have spoken about the emergence of Rakim as a seminal line in history. The playbook had tripled in size overnight, and the expectations of what greatness was had risen to new heights. Less rappers yelled on record, instead creating more elaborate vocal tones. Songs were more loose conceptually and the complexity of how and where rhymes hit in a stanza became less predictable. He was thinking at a clip above everyone else and was subtle in the ways he did it. As an example; Rakim is a proud member of the 5 Percent Nation where numerology is a key piece of their daily practices. 7 represents God or Allah in their numerology. Rakim, who refers to himself and referred to by others as the God MC released his debut album on July 7th, 1987, stylized as 7/7/87. If only he could have gotten access to a microphone in elementary school this trick would be 10 times more impressive.

        As an album it wasn’t an event that could be measured by radio spins or Billboard sales. It took until 1995 for the album to be certified Platinum. What pushed the record to fame was how often fans replayed it, how stunned they were but skills so advanced it seemed like a new genre was being born. Quotables across the album have become hip-hop standards. “When i’m writing im trapped in between the lines / I escape / when I finish a rhyme”, “It’s been a long time / I shouldn’t have left you / without a strong rhyme to step to”, “I start to think and then i sink / into the paper / like i was ink”, “I draw a crowd like an architect”, “i’m the R to the K I am / if i wasn’t / then why would i say I am?”, and the entirety of the title song, “Paid In Full” are just a handful of bars that have been flipped or straight repeated by generations of hip-hop artists. Topically he approached bars like a true author flipping metaphors and similes with the microphone as his main muse. Kool Moe Dee to many is seen as ground zero for the “lyrical miracle” archetype, a style that is perfectly balanced with the “i’m better than you and i’ll punch you if you think otherwise” for the first time with Rakim. He was slowly walking rappers out of the park and into listeners headphones. He was telling you he was better than you, but did it in a much smarter and cool way than anyone before him, and you had to be smart and cool to a certain degree to get it. “My Melody” was a hail storm of raps, clocking in with 5 full verses over one of the LP’s more menacing musical motifs. In the years before the album was officially recorded Rakim spent his days bouncing around Brooklyn and Queens freestyling and performing with DJ’s honing his craft, with most of his verses being used to line the record. Everything was gripping because he had been slowly perfecting the bars in front of the toughest crowds in New York. Unintentionally (and ironically due to “I Ain’t No Joke” existing) he worked like a comedian, honing punchlines in sketchy clubs for audiences that were there just to hear a headliner, only to have fully baked knockouts ready once Netflix or Comedy Central turned the cameras on. 

Today we see most of the modern Detroit scene, MF DOOM, and G Herbo alike all break in and out of pockets letting the actual rhymes of the words side swipe you from every angle. That’s because of Rakim. The monotone delivery stylings of Guru and 21 Savage were birthed from this record. After nearly 35 years every working rapper has fragments of Rakim’s DNA as a rapper within their craft. Imagine being the guy who perfects cooking a steak. You choose all the right seasonings, perfect pan type, get the flames just the right temperature, flip it at the exact second to ensure a perfect medium rare. Everyone is going to copy that person and use the technique forever, but vegans and vegetarians might not indulge in such a dish. Now imagine being the guy who invents the fucking stove. Anyone who takes their craft seriously, regardless of style, needs you to survive and everyone who turns their nose up at your invention is living in the stone age. A lot of talk around the greatness of Paid In Full as a standalone album gets lost in the praise of Rakim himself and what he represents understandably so. No other artist had as much of an impact on album one until Nas came out, but even he didn’t invent the stove. Drake, Future and Young Thug reshaped rap, but they had mixtapes and features that warmed up the world to what was coming on their official releases. To create an album that has multiple songs that define not only an era, but an entire genre is an incredible task. To do it all before turning 20 is just icing on the cake. “Paid In Full”, “I Know You Got Soul” and “Eric B. Is President” are standards to this day. With 10 full records the young duo reset the world of hip-hop and created a body of work that is as fun and impressive as any album that’s come since. 

Best Song: “Paid In Full”

Best Beat: “I Ain’t No Joke”

Best Moments: "fish, which is my favorite dish" / Hearing "Chinese Arithmetic" in the year of our Lord 2023 is actually fine abstract art / Verse 2 of "My Melody"