FOLLOW THE LEADER: Rap's Dynamic Duo Double Up And Deliver Another Classic

“From century to century/you’ll remember me/in history, not a mystery /but a memory.”

The poetic value of these lyrics are uncontested but they would prove to be just as prophetic. Twenty-seven years ago this month, Eric B. and Rakim dropped Follow the Leader, the follow up to their debut Paid in Full (1987). Released on the heels of seminal two-sided single Eric B is President/My Melody (1986), Paid in Full was a departure from other mid-eighties Hip Hop albums like Radio and Raising Hell. 

Instead of the booming b-boy anthems that sounded as if they were delivered from the heavens, Rakim moved mountains with a syncopated flow and intricate rhyme patterns, setting a new standard for lyricism catapulting him to the top of the heap of rap's elite emcees. Released on July 26, 1988, Follow the Leader continued the group's trailblazing ways advancing their brand of esoteric sophisticated street poetry. Souls of Black Notes does the knowledge and explores a bonafide hip hop classic.

In the two years between the group’s first single release and Follow the Leader, Eric B. and Rakim's influence on Hip Hop was undisputed. Their sample-based material moved hip hop production away from the minimalist drum tracks while Rakim's approach to rhyming would retire emcee vocal styles that dominated rap music from '83 to '86.

Previously known for their round-robin vocal routines on seminal jams like Freedom (1980) and Nasty (1981), Grandmaster Flash’s You Know What Time It Is (1987) was a carbon of Rakim's deep baritone flow and rhythmic cadences.

Rap crew Mr. X and Mr. Z’s obscure rap anthem Drink Old Gold (1987) celebrates the b-boy beverage of choice with a hilarious send up of Eric B and Rakim's I Know You Got Soul (1987).       

Caught in a Hip Hop paradigm shift and realizing that his debut album was slightly out of step with what was happening in rap music, Public Enemy's Chuck D surveyed the creative landscape of his peers and looked no further than Paid In Full. He and his Bomb Squad crew emerged with a new sound and vocal delivery that powered Rebel Without A Pause ("You know the rhythm, the rhyme/plus the beat is designed/so I can enter your mind") kick starting black consciousness in rap music. Chuck acknowledged acknowledges that I Know You Got Soul was the template for PE's 1987 breakthrough single.

Rakim’s staccato delivery and offbeat cliff-hanger rhymes from Eric B is President (1986) and I Ain’t No Joke (1987) would find their way on LL’s Jack The Ripper (1987) and Run-D.M.C. single Run's House (1988) confirming that even a pair of rap giants had to follow the leader to remain relevant during rap's Golden Age.  

King Sun's Hey Love (1987) and EPMD's It’s My Thing (1987) were two of many singles that evoked Rakim’s smooth measured tone on the microphone.

 

These events were punctuated by the arrival of Brooklyn rapper Big Daddy Kane, a Rakim contemporary whose own lyrical prowess also advanced the art of emceeing. Eric and Ra would shift into another gear. In the wake of Paid's success of they would leave 4th and Broadway Records for UNI/MCA, signing Hip Hop's first million dollar contract before promptly returning to Power Play Studios to craft Leader.

The album was a sequel of sorts, retaining creative flourishes that were introduced on Paid in Full starting with the album cover. Leader revisited the group’s projection of the quiet confidence and swagger captured on their debut. Shot by photographer Drew Carolan in Lower Manhattan, the cover featured the duo, once again clad in fly Dapper Dan suits--- seated atop Eric’s elegant Rolls Royce with their backs to the camera staring off into the water. The image personified the album title eloquently, confirming that a picture indeed was worth a thousand words.

In 2007, Carolan recounted his strategy for website Rock Pop Gallery. "You know, I thought it was really dope that these guys were willing to turn their backs to the camera for the cover shot. The concept was that if you are following the leader, this is what you’d see -- their backs. As Rakim says on the record...A lot of you wondering why the album was late?  I was giving you time to get the last one straight... Check the words."

While Hip Hop artists were still mining the James Brown catalog for inspiration, the group dug in the crates lifting classic and obscure breakbeats to create tracks that were aggressive, abstract and menacing. Eric’s cuts and scratches were a perfect counterpoint to Rakim’s rhymes, matching his intensity line for line and note for note. Vocals and music were locked into a duel, competing for the listener’s attention while taking them deeper into an abyss of aural bliss. 

The funky grooves that drove I Ain’t No Joke laced joints like Microphone Fiend and The R, while The Average White Band and the Blackbyrds stood in for the Godfather of Soul. My Melody’s chilling whistle returned in the form of sinister keys on the intro of rap narrative Put Your Hands Together. The song begins with a sly nod to Rakim’s infamous tardiness ("I’m late/hit the brakes/and park the Benzeeto") before launching into a celebratory ode to his onstage crowd control. Simultaneously, Rakim celebrates his audience ("the rhymes are written /for the crowd’s enjoyment"), taunts his adversaries (“So sucker mcs suck rhymes like vaccums”), and dismisses would-be challengers with complex rhymes containing strong thematic subject matter ("Rhymes written in graffiti/xeroxed on blueprints/ students influenced are now a nuisance"). The rhymes are nothing short of pure genius, cleverly combining sports analogy and Maya Angelou ("My mind’s the coach/the physical form’s the team/the top’s the destination---I’m the cream!/and still I rise…").

While Competition Is None’s battle rhymes subscribe to the Chuck D I don’t rhyme for the sake of riddlin’ mantra ("No dictionaries necessary to use/big words do nothing but confuse and lose"), the simplicity of the lyrics are just as potent ("From gram to ounce to pound to pound/the matter of weight can’t hold my mind down") and vivid ("Seven holes in my face as I’m lookin’ out my window/Speak with the beat and it seem like the wind blows").

Musical Massacre finds Eric and Ra working The Jimmy Castor Bunch's It's Just Begun (1972) into a dark, pulsating track that is a perfect foil for Rakim battle rhymes as he challenges all comers to a game of Russian roulette a la The Deerhunter: ("One in the chamber/let's play a game-a/rhyming roulette/and put me up to ya brain  and name a/rhyme about your clout/one mistake?--you're out!"). Massacre is an overlooked track on Leader, containing some of Rakim's best rhymes. He uses Wizard of Oz imagery for lyrical put-downs ("Maybe you're too fly, somewhere over the rainbow/courage, heart, brains---you need rhymes/turn on your mic, snap your fingers three times")  before switching over to alchemy references daring imitators to repeat their success ("The potion was weak/need another antidote/what's the science?/why can't you quote?"). As Rakim's prepares to delivers the lyrical death blow, Eric B.'s scratches are like a buck-fifty to the face or a dagger to the heart taunting foes while cutting up I Know You Got Soul ("Get off the mic") over and over.

 Follow the Leader also featured Paid In Full references throughout the album. Whether  bragging about turning Islamic salutations into popular urban catchphrases ("I can take a phrase that’s rarely heard, flip it----now it’s a daily word") and new found riches ("I'm paid in full/ so save the bull"), or bemoaning copy-cat rappers on Leader album track For The Listener ("That ain't my melody /brothers keep runnin' up and tellin'me/others trynna flow smooth and steadily"), and addressing title track Paid In Full's brevity ("I proved record don't have to be long/if it's understood and the story is strong"), they were all undisputed self-confirmations that Paid was nothing short of a classic. 

Side A was the winner. In terms of intensity and sequencing, only PE's A Nation of Million To Hold Us Back (1988) matches Leader’s first side. The lead single and title track conjures memories of 70’s film car chases courtesy of Coke Escovedo’s I Wouldn’t Change A Thing (1976) Bob James' Nautilus (1971) and Baby Huey’s b-boy stick-up anthem Listen To Me (1971). It was a verbal proclamation of lyrical superiority that was part dissertation (''Follow the Leader is part theme/ job/task") and self-definition ("Rap is rhythm and poetry/cuts make sound effects"). 

Rakim left no topical stone touching on everything from knowledge of self and ancestral reencarnation ("God by nature/mind raised in Asia") to astronomy ("What could you say as the earth gets further and further away/ planets are small as balls of clay or stray into the milky way /worlds outta sight as far as the eye can see not even a satellite."). From game show references ("The price is right, don't make a deal to soon/how many notes, can you name this tune?"),  alliteration affirmations ("Self-esteem makes me super/superb/ supreme") to couplets sharp enough to slice the jugular ("A fearified freestyle, lyrics of fury/my third eye make me shine like jewelry"), Rakim's deadpan delivery captures the dry humor of Public Enemy #1 Jimmy Cagney ("The registers told them/the rhymes are stolen") dispatching actual and would-be adversaries with a pulp of proverbial grapefruit to the face.

Microphone Fiend's addiction theme picks up where President leaves off. Where President prefaces Rakim's fascination with rhyming, Fiend starts out as semi-autobiographical ("I was a fiend/before I became a teen") before penetrating the brain with concepts like an uncontrolled substance in the vein. Amid the drug references Ra finds time to remind emcees of his skills ("I wrote the rhyme that broke the bulls back/if that don't slow 'em  up/I carry a full pack!") issue reprimands ("You didn't keep the stage long---step off!") from one of the many jams that inspired his ever-expanding list of alter egos.

P-Funk leader George Clinton was an early advocate of Eric B and Rakim. During late 80s and early 90s interviews he would profess that Rakim was the best rapper he ever heard.  In his 2014 autobiography Brothas Be, Yo Like  George Ain't That Funkin ' Hard On You? he sings the praises of the group over several pages, keenly acknowledging the regional appeal of his catalog: "The East Coast had more interest in the early Funkadelic records. East Coast producers cut and sliced and rearranged while West Coast groups tended to take them wholesale, going right for the biggest Parliament hits with fat synthesizers and horn lines that could hold up an entire song."

 Having used the drum roll intro of the Funkadelic (a rival band made up of ex-Clinton associates) song You'll Like It Too (1981) for I Know You Got Soul, Eric B. and Rakim lifted Ron Bykowski's psychedelic guitar licks from No Head, No Backstage Pass  for their brilliant Lyrics of Fury. Taken from Let's Take It To The Stage, the 1975 album from the  Clinton led Funkadelic lineup, Stage was a funk rock affair filled with political rants,  proto-raps, double entendres and a hint of profanity---figurative and literal ingredient fodder for rap music over a decade later and heavily sampled by EPMD, NWA, Public Enemy and Brand Nubian.

 Lyrics of Fury pairs Pass with late 80s Hip Hop staple Funky Drummer (1970) to create the kind track characterized by Clinton as one with "metaphor stacked on metaphor, tight turns in the verses and a chorus that was like a steel band tight around the whole song." Rakim transforms the track into a lyrical battle ground, delivering aggressive freestyle rhymes transforming the English language into a deadly weapon. Battle rhymes do double duty as film trailers as Rakim's usage of movie themes to dismantle foes is pure genius:

Suddenly you find that you’re in a horror flick/you grab your heart and wish for tomorrow quick/music's a clue, when I come you're warned/Apocalypse Now, when I'm done, you're gone/Haven't you ever heard of a/ emcee murderer/this is a death penalty and I'm servin' a/Death Wish/so come on step to this / a hysterical idea for a lyrical professionist/Friday the 13th, walkin' down Elm Street/you come in my realm you get beat!

The rhymes are vivid and crystal clear, conjuring images of Rakim as a gladiator in a bloody coliseum armed with a seven-prong trident taking out rappers over twenty at a time. Like a martial artist with many styles, Rakim 's technique involves fluid thematic shifts that metaphorically use life-death-resurrection reference:

A matter of life and death/just like a etch and sketch/shake til you're clear/make it disappear, make the next/after the ceremony, let a rhyme rest in peace/if not the soul is released/the scene is recreated, reincarnated, updated/I'm glad you made it.

Rakim gets rougher as the rhyme goes on. More movie references ("I ain't the devil/and this ain't the exorcist."), verbal jabs at other artists ("I sit back and observe the whole scenery/nonchalantly tell you what it mean to me/strictly business, I'm quickly in this mood /and I don't care if the crowds a witness") and tortuous taunts ("Sounds that not only pounds/but plays ya eardrums" and "Worse than a nightmare/you don't have to sleep a wink/the pain's a migraine every time you think"). By Fury's end Rakim's victims end up on an operating table as he triumphantly enters a plea of homicide without as much as a curse word or gun reference in sight.

 Pulsating instrumentals Just A Beat and For The Listener round out the album and blazing dj workouts like Eric B is Never Scared confirm Leader's status as a thinking man's rap album. Eric B cuts up Bob Marley's vocals ("God is a living man") from protest anthem Get Up, Stand Up (1973) throughout the song, another clever nod to the group's spirituality.

The popularity of Follow the Leader was immediate. It sold 500,000 copies in less than two months earning an RIAA gold certification on September 27, 1988. The album solidifying the group's reputation as Hip Hop's premiere emcee/dj combo amongst current and future peers like Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Gang Starr and Pete Rock and CL Smooth.