Eric B. & Rakim – The Remixes 1987 - 1992 2xCD - (From The Complete Collection 1986-1992 Box Set)

Geffen / 4th & Broadway / UNI / MCA (2018, Reissue)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for thirty plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

For the next few Ed Lover Wednesdays, I'm going to go through each of the records in this Eric B & Rakim box set.  I only had the album Don't Sweat The Technique in my vinyl collection when I decided I needed to get the others.  When I started poking around, it just made more sense to buy this box set as opposed to the other records individually.

When I was originally looking at this box set, I was happy that it included all of the remixes and B-sides from the myriad of 12"s Eric B. & Rakim put out during their run.  But I was also annoyed that they were on CD and not vinyl like the rest of the albums.  Having listened to these CDs a few times, I'm actually fine that they are on CD.

Two main reasons for this.  One, I don't really like most of the remixes.  Some are pretty good, and the later ones are more interesting than most of the earlier ones, but in general I prefer the album versions of pretty much all of these songs.  The second reason is because these songs are all so long - six, seven, even eight minute long remixes.  It would have taken many LPs to fit all of this and I just can't see myself sitting down in front of my turntable for that length of time and flipping through the number of records it would take.  Having them of CD is fine.  I can pick out the ones I like and listen to them and they packaged them in a way that fits in nicely with the rest of the box set. 

The set as a whole is great.  The accompanying book is gigantic and full of incredible pictures from ever era of Eric B. & Rakim.  The box itself is nice and sturdy and also looks the business for sure.  My one gripe is that they did the thing where the spine of the box itself is printed in a way where you have to flip the set upside down if you want to display it on your shelf, rather than display the open side with the individual album spines.  A very minor complaint about a box set that's really just incredible.  I'd love to see some more sets like this for other hip hop luminaries.

Eric B. & Rakim – The Remixes 1987 - 1992:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nyWbr502gnRK5OjcsSdrWw8NbnUWM4io4

Eric B. & Rakim – Don't Sweat The Technique 2xLP - (From The Complete Collection 1986-1992 Box Set)

Geffen / 4th & Broadway / UNI / MCA (2018, Reissue)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for thirty plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

For the next few Ed Lover Wednesdays, I'm going to go through each of the records in this Eric B & Rakim box set.  I only had the album Don't Sweat The Technique in my vinyl collection when I decided I needed to get the others.  When I started poking around, it just made more sense to buy this box set as opposed to the other records individually.

Don't Sweat The Technique is the Eric B. & Rakim record I have always been the most familiar with as it's the one that came out in my hip hop heyday.  It's also the only one I had on vinyl prior to picking up this box set, so it's a bit of a double dip as I've already written about it before on this site.  But I'm happy to talk a bit more about it again.  I've mentioned before that "Know The Ledge" from the Juice soundtrack was my first introduction to Eric B. & Rakim.  To this day that's still my favorite song.  It was also the song that taught me to not buy hip hop soundtracks as those songs ALWAYS ended up on the next full length album of whatever group or rapper contributed it.

Weirdly, the opening track, "What's On Your Mind?," is pretty awful.  The production is sappy and smooth in an R&B influenced way that feels like a reach towards crossing over.  It first showed up on the House Party II soundtrack, and it really could have stayed there in my opinion.  But after that rare misstep, the rest of the album is flawless.

The production holds up so well and is on par with any golden era release that came out in 1992.  For me, it's the one that sounds current and modern, or at least whatever was current and modern in 1992, a year that I was just devouring any hip hop I could get my hands on.  Every song is incredible and Rakim once again showed why he was just next level in that era.  This was the last Eric B. & Rakim record and the last time we'd hear from Rakim for five years, but it was a hell of a way to go out.

Eric B. & Rakim – Don't Sweat The Technique:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_l-GjbNZ7R2ORynPapp800gTpmXuLxTl98

Eric B. & Rakim – Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em 2xLP - (From The Complete Collection 1986-1992 Box Set)

Geffen / 4th & Broadway / UNI / MCA (2018, Reissue)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for thirty plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

For the next few Ed Lover Wednesdays, I'm going to go through each of the records in this Eric B & Rakim box set.  I only had the album Don't Sweat The Technique in my vinyl collection when I decided I needed to get the others.  When I started poking around, it just made more sense to buy this box set as opposed to the other records individually.

Eric B. & Rakim's third album, Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em, came out in 1990, two years after Follow The Leader.  A lot changed in hip hop over those tho years, but I feel like we were still probably a year away from a real explosion of innovation that was lurking around the corner in 1991.  As such, this album's production does feel a little bit dated with today's ears, but when you compare it to other records that came out in 1990 or earlier, it's pretty cream of the crop stuff.

It's a big leap forward from Follow The Leader, which in itself was a gargantuan step up from Paid In Full on the production side of things.  The bass is fuller, the beats are more complex and it's enjoyable the same way a lot of the early Boogie Down Production records are.  For someone my age, it's stuff that happened slightly before my time, but the impact of records like this cannot be understated.

Lyrically, Rakim once again just uncorks insane rhyme after insane rhyme.  He had so few peers during this early run and it's really understandable why he is so revered for what he brought to the table on all of these albums.  He's a natural story teller that is just as comfortable weaving complex narratives as he is just battling.  Again, I would like have more nostalgia for Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em had I had it in the early 90s, but there is no denying just how great this record is.

Eric B. & Rakim – Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lbyoTa-vRaviQtMPp7DMyZ8G_8EYCST9E

Eric B. & Rakim – Follow The Leader 2xLP - (From The Complete Collection 1986-1992 Box Set)

Geffen / 4th & Broadway / UNI / MCA (2018, Reissue)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for thirty plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

For the next few Ed Lover Wednesdays, I'm going to go through each of the records in this Eric B & Rakim box set.  I only had the album Don't Sweat The Technique in my vinyl collection when I decided I needed to get the others.  When I started poking around, it just made more sense to buy this box set as opposed to the other records individually.

Eric B & Rakim's second album, Follow The Leader, came out in 1988.  That's only a year after their debut, but from the very second the opening title track starts up, it's obvious that the production has taken a gigantic leap forward (the horns that creep in throughout the song are just incredible).  Not only that, but the lyrical dexterity that Rakim was revolutionizing hip hop with just a year earlier sounds almost quaint in comparison to the way he's tearing things up on this album.

I hadn't heard too many of these songs when I first got into hip hop.  My introduction to Eric B & Rakim was from the Juice soundtrack in 1991 and at the time, I didn't have the sort of budget to be able to backtrack as much as I would have liked (though I do wonder why I didn't try to get some of their albums when I was scamming CDs from Columbia House and BMG).  It wasn't until my early 20s that I was able to go back and start filling the gaps, and while I love these records now, I think they'd be even more embedded in my brain if I was able to have heard them in '91 or '92.

Can't do anything about that though, I'm just glad I got to them eventually and that they were all put out as part of a lovely vinyl box set.

Eric B. & Rakim – Follow The Leader:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nlDB_Zf5_48EBzNNLQVx5HWMpJchIpZAo

Eric B. & Rakim – Paid In Full 2xLP - (From The Complete Collection 1986-1992 Box Set)

Geffen / 4th & Broadway / UNI / MCA (2018, Reissue)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for thirty plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

I am trying very hard to tackle some of the records that have been in my 'to write about' pile for an extended period of time.  There's a lot of them, some of which have been hanging around for a few years.  One of those that's been here for a while (a little under two years) is the Eric B & Rakim Box Set.  So, for the next few Ed Lover Wednesdays, I'm going to go through each of the records in this set.  I only had the album Don't Sweat The Technique in my vinyl collection when I decided I needed to get the others.  When I started poking around, it just made more sense to buy this box set as opposed to the other records individually.

Paid In Full is a tremendously important record in the history of Hip Hop.  Rakim (and I would also put KRS-One along side of him) really changed the way lyricists in hip hop were viewed and upped the bar on what was expected of an MC.  There's a reason that many refer to Rakim as The God MC™ as he is ground zero for the style that took over the golden era of hip hop.

That influential style is on display throughout Paid In Full.  It's crazy to think about this record coming out in 1987 and flipping an entire genre on its head.  I was only ten in 1987 and was not listening to hip hop to see this change, but I felt the repercussions a few years later as I started getting interested.  Lyrically, the record is still pretty incredible all of these years later, but the production does sound a bit dated.

It took a minute for the production on Eric B & Rakim albums to catch up to the lyrics.  While it's a great record, I tend to find that I listen to it the least amongst their catalog.  If I want to listen to Rakim, I really want to hear him over a production style that's a bit more advanced.  They got there, and the production on Paid In Full helped move people in the right direction, but listening to it with today's ears, if feels more from another era than some of their other albums.  But still, you cannot argue it's importance in the pantheon of classic hip hop albums.

Eric B. & Rakim – Paid In Full:
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=o-Uk-i85LbM