Eric B & Rakim "Microphone Fiend" 7" Orig Pic Run DMC Public Enemy

$

35

Eric B & Rakim "Microphone Fiend" 7" UNI Records (US)

Vinyl is is NM, Jacket is VG+!

Out of Print!

Track Listing:

Eric B. & Rakim were a hip hop duo from Long Island, New York, composed of DJ Eric B. (born Eric Barrier, November 8, 1965) and MC Rakim (born William Michael Griffin Jr., January 28, 1968).

Tom Terrell of NPR called them "the most influential DJ/MC combo in contemporary pop music period," while the editors of About.com ranked them as No. 3 on their list of the 10 Greatest Hip-Hop Duos of All-Time. They were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011, although they did not make the final selection.

Follow the Leader and Let the Rhythm Hit 'Em

Follow the Leader, the duo's follow-up to Paid In Full; saw their production move away from the blunt minimalism of their debut. The title track and "Lyrics of Fury" were two of Rakim's most acclaimed lyrical performances. In 2003, comedian Chris Rock referred to Rakim's rhymes on the "...Fury" as 'lyrically, the best rapping anyone's ever done...' Rock also listed Follow the Leader as 12th on his Vibe magazine's list of the Top 25 Hip Hop Albums of All-Time.[10] At the time, the record went largely unnoticed by the mainstream music industry.

In 1989, the pair teamed up with Jody Watley on her single "Friends" from the album Larger Than Life. The song would reach the Top Ten on the Billboard Hot 100chart and was one of the first notable collaborations between hip hop and dance pop. Eric B. & Rakim rarely collaborated with other rappers. This was evident in early 1990, when KRS-One's Stop the Violence Movement put together the charity single "Self-Destruction". The song featured numerous notable rappers, but Rakim was noticeably absent from the proceedings. He told HalftimeOnline.net years later, "I don't think they hollered at me or they hollered at Eric B. and he didn't say anything to me. 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. 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. 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. They thought I was that dude in the hood so maybe they didn't holler at me for a reason. 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."

Their 1990 album Let the Rhythm Hit 'Em was not as successful commercially as their first two LPs. Rakim referenced his enigmatic reputation on the song "Set 'Em Straight": "Here's the inside scoop on the fiend/They want to know why I'm seldom seen/Cause who needs the TV screens and magazines/Or shooting through the city in fly limousines/Cause one thing I don't need is a spotlight/Cause I already got light..." He later said about his relative lack of commercial success: "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."

Mark Coleman of Rolling Stone stated:

"There's nothing trendy about this impassive duo, no Steely Dan bites or bits of Afrodelic rhetoric here. Eric B. and Rakim are hip-hop formalists devoted to upholding the Seventies funk canon and advancing rap's original verbal mandate. Almost every track on their third album is built on poetic boasts and wicked J.B. samples, but dismissing Let the Rhythm Hit 'Em as some sort of conservative reaction – a gold-chain throwback – completely misses the point. Masters of their appointed tasks, rapper Rakim and DJ Eric B. are also formal innovators. They both can riff and improvise like jazzmen, spinning endless variations on basic themes and playing off each other's moves with chilly intuition. The resulting music is as stark, complex and edgy as Rakim's stone-cold stare on the album cover."

The album was one of the first to receive the honor of a 5 mic rating in The Source. But, much like their debut album, there exists controversy over the production credit. Large Professor produced a large amount of the album's tracks, but was not credited on the album.

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