21 8 Up
Biz Markie, Kid Wizard Rakim, etc. – Live
Live @ Wyandanch High School Jam, 1985
Here’s an old school tape that’s been moving in blog circles for a few days: an old school jam at Long Island’s Wyandanch High School featuring Biz Markie, DJ Fantasy, Grandwizard BMC, MC Chilly Dawg (later of Groove B. Chill) and the one Kid Wizard Rakim. There isn’t another rapper more entrenched in mythology than Ra. I’d sooner believe that his rhymes were extracted from the center of the sun or carved from the heart of an incredibly rare emerald than simply penned by a regular ass seventeen year old from Long Island. Yet here he is at a high school jam, damn near fully formed and already kicking his “7 emcees” mathematics in a room full of dudes who are still talking about “to the beat an uh.” It’s a real pay no attention to the man behind the curtain type moment.
Download the entire tape at the superb Old-School-Hiphop-Tapes blog. Bonus Eric B. & Rakim interview footage after the jump.
December 9th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
This shit is mind-blowingly good…
December 9th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
At the end, Kid Wizard drops the throwaway “It’s Rakim then the rest of them” which, a quarter of a century later, rings entirely true.
December 10th, 2009 at 2:42 am
This is great! I am an independent singer songwriter and I learn a lot from reading blogs like this – thanks so much for sharing.
December 10th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Holy jimminy bejezus. No wonder Ra has had such a problem staying relevant. He came out the womb knowing exactly what to do. MCs who had to grow into their style like Jay-Z know how to keep on evolving. Ra never had to evolve shit.
One wonders if those are the type that always push artistic innovation the furthest.
December 10th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
hip hop almost at its zenith imo… it doesnt get any better than late 80s early 90s nyc shit
December 10th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
jacky jasper went off on this fool..i forget the link but he exposed rakim as a crack head….whoknows if its true, but it would explain alot
still paid in full= goat rap song
if i went to mars they asked me what hiphop music is i would throw on paid in full
December 10th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
“This is great! I am an independent singer songwriter”
so are half of the black and white post 8 mile male population…the rest are “producers”
December 10th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
“jacky jasper went off on this fool”
smh
December 10th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
aye man im not one to juggle soemones nuts cuz they were a dope rapper in 1989…..something happened between then and now….was it leaving eric b ? was it crack? was it both???? did u read the jasper blog?
December 10th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
i hope i never have to read jacky jasper’s blog.
December 10th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
oh your too good for that huh???? ushould peep it its entertaining…he went ff on russ simmons too for hiring
yo homie…
jacky jasper>>>lil b
im talking lyrically
December 11th, 2009 at 4:09 am
Wait, Jacky Jasper the guy who hangs out with Kool Keith? lol
What happened after ‘89? Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em, their best album.
December 11th, 2009 at 11:09 am
The fact is Rakim kept steady dropping bombs in the 90s after the split with Eric B., just no one heard them because there was 2 albums’ worth of remixes/guest shots/studio shit that just didn’t get released. The 18th Letter was pretty good, and no one listened to The Master, which is too bad, it actually rips shit up.
Then came the debacle with Dre. Then came the Seventh Piece of Doo-Doo.
Which is too bad because goddamn he could even rip in 1985 when calling yourself Kid Wizard was not an ironic backpacker type name.
December 14th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
I recently did an interview with DJ Belal (the DJ on this recording) in which he breaks down the backstory of this, among other things:
http://jesseserwer.com/blog/?p=272
December 15th, 2009 at 3:26 am
This thread caught crabs. Crabs like Jacky Jasper, for instance. “This guy Rakim refers to Caucasians as ‘white devils’.” Oh yeah. Totally. That’s why he so down for Eminem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLfZI-5hxFk
“with the talents he had, if had been black… maybe he wouldn’t have sold as many records as he sells, but he would have still been nasty”
“A reporter once told me that he held a sort of admiration and respect for Rakim saying, “I walked into Rakim’s dressing room and he was smoking weed with teenagers. ” A Russian Cosmonaut from the future told me had held a sort of admiration and respect for Jacky Jasper untl he walked into his dressing room and found him slipping roofies to the chupa cabra. True story.
Rakim stayed relevant. Casualties of War for-shadowed 9/11, Waiting for the World to End diagnosed the hood’s millenial malaise. No, Rakim never made an irrelevant track until he tried to (e.g. that truth hurts joint). And, yeah, he wasn’t pushing music like drugs in that song, it was a song about pushing drugs. So, yeah, once he tried to be as god damned irrelevant as everybody else, yeah, he lost some relevance. Some integrity. Made a liquor ad. All that shit that ran counter to everything he had been. So Rakim stayed relevant. But relevance became irrelevant. So he became irrelevant in an anguished attempt at becoming again relevant. At least, unlike Jacky Jaspers, he was relevant at some point in his carreer.
December 15th, 2009 at 3:36 am
Oh yeah, and Jacky Jaspers being so on Eric “Just What Exactly Did He Contribute He Didn’t Even Do The Cuts On Paid In Full” B’s nuts (Eric B, the first industry mogul) should have rung all kinds of alarm bells.
December 24th, 2009 at 10:50 am
rippppppppperrrrrrrrr