Rakim
The 18th Letter
- Released
- 1997
- Format
- Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo
- Label
- Universal Records · U2-53113
native-tongues
Hip Hop Conscious
View on Discogs ↗ Related titles
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A Tribe Called Quest The Low End Theory Rakim invented the internal rhyme scheme that Q-Tip and the rest of the Native Tongues generation extended — Low End Theory's lyrical approach is built on what Paid in Full established. -
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth Mecca And The Soul Brother Pete Rock produces three tracks on The 18th Letter — the man who is one degree from every record in the hip-hop section here, sitting with the rapper who invented multisyllabic flow. -
J Dilla Donuts The tradition that runs from Rakim's internal rhyme through ATCQ through Dilla is a single continuous development — Donuts is the beat side of what Rakim's Paid in Full started on the lyric side.
Rakim and Eric B. invented internal rhyme in hip-hop on Paid in Full (1987) — multisyllabic schemes inside a bar rather than only at its end. Every rapper who came after owes him this. The 18th Letter (1997) is the solo comeback after the Eric B. split, and Pete Rock produces three tracks on it — the producer who is one node away from the entire jazz-rap canon, sitting with the MC who taught the genre how to scan a line.
The chain Pete Rock → Tribe → Pharcyde → Mos Def is essentially the entirety of that canon, and Rakim is the foundational figure it builds from. Paid in Full arrived before Mecca and the Soul Brother, before The Low End Theory, before Labcabincalifornia — and without it, none of those records’ lyrical approaches would have been available. The 18th Letter is the source, returned to form after a long absence, with Pete Rock building the room around him.