Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come for you to send a distress call to DedSec (A short soundtrack-related reference for those who know) right after reading your latest retro-filled edition of ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ on the blog, because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Although not entirely remembered in the discussions of Hip-Hop’s greatest artists to lace up a pair of rhymes by the general public, Eric B & Rakim have still been named as two of the genre’s greatest talents by publications like AllMusic and NPR, while Rolling Stone have ranked them as #5 on their list of the 20 Greatest Duo’s Of All Time published in 2015. They were also among the many victims who were affected by the 2008 Universal fire, which caused their tapes of lost material to be destroyed in the incident. They could still take a lot of the newer artists to school though, and we are currently in session with them today on One Track At A Time, and so I’m going to pay attention and listen up to the title track from their final album – ‘Don’t Sweat The Technique’ – released in 1992 via MCA Records. Like many of the Long Island-formed duo’s critically acclaimed albums, the LP was handled mostly by Eric B. & Ralim themselves in terms of production duties at The Hit Factory in New York city. The titular track itself was a minor radio hit, while the associated album reached #9 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart in the US. This is a powerful track, but it is somewhat disfigured in the memory by a music video that is riddled with the typical tropes of 90’s Hip-Hop in which the album, and Rakim’s career as a whole in particular, usually stood in a more creative opposition against. It strikes me as a piece that was designed by label executives in order to sell more records. That said, the album debuted at #22 on the US Billboard 200 chart in its first week of release, a healthy result for an alternative act. Try not to Sweat The Technique below.
Eric B & Rakim’s ‘Don’t Sweat The Technique’ was not intended to be the duo’s final album, but their contract with MCA Records was due to expire, eventually leading to lots of legal wrangling, including a court case, that would cause the duo to disband completely. However, things did not meet a grisly end because a re-union tour took place in 2018. Summing up what they do most thoroughly on releases like this LP with the frantic beats and cuts, ‘Don’t Sweat The Technique’ (the title track) is built off an infectious and funk-driven instrumental that expands into Rakim’s rhymes that feel razor sharp and cutting edge on arrival. The main bass line (Which is a sampled loop from Young-Holt Unlimited’s ‘Queen Of The Nile’) is a perfect partner for the recurring blasts of Horns (A Kool N The Gang sample), developing elements of Jazz and Soul among the Boom Bap style of production and the percussive, clicking Drum loops. Lyrically, we are dealing with a love letter to the art form of rapping itself, with Rakim giving light testimonies about his career and his relationship with Eric B. as he continually performs his methods of mental alchemy. He uses sequences like “They want to know how many rhymes I have ripped and wrecked/But research has never found all of the pieces yet/Scientists try to solve the context, Philosophers are wondering what’s next” to give the boisterous track its energetic and conscious character. His delivery is absolutely swift and nimble too, as his syllables bounce between the elastic bassline like a rubber band and syncopated rim-shots, as to aid the rhythm of the instrumentals with his internal melodies. Together, they boast a DJ/Producer dynamic that has still influenced combinations like Run The Jewels and Nas & Hit-Boy to this day, and that’s simply because the formula feels timeless. To conclude, it is a classic track that Eric B. & Rakim delivered without breaking a sweat.
That brings us to the end of roughly another 24 hour period on the blog, and I thank you, as always, for reading what I had to say about Eric B. & Rakim today. Tomorrow, I’ll be reviewing a recent single by an all-female Pop, R&B & Funk trio who became mainstays on the DIY L.A. club circuit after they started jamming together in 2017. They are currently signed to Stones Throw Records and they have a new LP – ‘Excess’ – releasing in June. They will also tour with Tame Impala and Parquet Courts in 2022.
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