I wore out EPMD’s Strictly Business cassette tape in my car. So much that there was no writing on either side of the tape and I had to write with a sharpie my tag version of Erick and Parish Making Dollars. My first 12″ record I ever bought was Eric B. and Rakim “Paid in Full”. I bought it in a K-Mart along side Lisa Lisa and Full Force’s “Take Me Home”. Like some crazy historian, or a collector like Skeme Richards, “The Nostalgia King”, I still have these items, at least the records anyway. Sunday at Central Park’s last SummerStage of the year brought me back to those times. In fact, it brought a lot of people back to those times. It seemed like the promotors saved the best for last for New York City, a city that loves nostalgia, a city that loves their Hip Hop.

As I arrived, Funk Master Flex had just got on stage. It was the visual version of his nightly show, complete with bombs dropping and exploding, and his Hip Hop banter. Flex reeled off Flexisms like: “In 1985, the Toyota Cressida was the car. Put a hand up if you were in the passenger seat of a Toyota Cressida singing this song!” When he cut up Esther Williams “Last Night Changed It All” (Flex’s skills aren’t what they used to be, but he is still the King of NY), he said: “Put a hand in the air if you sang this song just to sing it when you were in school!” No disrespect to Flex, he is the only guy who could have got this jam packed crowd moving, he’s an NYC institution and a legend, playing a Hip Hop history of the East and West Coast classics, all done with the patented Flex yell and style. Ushering in the first act, was the legendary Uncle Ralph McDaniels, the Don Cornelius of NYC. This brother has not aged a day, and can command a crowd. As he brought in the openers, the Brothers from Brentwood, EPMD, I was turning on the TV ready to request a video from Video Music Box. DJ Scratch then did an impromptu opening DJ set that included everything from Pharoah Monch to M.O.P. to Jay-Z and ODB, hyping up the crowd with his tight cutting and scratching, along with turtablism skills and tricks (like picking up the turntable during the “Pick it up, pick it up, pick it up” from the Black Sheep “The Choice Is Yours). Scratch is a talented DJ who has been in this game over 25 years and has not missed a beat. EPMD finally hit the stage.

For performers over 40, they sounded as fresh as they did in 1986, running through classics like “Crossover”, “You Gots to Chill”, “The Headbanger” (minus their Def Squad compadre Redman) “Gold Digger” and ending on a high note, the Marvin Gaye infused “Just Like Music”. A downpour and thunder and lightning could not move anyone from this show. Back stage, there was a huge EPMD/ Def Squad posse in the house, Cormega (who would later perform with Rakim doing “Affirmative Action”), and a few other classic Hip Hop notables. The vibe was backyard barbecue, and by the time the God, Rakim came out, the crowd was ready for more.

“I don’t accept that the new generation is looking for anything different than what we’ve always been looking for. Depending on the moment, they want bangers that make them crack their neck, they want tracks that put them in a zone where they can sit back and chill. The ladies want something that makes them feel sexy and loved. And everyone wants something that makes them think a little bit-at least sometimes. Every generation wants that real hip-hop. And I’ve always been able to bring that. ”- Rakim

He started his set out with the Preemo laced “It’s Been A Long Time” (citing he hadn’t been in NYC in a LONG time) and “Guess Who’s Back” from The 18th Letter, announcing that the Rakim was still the greatest of all time in case you forgot (like you really could). He then proceeded to blast through something new (off of his The 7th Seal Lp) and plenty of the classics. Great stuff like “In the Ghetto” from Let the Rhythym Hit “Em, “Mahagony”, an impromptu duet of “Deja Vu” with Peter Gunz (where has this cat been hiding?) that got people moving faster, “Move the Crowd”, “I Ain’t No Joke”, “I Know You Got Soul”, “Microphone Fiend”, “Juice”, “Don’t Sweat the Technique”, “Let the Rhythym Hit ‘Em (which ended with Ra finishing acapella), and finally “Paid in Full, which the crowd sang most of. There was a twist mid set though, when his DJ ( and never a mention of Eric. B in any lyric of course) brought up DJ Scratch and Rakim, and the three of them took turns cutting up “Rakim get stronger” until the crowd went into a frenzy.

Apparently Rakim did all the cuts on the first record, and he still has skills. Let’s be real here people, music like this hardly exists anymore. We do not have Hip hop artists like we did in 1986, hell, we don’t have them like we did in 1995. The feelgood songs of Golden Age Hip Hop have gone the way of the two way and have been replaced by embellished shirts, iPhones, and an unreachable dream of driving a Maibach. Sad, but true. Rakim has never lost his relevancy in this Hip Hop game, in fact, after shedding the dead weight of Eric B., made him stronger. He sounds and looks better than he ever did, and even for a white boy born in New Jersey, when Rakim said “I Know You Got Soul”, I really believed it.

All Photos Courtesy of Jamison Harvey and Flea Market Funk 2011
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