Rakim – The 18th Letter
With Rakim recently leaving Aftermath records and a deal that would either completely remake or possibly forever break his career, it seemed only appropriate to review one of his older albums, and so I chose his first solo LP, “The 18th Letter”. After virtually disappearing for 5 years after his break up with long time producer Eric B, his partner in creating classics like “Paid in Full” and “Follow the Leader”, Rakim burst back onto the scene in 1997 with this album to mixed reviews, some hailing the return of the microphone God, and others expressing disappointment. The album is probably somewhere between the two, nowhere near as disappointing as a few (probably expecting the greatest rap album of all time) believed, but only giving a tantalising sample of what Ra could offer, supported by the likes of DJ Premier, Pete Rock and Clark Kent behind the boards.

1) Intro – NA / 5
This intro sets the tone for the album, a short extract from an interview, like most intros/outros/skits it doesn’t really say much, despite the fact Rakim probably chose the most important quotes from the particular interview. This, and all other interludes on this album are just evidence Rakim says the most when behind the mic.

2) The 18th Letter – 4/5
Rakim bursts into the first song of the album over a decent (if eventually repetitive) beat from Father Shah, a Clark Kent protégé, with an extended verse featuring extremely dope lines like –
Just when things seemed the same, and the whole scene is lame
I come and reign with the unexplained for the brains 'til things change

No time to sip Mo's with hostess, never mind what the total gross is
I rip shows, stay focused, and split cheese, with soldiers
While you hit trees and coast I spit flows that be ferocious
And with these explosives, I split seas for Moses
Shine permanently only my mind's concernin me
Fire burns in me eternally time's eternity
Followers turn on me they'll be in a mental infirmary
Determinely advance technology better than Germany

The verse is basically just an intro to the new album, referring to “the next testament from The God”, and Rakim does it in fine style, especially by concluding it with an equally dope chorus. The only complaint is that this wasn’t turned into a full-length song with more verses.

3) Skit – NA / 5
See intro, this excerpt refers to people’s reactions to his return.

4) Its Been a Long Time – 5/5
From the moment you hear DJ Premier’s beat followed by Rakim on the mic, its easy to tell this is a match made in heaven. Although I could be cynical and describe the track as cookie cutter Premo work, down to the repetitive but eerily catchy loop and scratched chorus, when it sounds this good its impossible to be cynical. Rakim obviously thrives on working with the best, and opens with the declaration “The crowd couldn’t wait to see this/ Nobody been this long awaited since Jesus”, and that’s just the beginning of the amazing first verse -

Cause new days is dawnin, new ways of peformin
Brainstormin, I write and watch the night turn to mornin
On and on and, I got the whole world respondin
Rak, I keep it hot and blow the spot without warnin
The Emperor, well known for, inventin a sentence
Full of adventure, turnin up the temperature
Rush with adrenaline, how long has it been again
To be in the state of mind that Rakim is in?

The song continues at this pace to the point where almost every line is quotable, and Rakim sounds not just re-energised, but resurrected. This is without a doubt not only a standout track on the album, but in Rakim’s career.

5) Remember That – 4/5
Rakim is in a reminiscent mood on this track, backed by a nice Mary J Blige sampled beat courtesy of Clark Kent, remembering from the release of “Eric B is President” and the dominance of old school hip hop to growing up in his neighbourhood, before his last verse describes a modern situation. Rakim is on point lyrically as usual on this track, however it is the beat that works well in the beginning but eventually starts to annoy by the end that prevents the track from standing up to the other tracks that surround it.

6) The Saga Begins – 4.5/5
Driven by a haunting piano laced Pete Rock beat, Rakim once again sounds re-energised to be working with one of hip hops best. Lyrically, he once again manages to juggle complex rhymes and dope battle rhymes without dropping the ball, and the song is complemented by another tight scratched chorus, this time implementing Mobb Deep quotes. Just as with “Its Been a Long Time”, a large majority of the song is quotable, but this part in particular stands out -

The saga begins, my eyes is the photography lens
Properly push pens, and show quality gems
The horrors be grim, but yo maybe tomorrow we win
If we follow the trends and keep count of the dollars we spend
I want a mahogany Benz, I want lottery ends
I want property, friends, plus my hobby is skins
If I get sloppy and sin, then my prophesy ends
But the God'll begin, watchin my odyssey spin

7) Skit – NA / 5
See intro, this ones about his timing to return. Unfortunately, these skits aren’t long enough to be particularly enlightening, however they are long enough to break the flow of the album.

8) Guess Who’s Back – 4.5/5
The first thing to hit on this track is the triumphant horns, once again with a beat from Clark Kent, providing Rakim with another excellent backdrop to flow over, and he doesn’t disappoint. The subject matter doesn’t alter much, however when Rakim does the same subject matter this well, I’m not complaining –

[/I]Hip-Hop's embedded, before I said I wouldn't let it
But me and the microphone is still magnetic
Straight off the top, I knew I'd be forced to rock
Dancefloors just stop, the spot's scorchin hot…
In time no one can seem to blow your mind as far as this
To find you'll need philosophers and anthropologists
Astrologists, professors from your smartest colleges
With knowledge of scholarships, when Ra be droppin this[/I]

Even better, Rakim drops a rapped chorus, which does well to break the pattern of scratched choruses (they aren’t bad at all, however variety always helps). That isn’t to say scratching is banished from the song however, as the song closes with some extremely tight scratching of Rakim and Chuck D quotes.

9) Stay a While – 3.5/5
Rakim breaks another pattern, this time with a storytelling song about a woman who he meets in a club and begins to date, closing in the third verse with a romantic evening at her house. Rakim proves that lyrically he doesn’t have a problem spitting on a topic, with this excerpt from the third verse –

Sometimes it's hard to fight it and not let her see me get excited
But she know I like it, she know the deal like a psychic
Mind is haunted, because I always find her on it
She know what I want, where I want, when I want it
Blowin up my Motorola, daddy you comin over?
She on the sofa, holdin a remote controller
Candles burnin lower, favorite dish gettin colder
She hot as solar, cause I told her I wanna hold her
But her mission she sittin in one position like Yoda
A TV show is on to top it off she dead sober

The song is by no means perfect however, as the sung R’n’B chorus adds nothing, and Clark Kent’s bass guitar driven beat doesn’t help very much, and to top it off, the storyline doesn’t differ from the hundreds of other songs like this. Of course, I don’t expect Rakim to turn into an MC like Slug and have God-knows-what happen, however its disappointing he can’t even break away from cliches like meeting at the club and having Rakim and the woman “both be makin moves and dough, M.O.'s relatin”.

10) New York (Ya out There?) – 4/5
Once again, Premo pops up and its hard to be upset about his beat, despite only lacing two beats on this album, he obviously saved two of his best. The chorus and intro are made up of various quotes from well-known NY rappers, and the naming of various boroughs. Rakim obviously tries his best to turn this song into a NY anthem, and although the song is successful to a point through Rakim’s excellent description of the various elements of the city, from the big picture of the giant buildings to the MCs, DJs, breakdancers and graf artists. His lyrics however, are just a little less well crafted than on previous tracks.

11) Show Me Love – 2/5
Another love themed song, with another less than effective beat, this time from Nick Wiz, and another average R’n’B chorus. This song is basically the same as “Stay A While”, except more vague (in that Rakim raps about a woman but just makes observations, instead of even telling a story), therefore taking out what made “Stay A While” a decent song and keeping the elements that prevented it from being a good song.

12) Skit NA / 5
See intro, if you’re listening to the album front to back, these skits are by now extremely annoying.

13) The Mystery (Who is God) – 2.5/5
Maybe with his constant declarations that he is “The God” (lyrically), Rakim felt the need to do a song about God, which means the streak of concept tracks keeps going. Rakim describes everything from the creation of the universe to the creation of man. Lyrically, he has some amazing lines, for example –

A understanding, which is the best part
He picked the third planet where new forms of life would start
He pursued show and prove every move in order
Back to the source he let off his resources in the water
Climb his climax, where the climate is at, high degrees
See he start to breathe deep in the darkest seas
And the plan is, to lay in the clays to form land
And expand, usin the same clays to born man

The problem with the song is that despite the magnificent language used to describe God, the song soon becomes contrived. It isn’t helped by the fact that Naughty Shorts (by the way, who?) drops the second disappointing beat in a row. One of the song’s redeeming features is the chorus, another rapped chorus from Rakim which suits the song well.

14) When I’m Flowing – 3.5/5
Pete Rock drops by to deliver another beat, however I hate to say it but it almost might have been better if he hadn’t, as this beat is driven by boring or weird samples, the boring being the pianos and the weird almost verging on electronica. A benefit of this track is that it breaks the streak of concept tracks that were beginning to seriously bog down the album with Rakim returning to what he does best, battle raps. His forth verse closes what I consider to be the album (you will see what I mean in a second) perfectly –

Yo, accurate tactics "Make Em Clap to This"
When I "Move the Crowd", my "Rhythm" still don't miss
Breeze through melodies cause "It's Been A Long Time"
My "Lyrics" is "Fury" and rappers hate to hear me rhyme
Every antidote that I quote, is "No Joke"
Nobody's smilin "In The Ghetto" from the notes I wrote
My high techniques wreck and disrepect beats
Have you "Follow-in The Leader" up and down the streets
So "Kick Along" as I rip a song with pull
As the rhyme goes on I get "Paid In Full"
It's Rakim, I'm indicatin rhymes for the showin
Check it out y'all, I keep it goin when I'm flowin

The song would definitely be aided by say, a DJ Premier beat, or a good Pete Rock beat, but that can’t really be helped.

15) Its Been a Long Time (Suave House Mix) – NA / 5
I fail to understand why Rakim would replace the amazing DJ Premier with this seriously sub-par Suave House beat from Mo-Suave-A Productions. The reason I gave the original track 5/5 was 50% the Premo beat, and this beat is so bad it would take away points. Why couldn’t they try remixing a track from the second half of the album, that suffered from its less successful beats? Its blatant filler, and should be skipped as quickly (or faster, based on the fact its 4 minutes longer) as the skits.

16) Guess Who’s Back (alternate Mix) – NA / 5
Once again, blatant filler, this time even more so. It is simply the same song, sounded like a different engineer has mixed it down. The slight differences make little difference, but the original still sounds better

17) Outro – NA / 5
A longer interview, finally something with a point (or at least, appropriate for the album) Rakim talking about the significance of his words, and their immortality.

Individual Song Average – 3.75/5
I don’t use this to judge the whole album, as one or two bad (or good songs on a sub-par album) make a difference, as seen here. If I had given points for the skits, or the last two songs however, it would be significantly less.

Tracks to check out –
2) The 18th Letter
4) It’s Been a Long Time
6) Saga Begins
8) Guess Who’s Back

Final Scores
Beats – 6.5/10
At some points, Premo, Clark Kent and Pete Rock dropped some of the best work of their careers, at others, the two latter dropped some of their worst, meanwhile several lesser-knowns (Nick Wiz, Naughty Shorts and Mo-Suave-A Productions) provided perfect reasons for why they are lesser-knowns. The album almost seemed separated in two, the first half with amazing beats appropriate for the return of the Microphone God, the second half, well, lacklustre.

Rhymes – 9/10.
What can I say? Evens when dropping played out or uncreative concept tracks, Rakim is lyrically still one of the best in the game. His delivery sounds re-energised, flow is as smooth as ever, it’s just a same that he chose a few too many plain beats to bless.
Overall Review – 77.5%
Rakim’s 5 year hiatus obviously had absolutely no effect on his rhyme skills, its just a shame that they obviously affected his ability to put together a tight, cohesive album from start to end. The album begins brilliantly, begins to seriously drag in the second half, and falls apart at the end with the blatant filler. With this in mind, 77.5% would seems generous, except for the fact that most of that is made up with his rhyme skills, and the album comes with a whole second disk of Eric B and Rakim's greatest hits (The Book of Life) that is worth the purchase price alone.

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yo, nice review man. i think i might actually get this now. yer i hurd guess who's back, and thats just insane! that beats quite hot

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i've had this album for a wahile... i guess i should start doing reviews so peoples can see where my head is at...lol... i got about 400 cd's to choose from so if i wanted i can do one evreyday for over a year..werd

yea thnx for tha props

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that album was sick