They ain't no joke

Old school rap took a giant leap towards rolling with the new when Eric B. and Rakim's Paid in Full began vibrating dorm room walls and Brooklyn sidewalks in the fall of 1987. Showcasing both DJ Eric Barrier's genre-defining turntable skills and production and William Griffin's nearly unmatched rhyming prowess, the New York City duo's debut hit big upon it's initial release, and was recently named the greatest hip hop album of all time by MTV.\nGreatest hip hop album of all time is stretching it a little, but Paid in Full certainly belongs in the top 20. Unlike most groundbreaking rap albums of the early-to-mid 80's, it's just as aesthetically pleasing as it is exponentially influential. Countless rappers and hip hop beatmakers owe Eric B. and Rakim for a large portion of their sound. Rakim's vocal style and multi-syllabic rhymes gave birth to everyone from Eminem and Black Thought of the Roots to Tupac and Mos Def. Eric B's soundscapes sketched the blueprint for post-Paul's Boutique Beastie Boys and occasionally seemed to encapsulate what would eventually become rap-rock.\nNearly all 10 tracks on the record are primed to blow your speakers (and your mind if you'll let them). "I Ain't No Joke," "My Melody" and "I Know You Got Soul" were the hits, but "As the Rhyme Goes On" and the title track are Barrier and Griffin at their best. Barrier gets some time to himself on "Eric B. is on the Cut" and "Extended Beat," backing up praise citing him as one of the best DJs of his era.\nThe only misstep on a record full of solid tracks is "Chinese Arithmetic," on which Eric B. crams as many stereotypical far-eastern sounds into four minutes as humanly possible while scratching a rather annoying and repetitive cut over a beat that gets too old too fast. Barrier may've foretold Wu-Tang's fascination with Asian mythology that would come seven years later, but while the Clan were always reverent in their employment of such mythology, "Chinese Arithmetic" comes off as subversively racist as a Charlie Chan flick.\nAlongside Run DMC's Raising Hell, LL Cool J's Radio, and De La Soul's Three Feet High and Rising, Paid in Full is one of the best few old school rap albums to arrive before the rise of gangsta elements such as Public Enemy, N.W.A. and Ice-T. Rap would, in a sense, lose it's innocence by the time It Takes a Nation... and Straight Outta Compton dropped in '88 and '89 respectively, yet Eric B. and Rakim would continue to carry the banner of the old guard, fueled by the success and influence of Paid in Full.