Eric B. & Rakim - Follow the Leader

Paid In Full made Rakim the most respected rapper in New York. Follow the Leader, released a year later in 1988, is where he decided to prove it was not a fluke. The title track opens with a bassline that sounds like a car chase and a first verse that spirals outward into astronomy, mythology and pure technical showing-off, and the album never really comes back down.

"Microphone Fiend" is the other cornerstone, four minutes of Rakim describing his own addiction to rapping over a loop that has been sampled and referenced continuously ever since. "Lyrics Of Fury" is the pure display piece, a barrage of multisyllabic rhyme that rappers still cite as the benchmark. "The R" and "Put Your Hands Together" show Eric B. widening the palette, adding live-feeling percussion and more melodic sample choices than the debut allowed.

Recorded at Power Play Studios with Patrick Adams and Carlton Batts engineering, and mastered at Frankford/Wayne, the record trades the stark minimalism of Paid In Full for something fuller and more confident. Stevie Blass Griffin is credited with the music throughout.

This double LP reissue spreads the album across four sides on Geffen and UNI. The record where Rakim moved rap writing permanently forward.