Customer Reviews

Follow the Leader [Vinyl]

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this album on cassette in early '89 when I was in high school. It single-handedly taught me to take hip-hop seriously as art. The purity of Rakim's flow and subject matter on the first three tracks -- which have a slamming momentum and intensity -- makes this a classic landmark of rap formalism.

Folks tend to justify liking old tracks by saying "the rhymes and beats were good for the time," but Follow the Leader requires no such contextualizing. If some dude dropped the title track of this album today, people would still flip. Is any rapper with major-label status today kicking figures and similes with the integrity of Rakim in his prime?

"Follow me into a solo / get in the flow, and you can picture like a photo / Music mixed mellow maintains to make / Melodies for MCs, motivates the breaks / I'm everlastin, I can go on for days and days / With rhyme displays that engrave deep as X-rays / I can take a phrase that's rarely heard / Flip it; now it's a daily word ..."

When this pathbreaking album came out in the 80s, it was considered a mainstream rap release. It occupied the same cultural position that wack commercial rappers do today. Eric & Ra were in rotation on Yo! MTV Raps; their singles got air time on my local FM station. I'm hardly the first person to say this, but to compare the explosion of hip-hop creativity in the late 80s with the derelict, pimp/tight whips/Cristal rappers who dominate BET et al. today is to do some serious reflecting on a cultural decline.

I've been listening to Rakim ever since his first album - meaning I bought it when it first came out, not 5 years ago and calling myself a Rakim/Hip Hop fan. Anyone who enjoys Hip Hop and tries to appreciate it for its entirety must get this album. While "Paid in Full" is their most well-known achievement, it is "Follow the Leader" that is Rakim's crowning achievement of lyrical mastery. You won't be able to tell until you listen to other hip hop albums of the same date to appreciate Rakim's style and mastery that were years beyond other artists in his industry compared to the weak lyrics of his peers. The songs "Lyrics of Fury" and "Microphone Fiend" are amongst the most powerful freestyles to have been written, EVER. Look at all the wannabe cartel/Capone gangster rappers there are now. All the rappers claiming to "sip Mo'". It was Rakim who hit it first in his videos, but was smart enough not to keep it for so long to make it a gimmick.

While the album does run out of steam towards the end, if you're an old school lover to the fullest, or who enjoys that old Moog, electro-beat sound, then you may enjoy the end just as much as the beginning. Nevertheless, this album is a fantastic bargain and worth the first few songs where Rakim will never be imitated. Listen to "Lyrics of Fury" and think of any other lyricists who might even be able to match him without letting the beats ever overrun him. You'll realize why Rakim is revered as much as he is. If you want something "cool" to listen to, get "Paid in Full" (which you should own already) - but if you're ready to study lyrical mastery, this is it.

Rakim's status as a lyricist is unquestioned, and Eric B's beatmaking skills were at their peak here. From beginning to end, there's something to enjoy on this LP. Rakim's freestyles are great, and he would take time for progressive talk & social commentary, never succumbing to gangster-rap cliches.

For a group that never really had crossover success (unless you count the fact that the "Paid in Full" breakbeat showed up in any number of pop records), I'm glad that Universal/Chronicles is taking the time out to explore their hip-hop catalog and expose these pioneering releases to new audiences and old ones alike.

Newer listeners may be thrown off that there are INSTRUMENTALS on this LP, but for this era of rap, it was not unheard of for the DJ of the group (again, nowadays, kind of a rarity) to have a song that showcased their mixing & scratching skills.

I especially dig the fact that bonus cuts were included, like the "The R" extended mix, which opened the hip-hop radio mix show I listened to as a kid.

The biggest mistake made with people who review albums from Rakim is that they compare them to all his other albums. The idea that any true hip-hopper should "have to" like one Rakim album more than another is foolish. Did Follow the Leader have as big an impact on hip-hop as Paid in Full? Of course not - no one had heard anyone flow like Rakim before or use funk samples as effectively before Paid in Full. Is Paid in Full better than Follow the Leader? Who cares? They are different!!

A better idea would be to compare any Rakim album, take Follow the Leader as example, against any other hip hop album out there. Even albums considered classics in their own right like, say, Straight Outta Compton. As groundbreaking and different as Straight Outta Compton was, it is clearly inferior in terms of lyrical content. Rakim's content takes you deep into the world of street crime, 5% Nation dogma and Divine Mathematics, science, art, history, philosophy, and sociology in a single verse, (see "Follow the Leader"). His meanings are double and triple layered and can literally years of repeated listenings to discipher an entire album. He could spit the most violent and menacing verse in the history of hip-hop and never use a single curse, (see "Lyrics of Fury"). M.C. Ren even admitted that he listened to Rakim when writting his own lyrics for inspiration.

As far as production is concerned, the use of funk samples was pioneered by Eric B and Rakim. Average White Band, Parliament, Funkadelic in addition to the foundational James Brown were used here. But also the influence of jazz musicians like Bob James was clearly visible. This sound was more mature than anything prior to Eric and Ra and does not sound dated by any stretch even today.

Finally you have consistancy. This statement may be blasphemy in the eyes of many but the second half of Straight Outta Compton slipped off. It was more radio friendly and formulaic than the first half. Follow the Leader may have had its hits up front but the content is thick throughout.

Am I jockin Rakim? Yup. You should be too. Grab ahold and start swingin.

This is my favorite Rakim album. I remember buying Paid In Full years back, and loving it. Then I bought Follow The Leader, and it simply made my jaw drop for the first 3 tracks alone. Rakim's lyrical complexity surpasses his first album, and very few artists even today have been able to come even close to it. While the second half of the album won't have quite the same impact, the lyrics are still superb and the delivery calms down with the production for a more jazzed out vibe. I can still listen to this album front to back though, and this is easily one of the best hip hop albums ever made. Peace.

I know that PAID IN FULL is a hard cd to follow but FOLLOW THE LEADER comes pretty damn close. Let me put it this way, PAID IN FULL and FOLLOW THE LEADER are the best 1 to 2 cd combo in hip hop history period. Those cds are just as good today as they were back in the day, that's the definition of a CLASSIC.

The tracks that standout are:

1) Follow the Leader

2) Microphone Fiend - underrated hit

3) Lyrics of Fury

5) Just a Beat

6) Put your Hands Together

9) The R

10) Musical Massacre

Rakim is the greatest MC of all time!(my opinion of course) This is one of the dopest Eric B & him ever put together. Rakim's smooth and powerful raps go hand in hand to the insane tracks Eric B. lays down. Overall, its Nothing less than PERFECT!

A superior sequel. Eric B. improves his DJing from the weak track production of almost every single track on Paid in Full. Here, there are very few truly weak moments of production, and many moments of great production. And Rakim? He's still on, spitting more lyrics per second and now dropping analogies about how great he is. Many other reviewers have said that the album slows down as it reaches its ending. Please. When you start the album out with three songs that each belong in the top 20 Hip hop tracks of all time list, what do you expect to happen towards the end. This, and the fact that the album does provide some other classic tracks towards the end, including musical massacre which also belongs in the top 20 songs of all time list. In fact, all of the tracks which Rakim is on in this album are awesome. "The R" has production that doesn't really work, and "No Competition" is very good. Rakim spits classic verses on all of them. The only thing that may fall off is the production, and whatever it loses on "The R" it gains back on "Musical Massacre". I will admit that "Beats for the Listeners" stinks, but no more than some of the DJ work on "Paid in Full". Yes, the first half is better, but that doesn't mean that this album doesn't deserve it's place alongside Hip hop classics such as Nas "Illmatic", Tribe Called Quest "The Low End Theory", Wu Tang Clan "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)", and last but not least Eric B. and Rakim "Paid in Full". Oh yeah, some people like Paid in Full better because it was revolutionary. Let me ask the reader something: Would you rather buy an album that had a bigger impact in the late 1980s Hip Hop (but would make no impact now) or a superior album that you would enjoy listening to more today? You decide.

This here is the "RE-MASTERED" version of Eric B & Rakim's classic, 2nd album from 1988. This edit. also contains 3 extra tracks, not found on the orig. version. And I can't stress enough the superior sound quality. a must have for all true Hip-Hop fans!

Simply one of the shining moments in the "Golden Age" of hip-hop, 1989's Follow The Leader is a phenomenal follow-up to Paid In Full. Words cannot express what a solid, inspired album this is. Where the ground-breaking classic Paid In Full had more simple and gritty beats, this album is much more complex in the area of beats. Its lyrical content is very similar to its predecessor in the constant description of Rakim's superior microphone skills. This, however, is remarkably fresh if you're tired of the predictable braggadaccio of bitches and ho's. Hip-hop rarely gets better than this. In fact, music rarely does.