Eric B. & Rakim — Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em: A 30th Anniversary Retrospective

Eric B. & Rakim released one of the best Rap albums of the Summer in 1988, which was quite a feat given how many classic albums were released during that same three-month stretch. They were presented with the tall task of following up yet another classic album, so they recruited producer/engineer Paul C. to help them craft what would be their third studio album. Jody Watley, R&B superstar and then labelmate, requested that they be featured on one of her singles.  (This, at a time when Rap was still receiving a strong resistance from Black radio.) The resulting single, “Friends,” became a smash hit, peaking at #3 on the Hot Black Singles, #7 Dance/Club Play, and #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. It was one of the first successful Rap/R&B collaborations of the late ‘80s, and it gave Eric B. & Rakim serious mainstream exposure going into their next album.

But the celebration was short lived, as collaborator Paul C. was murdered shortly after “Friends” entered the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Eric B. & Rakim would need a new producer to replace him.

After a short amount of deliberation and a period of mourning their fallen friend, Paul C.’s mentee, Large Professor, was chosen to help them complete the album. Work continued on the album, and they contributed a Paul C.-produced track to the upcoming New Line Cinema film House Party. Bowing on March 9th, 1990, House Party became a box office hit. The soundtrack yielded several smashes, but one of them wasn’t Eric B. & Rakim’s “Run For Cover.” While the song could be heard in the film, it wasn’t added to the film soundtrack, nor was it released as a promo or a single in early 1990. In late May of that year, Eric B. & Rakim released their lead single, which was also the title track of their album. It gained traction immediately after premiering on Rap radio shows nationwide, and it spread even faster after the video debuted on “Yo! MTV Raps” and BET’s “Rap City.”

In the June 9th, 1990 issue of Billboard, there was a full page ad from MCA Records announcing the album’s release date of June 19th, 1990, and the single “Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em” entered the Hot Rap Singles chart at #16, while breaking into the top 12” Singles Sales chart at #44. The next week, it jumped up to #11 on Hot Rap Singles and entered at #80 on the Hot Black Singles chart. Based on all indicators, it looked like Eric B. & Rakim had a legitimate hit on their hands and the makings of a successful album rollout. On June 19th, 1990, “Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em” hit record store shelves nationwide.

On June 23rd, 1990 the lead single had climbed up to #6 on the Hot Rap Singles chart, and it stayed there the following week, but it had climbed to #49 on Hot Black Singles, thanks to being the 14th best-selling 12” single on the Black/Dance music charts. The video was becoming more popular on video networks, including “The Box,” the song was getting more frequent airplay on Black radio and it was playing in Walkmans, car stereo systems, and functions alike. When “Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em” came on at clubs, the dance floor filled up. There, the ultimate sign that a song was a smash started happening. When DJ’s threw the song on during parties or events, groups of dancers began to create and perform full routines to it.  No doubt,“Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em” was going to be one of the biggest songs of the Summer.

On July 7th, 1990 “Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em” entered the Billboard Top Black Albums chart at #83 but was #65 on the Top Pop Albums — since the Black music charts were required to report their numbers sooner than the Pop charts did. The next week, it shot all the way up from #83 to #22 on the Top Black Albums chart and leapt from #65 to #34 on Top Pop Albums. “Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em” entered the Top 5 on Hot Rap Singles and was Top 40 in Hot Rap Singles (#32). The album reached #10 on the Black albums charts, and the single “Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em” peaked at #2 on the Rap charts on July 28th, 1990. It was kept from reaching the top spot (through August 11th, 1990) by “We’re All In The Same Gang,” 2 Live Crew’s “Banned In The U.S.A.,” Kwame & A New Beginning’s “Ownlee Eue,” and D-Nice’s “Call Me D-Nice” . On August 24th, 1990 Eric B. & Rakim were awarded their third Gold plaque in three years by the RIAA for sales exceeding 500,000 units.

When Eric B. & Rakim’s third LP was released, the response was overwhelmingly positive with fans and the Hip Hop media, but the mainstream press wasn’t as impressed as Eric B. & Rakim’s core audience was. Rolling Stone gave “Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em” 3.5 stars out of 5, the Los Angeles Times gave it 4 stars out of 5, and Entertainment Weekly gave it a B-. In the October, 1990 issue of Spin, which was guest edited by Spike Lee, Eric B. & Rakim had a full page black and white ad boasting that the record had gone Gold, but the two reviews cited in the copy were the Los Angeles Times’ 4-star review and inexplicably the Rolling Stone’s 3.5 star review. This was made more confusing by the fact that it took until the album had already gone Gold.  The second single, “In The Ghetto,” was finally released to review the album. The Source gave it a perfect 5/5 rating in their Summer 1990 double issue with Ice Cube on the cover (The Source #14), but MCA opted to use Rolling Stone’s rating instead of The Source’s. It was abundantly clear that many Rock critics were ill prepared to critique Rap music in 1990 based on some of these reviews.

Spin’s Lance Gould wrote that Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em was “…no great departure from Eric B. & Rakim’s previous work. Thus, it’s hard to tell if this record is a continuation of a well-focused commitment or the first step into the tar pits of dinosaurdom.”. Entertainment Weekly’s Greg Sandow offered: “…Rakim says his intelligence helps him transcend the hardships of life in the black community. But boasting still dominates the album. Eric B. and Rakim remain rap’s most poetic duo, but on Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em they mostly seem to be spinning their well-oiled wheels.” However, in The Source gave the album a perfect score, all while heavily critiquing Eric B.’s scratching ability.  and The Source also added that, while the album sounded like part of it was produced in 1988, Rakim’s lyrical prowess, delivery and versatility carried the album to the finish line. Los Angeles Times critic Jonathan Gold remarked of “Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em,” “They scratch in beats, they repeat the old rap formula, they incorporate jazz and soul songs and surface noise . . . they do what everybody else does, but better. Call them hip-hop classicists. This, their third LP, might be the first mature rap masterwork.”

Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em was essentially Eric B. & Rakim’s version of Return Of The Jedi. Their previous album, Follow The Leader, was a tour de force with 11 tracks on it, but 3 of those tracks were the Eric B. DJ track “Eric B. Never Scared” and two instrumentals “Just A Beat” and “Beats For The Listeners.” However, on Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em, there was just the DJ track “Eric B. Made My Day” as the final song on Side A, and Rakim rhymed on the other 9 remaining tracks. This alone gave the fans more of what they came for from the duo and satisfied the consumer simultaneously. The album opens with the energetic title track then launches directly into the high energy “No Omega.” Rakim rhymes:

“I filled the mic with explosives and lit it up/
It was too heavy to hold, he couldn’t pick it up/
Pass the mic, let him try to get paid/
He hit the stage, it went off like a hand grenade/
Now, scrape him off the floor and off my list/
I ain’t a soloist, I’m an arsonist/”

“No Omega” yields to the dense “In The Ghetto,” which was the next single. It wasn’t a danceable track, it was a showcase of Rakim’s lyrical ability, creativity and versatility as an emcee. Rakim took the listener on a trip, all they needed to do is envision it with their third eye as Rakim painted a picture with vivid prose and meter:

“Now that’s what I call hard times/
I’d rather be here to exercise the mind/
Then I take a thought around the world twice/

From knowledge born, back to knowledge precise/
Across the desert that’s hot as the Arabian/
But they couldn’t cave me in ’cause I’m the Asian/
Reachin’ for the city of Mecca, visit Medina/
Visions of Nefertiti, then I seen her/
Mind keeps travelin’, I’ll be back after/
I stop and think about the brothers and sisters in Africa/”

Both sides of Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em were perfectly sequenced and allowed for Rakim to showcase his growth and range as an artist. He had the lyrical exercises that he was renowned for like “Let The Rhythm Hit’ Em,” “No Omega,” “Untouchables,” “Run For Cover” and “Set ‘Em Straight,” plus the smooth rhymes like “In The Ghetto,” “Step Back,” “Mahogany,” and “Keep ‘Em Eager To Listen.” Rakim’s effortless flow and masterful compound and internal rhymes would make even The Bard envious.

The album’s overall brilliance was more apparent with multiple plays. Eric B. & Rakim’s mystique was heightened by the sparsity of their album credits inside the cassette’s J card. You got the names of the people who recorded the album, the engineers, the studios they worked in, where the album was mastered, the art director, photographer, graphic designer and booking agent. There were pictures of Rakim’s father, William Griffin, and Paul C. (McKasty) below the caption “May you rest in everlasting peace!” but that was it. Rakim remained mysterious and out of the public eye, preferring to let his musical output speak for him.

“The Ghetto” had a video featuring Blaxploitation hero Rudy Ray Moore AKA Dolemite. It debuted at #26 on the Hot Rap Singles chart on October 6th, 1990 and peaked at #10 on November 3rd, 1990. The third and final single from the album “Mahogany” barely cracked the Rap charts in April 1991 after The Fly Girls danced to it in a bumper on the hit FOX sketch comedy show “In Living Color.”  Eric B. & Rakim completed their trifecta just as MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice crossed over to dominate both the Hot 100 and Top Pop Albums charts, on their way to Platinum sales and endorsement deals. Rap music had quietly entered a new era.

Will “The Fresh Prince” Smith had a brand new sitcom airing on NBC, “The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air,” in September 1990, and both Kid N’ Play and MC Hammer announced they had Saturday morning cartoons in production. Ice Cube, X-Clan, Poor Righteous Teachers, Boogie Down Productions, Public Enemy, Intelligent Hoodlum, Paris, A Tribe Called Quest, and Brand Nubian were on one side, and MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, Kid N’ Play, Salt N’ Pepa, Kwame & A New Beginning, Candyman, Digital Underground, and LL Cool J were on the other side. In the middle, there was N.W.A., Above The Law, Kool G Rap & DJ Polo, EPMD, Compton’s Most Wanted, and countless others. The Rap industry terrain was changing and entering uncharted territory.  With Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em , Eric B. & Rakim remained at the head of the pack leading the charge.