“The stage is a cage; the mic is a third rail”

Eric B. & Rakim - “Follow The Leader” (1988)

I’ve been listening to that Wu-Tang song on repeat this morning (as usual), and I see that apparently a lot of people regard Inspectah Deck’s verse (@00:37-01:25) as one of the best in rap history.¹

I’ve been out of touch with hip-hop for so long that I wouldn’t feel qualified to opine on something this historically significant. Except to maybe underscore just how out-of-touch I am by picking a verse from friggin 1988.

Because the one candidate that jumped straight to mind is from a record I played to death the summer before my last year of college. I’d already spun the 12-inch of “Paid in Full” until my roommate wanted to strangle me. Then I got the Eric B. & Rakim cassette (!) featuring the titular “Follow the Leader.”

Man. When this song would come on at a party, it sounded like the building was falling down.

Not in that lunk-headed “Miami Bass” way — more like there was some kind of really smart and technologically sophisticated alien who was shooting a surgically precise bass laser would make you dance a little, then poop a little, then dance a little more. Because that bass was bowel-shakingly fat.

Buh-buh buh-buh BUH…buh-BUH buh-BUH!
Buh-buh buh-buh BUH…buh-BUH buh-BUH!

And, of course, on top of it was a very 1988-themed “I Am So Great” rap that even at the time, managed to distinguished itself.

Understand, this is a year after Raising Hell. People were still beat-boxing and fluffing their Kangols. And the chains. Jesus, the chains.

But, years before Eminem and Busta Rhymes would take articulation to a new level, Rakim was already there.

Measured, fast, cold, syncopated, and applying the full weight of that baritone to rhythms you’d expect from a tambourine or a hi-hat. Not a fucking freight train.

My favorite? Yeah. That last verse (starting @02:50).

A furified freestyle, lyrics of fury
My third eye makes me shine like jewelry
You’re just a rent-a-rapper, your rhymes are minute-maid
I’ll be here when it fade to watch you flip like a renegade
I can’t wait to break and eliminate
On every traitor or snake - so stay awake
And follow and follow, because the tempo’s a trail
The stage is a cage; the mic is a third rail

Boom.

Okay. Now I gotta go poop. Then, dance. Then, probably poop a little more. Goddamned bass lasers. I hate music.