Abbie Kearse:So how does it feel to be back on the mic?
Rakim: Well, it felt good, you know what I'm saying, being gone so long. I guess the best part too is that everybody embraced me, being that I had been gone so long. So, you know, I am just glad to be back in the public eye and doing what I like to do.
Abbie: When was the last time you actually performed live or on television?
Rakim: Well, even in the four years I had off, I always went and did a couple of shows, know what I mean? Like the last show I did was in Queens about three weeks ago. I try to do at least a show a month, you know what I'm saying. I stay on the stage and even when I am home, I'm freestylin', keepin' my skills up to par, you know?
Abbie: We hadn't heard from you in such a long time... four years in hip-hop is a long time to be out of it. So, were you ever considering retiring?
Rakim: Nah, cause it's like I started something and the fans won't let me just back up out of it, you know what I mean.? When I walk the streets, people come up to me, "Yo Ra, you gotta' come back out," this and that, you know? So, I never thought about just backing out of it, but at times you get frustrated, how you might see the course of hip-hop is changing and things of that nature. But that just made me hurry up and get right back in it. So, you know, if there is anything that I can do to keep hip-hop what it is or just stay true to myself, I am ready to do that.
Abbie: A lot has happened in the course of hip-hop in the last four years. We've seen the rise of Dre, Snoop, and the whole so-called gangsta rap type music. That came and then went. I mean, Death Row was pretty much over and then the death of Tupac and Biggie, so being an almost outsider and watching it from the outside, what was your take on the music, on the way hip-hop was going there?
Rakim: Well, after that went down they let me know that the kids is being very easily influenced right now, you know what I mean. A lot of times, rap is speakin' to how it is, the way they live. But sometimes, a lot of them do it a little too much, you know what I mean? And hip-hop, we gotta' keep focus, stay focused as far as what's going on. This is hip-hop. Skills, you know what I'm saying. Words, not too much of the, you know, the B.S. that is going on in our neighborhood. That's good to know, but let's, you know, use the skill... use the balance through a couple of them and then on the West album show skill, you know what I mean? But that right there just goes to show us how kids is looking up to us whether we like it or not. So if more of us use the skill and bring skills to the table, then I think, in time, it will be a little better.
Abbie: Well, how do you think we've gotten off that path? Why do you think that happened?
Rakim: I guess it happened slowly, you know what I'm saying. When rappers started listening to what they thought hip-hop was and just catching the street mentality of it. And then when they come to the table, it's like, it's like anything. When you catch... when you get the watered-down, you catch something from the middle, you're gonna' use the middle as a base. And then everybody's strongest lyrics at the time was, you know, what they spoke out on the ghetto. The young rappers coming up are just grabbin' onto that, and before you know it, it was nothing but that. You know what I'm saying? Now the majority rules, so it's up to us to come back with more skills, and then the next generation coming up then will say, "Yeah, it's cool to talk about where I'm from, but at the same time, it's cool to talk about myself and show how much skills I've got." So if the majority brings the skills to the table, there will be nothing but skills. You know what I mean?
