Abbie: Do you feel that on this record that you have something to prove because you are solo?

Rakim: Well, um I guess. For the other question before that, it's more like I had to prove something to the world as far as not only being solo, because I feel as if I was always solo, but that I have been going solo. So, I had to prove that ain't nothing change. But on another note, I just try and stay focused and you know, do what I got to do.

Abbie: Are you feeling any pressure because of being from the old school? Chuck D and Public Enemy had a record come out and it didn't go that well. Run DMC, you know, had a comeback and even though I still love them and they are great, but on the level where hip-hop fans are today it still didn't do that well. Do you feel any pressure to have this be successful in today's state of hip-hop?

Rakim: No doubt, you always do. When you are working on a project, your main goal is to cater to everyone. You want everyone to love it. I feel like my boss is millions, you know what I mean. So of course I wanted everybody to embrace it, you know what I mean. But, pressure, once you start dealing with pressure, it takes the high beam away, you know what I mean. It takes all the goodness out of it, so I try and keep all the stress and technical sciences out of hip-hop, you know what I mean. Pressure to me is like walking with my family with nowhere to live, that's pressure. Hip-hop to me... I can always... even when I am dealing with the worst sciences of life, I can always go home and cut a record and forget it all, so there is no pressure in hip-hop, you know? But, at the same time, I want everybody to love what I'm doing.

Abbie: That's true, that's true, 'cause I think a lot of times there is that pressure, especially on an artist that, you know, you have to sell records or you want people to accept it when it is a different time right now. Right now, Puffy is the king, and that's doing well and that's good, but when you come along and you were pretty much the originator, do you adapt to what's happening now? I mean, it seems like you worked with some producers, but you really kept to what your true sound was ten years ago.

Rakim: That's one thing that I didn't wanna do is do what everyone else was doing at the time, you know what I'm saying, because I always went against the grain. When I first came out, one of them was smashing everybody, yelling at the top of their lungs. I came out with the melody "Laid Back," so you know I always went against the grain. So, that's one thing I didn't want to do. I did the whole album, and I even had to hold back from some of the things that I do as far as how I like to express my rhyme form sometimes, or how I like to express what I see in the streets. I had to hold back on some of that because everybody is running it into the ground, you know what I'm saying. So I just wanted to give people what I call just hip-hop. You know what I'm saying, none of the watered downed sciences, none of the trendy things that are going on right now. I just give 'em Rakim, you know what I'm saying? But at the same time, I gave them something where I can just reel them in, even for those who might have forgot it all. Reel them in, hold them, you know what I'm saying? Then I take them to the next album, and I can take them wherever I want.

Abbie: That's a good philosophy, I like that. I want to also... we touched upon it briefly, but in the last year we have seen the murders of Tupac and Biggie. What were you doing at the time and what was your reaction when you heard the news about Tupac?

Rakim: I was sittin' at the house when Tupac got shot. When it came on the news that Tupac got shot, at first I was like "Ugh," you know what I'm saying. You wanted to stop what you were doing and make sure that you weren't dreaming, because it hit home. For a rapper, we feel that's our family, you know what I mean. Like for a football player, if he's sitting up and something happens to a football player, all the football players get nervous, you know what I mean. So, when that happened, it was like hitting home, you know what I mean. Things was getting like bananas out there. Whatever the case is, whatever, however he got killed, they are still getting technical, you know what I mean. And when they said he died, I sat at the TV and I couldn't believe it. You know what I mean? That Sunday when he passed, I sat there for about a half an hour just staring at the TV waiting for the news clip to come back on again. I couldn't believe it, and when B.I.G. got killed I was sleeping in New York, you know the three hour time difference in Cali., and I'm sleeping and I hear it on my machine and I'm sleeping and you know how sometimes the subconscious and the conscious whatever is going on tricks the subconscious when you're dreaming. So, I hear on the machine, "Yo! Biggie just got shot." So I think I am dreaming and it incorporates in my dream, so when I wake up it's all over the news and I was like "Yo, I knew I heard that," and that caught me too, you know what I mean. I didn't believe it, and then after that I thought it was going to be a full scale war, you know what I mean? East coast against West coast, whatever the case was. At that time, I didn't know what to think. He got killed in Cali. You don't know what to put together. Even though the two might have nothing to do with each other, but like I said, when something like that happens it feels like it hits close to home and it makes you wanna... especially myself because I always try to come to consciousness, it made me make sure that I give the people what they want and nothing is going to confuse them anymore at this state.