I Ain't No Joke

This post is dedicated to Eric B. & Rakim. Not because either have done anything to get them in the news lately, but because I put Paid in Full in a little while back and was like "Holy shit! It's almost a dozen years since this came out and "I Ain't No Joke" just completely embarrassed my emcee skills!" And no, I have never even tried to seriously rap, but such is the power of Eric B's DJ and Rakim's nimble yet relaxed flow.



I ain't no joke, I used to let the mike smoke/now I slam it when I'm done and make sure it's broke.

No foolin'.

Seriously... There are few albums I go back to when I want to hear some incredible rhyming skills, and some straight hip-hop (not to be confused with the antithesis of out hip-hop, credit to the always Wayne's World "I am not worthy!"-worthy Jeff Weiss for that piece in yesterday's LA Times). Not a single chorus on this album... just rhymes falling on top of rhymes and the dawning realization that 99% of the flows I've ever heard just got destroyed.

Enjoy this piece of awe-stricken fanboyism, by the way. Thanks to Amazon selling the soundtrack to Notorious for 3.99 (HOLY F#$*IN' S$&T!!! THAT'S A GREAT PRICE!), I've gotten swept up in the hype for Notorious and will more than likely be commenting on it by Friday.

EDIT: Just realized that I accidentally bought the CLEAN version of the Notorious soundtrack. D'oh unto me!