The All-TIME 100 Albums: Paid in Full by Eric B. and Rakim

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The All-TIME 100 Albums

35 of 101

By Alan Light Published: November 13, 2006

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ALBUM: Paid in Full

YEAR RELEASED: 1987 LABEL: Island ARTIST: Eric B. and Rakim

TIME 100 ALBUMS PODCASTS

PODCAST: Welcome to the All-TIME 100 Albums - the musical compilations of the last half-century that need no introduction. That said, listen in below as music critics Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light introduce the list and talk about the top albums of the 1950s and '60s.

PODCAST: We know. Twenty-nine of the 100 greatest albums of all time come in the 1970s, and Pink Floyd isn't there. Play this podcast to learn why we picked the titles we did, and if you have something to say, tell us about it using the talkback link below.

PODCAST: Maybe it's a Sign O' The Times that you're listening to critics' audio recordings about great music, but this podcast about how we chose the best albums of the 1980s really is a Thriller. Give it a listen below.

PODCAST: Here's music even the younger set will know by heart. Listen to selected clips from the 1990s through present day as music critic Josh Tyrangiel discusses his picks.

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The duo of Eric B. on the turntables and Rakim on the microphone changed the sound, flow, and potential of hip-hop. If Rakim is still the greatest MC of all time, as many argue, this album is the evidence. The group ran off a string of hit singles in the mid-Eighties, and then gathered them up on its relentless debut album Paid in Full. Over Eric B's pulsing, minimalist tracks — which introduced James Brown samples to hip-hop, a radical maneuver — Rakim constructed icy, menacing rhymes of steel. "I Know You Got Soul," "Move the Crowd," and the title track revealed layers of complexity far beyond previous rap records. Where most old-school MCs yelled or declaimed, Rakim barely rose above a whisper — and his words hit all the louder.