Throwback Thursday: Doing Math and Science With Rakim's "My Melody"

Sorry to all the Drake and Lil Wayne lovers out there. Sorry to all the 'Pac and Biggie fans.  And sorry to all the Eminem stans.

The Greatest Of All Time in my house is and always will be Rakim. I think my husband has every Rakim record you can think of. Last night during dinner he pulled out his classic copy of Paid in Full remixes. Heads started bobbing as the beats dropped and my husband started breaking down the rhymes for our sons.

By the time they got to the third track, "My Melody", the food was forgotten and the first verse led to a conversation about how Rakim is obviously up on his scientific knowledge:

"Turn up the bass, check out my melody, hand out a cigar
I'm lettin knowledge be born, and my name's the R
A-k-i-m, not like the rest of them, I'm not on a list
That's what I'm sayin, I drop science like a scientist
My melody's in a code, the very next episode
Has the mic often distortin', ready to explode
I keep the mic at Fahrenheit, freeze MC's to make 'em colder
The listener's system is kickin' like solar
As I memorize, advertise, like a poet
Keep you goin' when I'm flowin', smooth enough, you know with the rough
That's why the moral of my story I tell'll be
Nobody beats the R, check out my melody"

Next thing you know, they're up and vibing next to the turntable, circling the record back to re-listen to specific verses.

And then my husband started his math lesson. 

"Now you boys listen to these next verses and use your addition skills to tell me how many MC's Rakim's better than," he said.

Rakim started rhyming:

"I take 7 MC's put 'em in a line
And add 7 more brothas who think they can rhyme
Well, it'll take 7 more before I go for mine"

My husband put his hand down, pausing the record before the next verse. "How many do y'all have?"

"21" both boys answered.

"Let's see if you're right," my husband said as he let the record spin. Sure enough, Rakim spit out "Now that's 21 MC's ate up at the same time"

There were cheers and high fives all around.

I wish we didn't have to pull out a 25-year-old record to hear rhymes like this. Given all the crass materialism and sexytimes in most rap these days, "My Melody" sounds fresher than ever.