Performer Notes
- Personnel: Rakim (raps), Eric B. (scratches).
- Recorded at Power Play Studios, New York.
- This is an Enhanced CD which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
- Eric B. & Rakim: Rakim (rap vocals); Eric B. (DJ).
- Additional personnel: Matt Black, DJ Cell (scratches).
- Producers: Eric B. & Rakim.
- Reissue producer: Jerry Rappaport.
- Recorded at Powerplay Studios, New York, New York. Includes liner notes by Tom Terrell.
- Digitally remastered by Suah Gur.
- Disc two is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
- Personnel: Rakim (rap vocals); Eric B. (scratches).
- Recorded at Power Play Studios, New York, New York.
- Personnel: Matt Black (scratches).
- Audio Remixers: Coldcut Crew; Raine Shine; Marley Marl.
- Liner Note Author: Tom Terrell.
- Recording information: Power Play Studios, NY.
- Arranger: Benny Nagari.
- PAID IN FULL is perhaps the most important album of the middle-school era of hip-hop--"I Know You Got Soul," "I Ain't No Joke," and "Eric B. Is President" are as classic as hip-hop songs get. Eric B. & Rakim pioneered the minimalist sound that would form the new-school of hip-hop aesthetics with Eric B.'s innovative distillation of James Brown samples to pure drum and bass-line splendor and Rakim's narcissistic monotonal lyrical bombast. The title cut forwarded the manifesto that all others in hip-hop were to follow: the eternal search for dead presidents.
Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (4/11/02, p.106) - Ranked #19 in Rolling Stone's "50 Coolest Records" - "...Lean, spare beats, driven by Rakim's visionary staccato growl..."
Rolling Stone (4/11/02, p.106) - Ranked #19 in Rolling Stone's "50 Coolest Records" - "...Lean, spare beats, driven by Rakim's visionary staccato growl..."
Rolling Stone (11/13/03, p.100) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...[When Rakim] took to the mike in 1987, and served up PAID IN FULL with DJ Eric B., he set hip-hop's new course....[Rakim was] a street-wise mystic with eminently clear and dexterous rhymes that sounded like they might never end..."
Spin (1/99, p.92) - Ranked #7 in Spin's list of the "Ten Best Reissues Of 1998."
Q (2/04, p.114) - 3 stars out of 5 - "'I Know You've Got Soul' and 'I Ain't No Joke remain benchmarks, inventing the slick linguistic tricks later perfected by Nas and Jay-Z."
Q (12/98, p.140) - 4 Stars (out of 5) - "...A hip hop record that set new standards of rhyming, rhythmic world play, cutting, sampling and scratching...this 2CD reissue combines a 10-trach selection of such remixes and dub versions with the excellent, still thoroughly fresh, original LP."
Uncut (2/04, p.88) - 4 stars out of 5 - "Sixteen years down the line, the bold minimalism of Eric B's work and Rakim's mic control seem little less than biblical."
Muzik (12/98, p.74) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Their first groundbreaking album is here in full, and sounding so timeless, so forward-looking yet steeped in black music tradition that the last decade seems barely to have happened at all..."
CMJ (11/23/99, p.26) - "....Eric B. was a master of the cut; his sparse, soulful yet hardcore beats did as much to establish the DJ as an expressive, integral part of the music as Grandmaster Flash did in the early 80's....one of the most complete albums in hip-hop history..."
Vibe (12/99, p.162) - Included in Vibe's 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century
Vibe (12/99, p.162) - Included in Vibe's 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century
Rap Pages (3/99, p.144) - 5 (out of 5) - "Few veteran rap acts from years past are as significant today as they were in their heyday....PAID IN FULL contains ten tracks of masterfully executed music and rhymes..."
Mojo (Publisher) (2/99, p.104) - "...PAID IN FULL remains their seminal recording: through pre-gangsta, pre-daisy age, pre-Wu-Tang, it still holds it own against all comers, without breaking too much of a sweat..."
