Rakim Allah(One of THE GREATEST)

The first time I heard Eric B & Rakim, I was cold chillin at my homeboy Brad's house and his older brother Scotty had just got back with the cassette tape. He put it in the stereo deck, push the dolby surround sound and the future was revealed. I heard you "gotta has soul" and then we listened to "I aint no joke" about 20 times. Then we listened to "Microphone Fiend" and I knew I wanted to emcee. The word play, the beat and the flow was ill. This was back in the cassette tape days. We played the paint off that mutha! I had never heard of the 5%ers until then. Afterwards, I started researching on my own to find out more about the nation of gods and earths. I'm from a small city in northwest,ga and you can imagine me coming home tellin my mama that the black man is god. Word life sun! I started walking around dalton talkin like I was from New York mixed with my southern drawal. I use to ask folks, what's the lesson for the day? Check out that Eric B & Rakim sun. I Self Lord And Master travel faster than the speed of light sun. WHAT! All the while during this phase, I had never been to new york or even met a real brotha or sista down with the gods. When I moved to Atlanta(Atlantis aka Allah's Garden) to attend college in 1994, I got a chance to hang out with cats from everywhere. I first met I Self Devine, Caleb, Eric Mack, Andre, Larry Larr, CX and others at The Atlanta College of Art. Also, DJ Kool Akiem was in the group Micranots with I Self Devine. I use to run with some graf cats at 5 points who were studying the lessons also. I ran with El, C-Knowledge, Devine Allah, Hajj Womack, Knowledge Allah, Shammgodd Allah, Prophecy, Fury, Lay Low Allah, Rasta Stax, The Twin Wisdoms from Ethiopia and Que Ciph. These cats were cool people and we use to sit beside the royal peacock and build to like 5 am sometimes. I also hung out alot back then at the A.U.C. for the zulu nation meetings they use to have at Clark. I was there. I miss those days. Fall 1994- Summer 1996 was on and poppin! There are alot of famous members/followers of Clarence 13x and the 5% Nation like Nas, AZ, Erkya Badu, Planet Asia, Wu-Tang Clan, Sunz of Man, Big Daddy Kane, King Sun, Poor Righteous Teachers, Jaz, Makeba Mooncycle and Mobb Deep. Rakim is one of the greatest emcees ever and he has made big contributions to life, music and the world. Big Ups!