Having just got back from a playback session for about two-thirds of the upcoming Rakim album, ‘The Seventh Seal’, HHC Digital can report the following:
- ‘The Seventh Seal’ will be 16 tracks long, with the main rap guests being Busta Rhymes, Styles P and Jadakiss.
- It’ll be released on October 20th.
- Along with CD and download formats, it’ll be available in heavyweight coloured vinyl, plus a special collector’s package that’ll feature, um, some other stuff.
- Nothing from a one-week recording session between Rakim and Kanye West appears on the album.
- The ‘official’ reason for his departure from Aftermath was simple creative differences (Rakim not wanting to rhyme about guns and drugs), plus the different creative work habits of Dr Dre and Ra.
- Off the back of the release of the album Rakim will be touring (and hitting Europe in spring 2010) and is actively looking to record with artists from around the world.
- There are 50 other unreleased new Rakim tracks in the vault that will be rolled out once ‘The Seventh Seal’ is released. : There may or may not also be some tracks with Puffy and Will I Am on another new album next summer. On the track-by-track tip...
‘Still In Love’ (produced by Nick Wiz): Ostensibly an ode to hip-hop, this will feature Busta shouting something or the other on the chorus, has a possibly-slightly annoying “Love!” vocal sample running throughout it, and the less than other-worldly lines, “The god Rakim/You know I get it in”. Bonus trivia: This is likely to end up being used on the season opener of CSI: NY.
‘Holy Are You’ (produced by Nick Wiz): Aka the one you’ve all heard. Apparently, while writing it, Rakim had the Bible, the Koran and the Torah set up in front of him with notes and paper clips marking up references to quote.
‘Man Above’ (produced by Nick Wiz): Another Nick Wiz production (who’ll likely end up with four beats on the finished album), this is Ra in street sermon mode, dropping lines like, “Stereotypes start off a life stigmata/But still a kid gotta get a dollar,” and involves a juvenile gone wild getting advice from his father. So kinda like Ra’s ‘Pappa Don’t Preach’, but without all that underage pregnancy stuff.
‘Won’t Be Long’ (produced by Jake One): Featuring Pudgee Tha Fat Bastard crooning on the chorus, this is a pretty dope track, with Ra throwing shots (”I question the state of hip-hop; major labels and so on”) and Jake One’s beat meshing well with his vocals.
‘Put It All To Music’ (produced by Poppa Pillz): Not sure on the spelling of the producer, but a great ’70s-soul-sounding sample-based track from a new bod on the boards, with what sounds like it may be a Minnie Riperton vocal snippet for the hook. Comes over with the warmth of something from the early-90s – but not in an overly retro way.
‘I Walk These Streets’ (produced by Needlz): Probably the album’s clanger, not so much because Needlz’s beat uses either the same or a startlingly similar sample to Busta Rhymes’s ‘Been Through The Storm’, but because the inclusion of Akon on the hook – and maybe the second verse – just doesn’t seem to make any sense, stylistically or in terms of the end product. Possible addition: Maino may be drafted in to spit 16 bars on the second verse if Akon can’t send over his vocals in time.
‘Psychic Love’ (produced by Nick Wiz): Billed as this album’s ‘Mahogany’, it’s another one you’ll likely skip before it’s even finished.
‘How To Emcee’ (produced by DJ Slyce): Hurrah! Track of the album so far, no doubt, with a right rattling beat from the DMC champ – think something not too far off a DITC or P Brothers moment, all heavy drums and discordant saxophone stabs – with Rakim dropping straight braggadocio like, “I wrote some of the illest rhymes ever/Soon as I put ‘em together/Rappers take ‘em… paraphrase ‘em.” Sage-like advice: Ditch Akon and spend the money on putting together a remix with KRS-One, Kool G Rap and Jay-Z.
‘Documentary Of A Gangsta’: Featuring up-and-coming Brooklyn spitter I.Q. on the hook, this is Ra in street-level story-telling mode. Up-in-the-air trivia: The chorus may or may not be bringing the word ‘chicken’ (as in a scardey-cat) back, or it might fall back on using the term ‘actor’.
‘Working For You’ (produced by Jake One): Another decent Jake One beat, though there’s a chance it might be dipping into the same sample pot as Dilated Peoples’ ‘Worse Comes To Worst’.
