How could ya'll forget about the first 17 yr old rapper with a million dollar contract. (Rakim) do ya homework!! It's kinda hard to overlook some of these wack teenage rappers,when people like Nas, Rakim,Special ED, Little Vicious, was killin it. Maybe they read more i don't know......
Rakim - Well the album didn't drop till I was in the 12th grade and I been rhymin' since the 4th or 5th grade. The years, I don't even count them no more.
ThaFormula.com - So you wrote the rhymes to "Paid in Full" when you were in high school?
Rakim - Oh no the rhymes for "My Melody" was written about 3 years before it came out. A lot of them rhymes was just rhymes I had on tapes. Those rhymes I used to say at the park and things like that. But everything else came after I signed and started making records.
ThaFormula.com - So then you were about 17 or 18 when you dropped the album?
Rakim - Yeah, no doubt. I turned 17 when I was out doing a show in North Carolina.
ThaFormula.com - It's funny to me how you at 17 years old could write rhymes like that back then, but a kid at 17 in 2003 couldn't write a half decent rhyme?