With all of the talk about battles that the Hip-Hop world wants to see, sure Gucci Mane vs. Jeezy is at the top of everyone’s mind, but there is one that any true enthusiasts (and lover) of the culture has at the top of their list: Rakim vs. Big Daddy Kane.
And it seems like there is a possibility the rap gods will answer our prayers.
The God Emcee sat with Chuck Creekmur, the CEO of AllHipHop, at the Wilmington Public Library in Delaware to talk about his openness to doing a Verzuz episode at the one man that many have always put him up against, Big Daddy Kane.
The 18th Letter said that while he has been thinking about it a lot since the Instagram contest blew up early this year, amid the novel coronavirus mandated-quarantine, the competition has been floated in the ethos for over 30 years.
“You know, me and Kane go way back. Ever since 86, 87 after Kane came out, everybody kind of compared us to each other,” he recalled before stating why it has not happened yet. “If I wake up one day, and feel like it’s important to me and my career. I don’t know how Kane feels about it. You make decisions in your career and you try to stick to that.”
Sticking to that has made him one of the top two emcees of all time. In his memoir, “Sweat the Technique: Revelations on Creativity from The Lyrical Genius Rakim,” he breaks down how he was able to transform his love of jazz and street rapping into a legacy that has birthed at least 85% of the most gifted lyricists in all of rap music history.
Guarding his gifts is a discipline that many don’t understand — even suggesting that the “Paid In Full” emcee is only worried about preserving his name and not interested in giving the culture what it so desperately wants.
But he sees it differently and is only hesitant because there is so much more to who he is as an artist than a battle against someone that was fan-generated in the 80s.
“I don’t want to be selfish, but coming up in that generation of rap, and trying to maintain your brand and who you are, and we managed to make it through and then people want to pull you back to 87,” Rakim shared.
“That’s my only problem with it. But, and I appreciate that you know … the interest and how people feel about what me and Kane did.”