Biography
This Queens, New York, USA-based rap duo comprised Eric Barrier (Elmhurst, New York, USA) and William ‘Rakim’ Griffin (b. William Griffin Jnr., Long Island, New York, USA), using additional musicians such as Sefton the Terminator and Chad Jackson as required. Rakim was the lyricist, Eric B the DJ, or, as Rakim himself put it in ‘I Ain’t No Joke’: ‘I hold the microphone like a grudge, Eric B hold the record so the needle don’t budge’. They met in 1985 when Eric was working for the New York radio station WBLS and was looking for the city’s top MC. They started working together before emerging with the demo, ‘Eric B. Is President’. Released as a single on an obscure Harlem independent, Zakia Records, in the summer of 1986, it eventually led to a contract with 4th & Broadway. Their long-playing debut was preceded by a stand-out single of the same name, ‘Paid In Full’, which inspired over 30 remixes....
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