from (video) interview: check link above to see it in video
Rakim: Definitely! I'd met Nas at the Power House Studios [in New York, when Nas was a teenager]. But the first thing I heard [about Nas the MC] was through the buzz on the street. "Yo, Nas is dope. Boom, boom boom! He's wildin'! He's talking about everything!" Then I went out and got [Illmatic]: The first three joints that passed [while I played the album], I was like, "Ahhh." I felt like I wasn't the only one trying to reach for something. He kind of made me feel normal. For somebody to come out and spit fire and people to look at him, it made me feel regular. When Nas came out, he started solidifying it for lyricists. Never mind what [other] people are doing, do you. He did a lot for my career. He may not know that, but he did a lot for my career.
As artists, we look to certain things to put fire in us. Sometimes it might be a drive up the avenue, but we still like to feed off of each other. When Nas goes to the studio and drops a crazy album, I want to go in the studio and drop an album. I look to brothers like this to keep my fire lit. Keep doing your thing, baby.
another excerpt
Rakim: I used to love those wild tracks. But Nas, watching him come up and do his thing — and those joints he dropped since "Halftime." See, back in the day when joints like that came on the radio, we had noon [hip-hop shows]. Your joints come on from 12 to 1 [o'clock] — it's halftime. Turn it up to 10, let everybody know I'm playing hip-hop. "The World Is Yours" is one of my favorites — it sounds like he made it yesterday. Another one of my favorite joints is "New York State of Mind." Nas always been real conscious of what he says. And you know, that's what his pops put into him. I'm a technical cat when it comes to MCs. A lot of brothers do a lot of witty things, but at the end of the day, you listen to it four times and you're like, "OK ..." With Nas you can play a lot of his joints right now, they're still relevant and still hold weight. Everything holds its relevance. You can tell that — from a true MC, you can tell he took his time to putting it on paper.
about UBR:
Rakim: That kind of puts things in perspective. You got this far and somebody that you respect, somebody that's on a high plateau, took time and showed you love. And to hear a lot of it, I was like, "Where did he get that from? How did he know that?" He does put things in perspective, man. He kind of opened my eyes, like, "OK, people's watching. People really know about Rakim." It kind of let me know where I was in the world.
