I hope everyone download my new mixtape, Love Potion Number 9th: The Hangover by now. If not, I will continue to beat it into your heads until you have 3 or 4 folders on your desktop and you listen to it 4 times a day. Over the weekend, I came across Rakim’s new album, The Seventh Seal. It has been quite a while since Rakim dropped an album. So long that I thought this project might never see the light of day. It was looking very promising for a resurgance of Rakim into the mainstream when Dr. Dre signed him to Aftermath several years back. He was even featured on the Truth Hurts’ smash single, Addictive. However, Dr. Dre’s track record for putting out artists on Aftermath speaks for itself. After Joel Ortiz linked with Slaughterhouse this year and Raekwon dropped a classic, my hopes were high for Rakim’s new album, The Seventh Seal. I’m not even sure what I expected or what I even wanted other than dope rhymes and dope beats. Although The Seventh Seal is definitely no OBFCL2, it has a few joints on it that show that Rakim can still rhyme his ass off. I read a review about this album on “hip hop’s online bible” HipHopDx and they totally trashed it. I can’t say that I feel the same way about it because it is clear that Rakim still has the ability to rhyme and there are some pretty good songs. I agree that I won’t be listening to this album religiously like Til The Casket Drops but I think it is a solid reminder that Rakim is still a capable emcee and one of the illest to ever do it. I think the production could have been more catered to Rakim but having said that, it’s hard to have expectations for an album when you haven’t heard an artist for such a long time. Check out his joint, Holy Are You. He spits fire and the beat is ill as well. I am a little nervous to see the album sales for The Seventh Seal however. I am guessing he will move around 2500 copies. Weekly numbers on the way.
