No Tricks In '86: The Revolution of Melody

No Tricks In ’86: The Revolution of Melody

Posted On: January 28, 2011
Posted By: odeisel
Comments: 3

By Odeisel

There arrives at any point of culture or revolution where we divorce all that came before, or at least assign a different relevance. Evolution involves the standing upon soldiers of giants. Revolution involves their beheading. While “Eric B. Is President” was the lead single of Eric B. & Rakim’s Paid In Full and lit up dance floors and parties with elements of James Brown and Fonda Rae’s “Over Like A Fat Rat,” “My Melody,” the single’s B-side, represented the revolution that changed Hip-Hop forever.

Emceeing was the last of Hip-Hop’s base elements to gain prominence. Even as Run DMC and LL Cool J furthered the cause of the mic controller, they were considered by many of the old guard as pop versions of the genuine article, even if their rhyme schemes were far advanced compared to the bulk of original rappers. When “My Melody” hit the airwaves, it was the symbolic end of the DJ as dominant figure in Hip-Hop acts.

The song was slow. While most Hip-Hop of the day knocked with intent to party, you were not going to boogie to “My Melody.” Its towering drums threatened to wear out the bass on your boom box with every boom, and Eric B’s abrasive scratches added another noise component to an already obnoxious beat. The whistle that opens the song is very similar to an Old West saloon standoff. Tumbleweeds blow by and listeners hid under tables and behind bar stools, as Rakim Allah faced down the entire concept of Hip-Hop as it existed and blew it away.

And then he spoke. An 18 year old man- child intro’d himself with absolute authority, commanding us to take heed and “hand out a cigar, I’m letting knowledge be born, and my name’s the R.” Think about that for a second. He hit you with a line almost before the song’s outset, and before you even knew who he was. He offers cigars to be smoked upon the birth of a new day; the birth of revolution, juxtaposed with his Five Percent Nation tenets.

“A-K-I-M unless the rest of them I’m not on a list, but what I’m saying I got rhymes like a scientist.” Rakim introduces internal melody and rhythm; with no intention to wait until the end of the measure or bar. A former saxophone player, Rakim was very familiar with the flow of music and where the crest and trough allowed for the insertion of words. This knowledge allowed him to break up ideas which would traditionally be contained within the same bar and free them to roam separately, all to the subjugation of feel and flow.

Rakim was able to build crescendo mid verse, which was rare back then, if it did exist. It’s hard to flat out say he invented it, but as far as attempting that sort of thing with money on the line on a real record, Rakim’s craftsmanship sets precedent. “My name is Rakim Allah, and Ra stands for Ra switch it around [Ar] it still comes out R.” Here Rakim employs homonym device and letter aminipulation. He uses vocal pauses and stutters to manipulate bar length and to exert control over rhythm so that certain words can fit without being shoehorned in the bar.

I can obsess about this song and go on further but here is the real power of its importance. “My Melody” widened the field for what was considered as legitimate rap. You could no longer be told by someone that rap has to be in the clubs or in the parties. It could exist without pandering to the lowest common denominator. Rakim made it possible for Hip-Hop to talk slowly and carry a big mic, and his insisteace on being heard, even though Eric B’s name appeared first on the marquee set the stage for the emcee’s preeminence in the musical aspect of Hip-Hop that exists 25 years later. Because of Rakim, you coudl never predict the ending rhyme schene, because he recused himself from couplets. If you thought Jigga’s “Blue Magic” was dope, a large part of it is the heavily borrowed cadence from “My Melody.” 25 years later, Planet Ill is still checking for that melody.

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