By Odeisel
“In The Ghetto” was on of Eric B & Rakim’s most somber singles. The song wasn’t about partying or the NY Hip-Hop scene nor was it concerned with mind expansion or the tenets of the Five Percent Nation of Gods and Earths. The single released from the duo’s third album Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em recalled the essence of Melle Mel’s “The message” with its pensive reflection of urban America. Rakim expressed the aspirations and the detriments to those dreams that face young men in the hoods across the country. 21 years later, the track is updated with some help from Black Thought John legend and J.Period for “In The Ghetto (Wake Up).”
The base elements of the original are still there, albeit enhanced with sirens and fuller use of the original vocal samples and some scratching for J.Period. There are extra horns here and there that add color. John Legends vocals close the song out with an added element of soul.
Black Thought sounds perfectly at home on the beat and spits serious lines from the outset, delivering Treach-like warnings for ghetto interlopers, noting there “ain’t a lot of tolerance for people that lack toast (lactose).” Old heads, cokeheads and chicken heads all have their say about the evils of the hood and advice for the uninitiated. Thought is authoritative, succinct and certifiably hood on this.
Rakim hasn’t sounded this fresh in years. He has been stuck in the same flow for the last decade or so, but this song is him at close to his beast. That voice and delivery was still the same, but his flow has reclaimed some of the fluidity it lost. He paints the same gritty picture on the original but with more bounce, delivering lines like “You can hear the 7 Sins blowing in the ghetto wind, my eyes see the evil that would make the devil grin.”
In the end we have taken a classic song and had it updated and refitted for the new millennium. The spirit is respected, the rhymes are strong, and the beat was smartly enhanced rather than changed. “In The Ghetto (Wake Up).” Who said we were sleeping?
J. Period featuring Black Thought, Rakim & John Legend – In the Ghetto (Wake Up) by Hypetrak
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