It's August 10, 2026, 10:00:03 AM
The album closes with "Masta Killa," a self titled ode to the east Asian martial arts that spawned his graceful style, not to mention his name, which he lifted from a Kung Fu movie.
Rakim, Kurupt, and Masta Killa Announce Collaborative Album ‘The Godbody,' Release First SingleHip-hop legends Rakim, Kurupt, and Masta Killa have released "A Different Kind," the lead single and video from their upcoming collaborative album, The Godbody, arriving September 18, 2026.The release marks Rakim's first solo, self-produced track in 15 years, offering fans a new chapter from one of hip-hop's most influential lyricists. Earlier this year, Rakim's landmark debut album, Paid in Full, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, recognizing its lasting impact on the culture.Produced entirely by Rakim and Nick Wiz, The Godbody unites East Coast and West Coast hip-hop through a vision inspired by the late Tupac Shakur to bring together elite emcees in the spirit of "One Nation." The project features Rakim and Masta Killa representing New York alongside California's Kurupt.The album also includes appearances from Snoop Dogg, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, KRS-One, Daz Dillinger, Kool G Rap, Buckshot, Kokane, Killa Sin, and more.
Album title is 'Godbody' not 'Godboy' and release is set for 18th not 28th.Also the hardest working man in hip-hop right now...Dat Nigga Daz feature makes it onto the LP!!!Kokane on a east coast beat? or Rakim/Wiz made some westcoast beats too.I dont think i have ever heard Kurupt rap on a song with Kool-G-Rap, Krs-One or the Ghostface Killah before.
Rakim Talks Making New Collab Album with Masta Killa and Kurupt: "Who Says We Ever Have to Stop?"The Hip-Hop legend plans to roar back with 'The GodBody LP' while staying true to his music "That's a classic."Rakim is reflecting on the 2025 Grandmaster Hip Hop Awards that took place at the Bellagio in Las Vegas last October, when Parliament-Funkadelic leader George Clinton rapped "Follow the Leader" in front of Rakim, The Geto Boys' Scarface, Dr. Dre, Babyface, Nas, and a ballroom full of other Hip-Hop luminaries.To hear Rakim, a bona fide Hip-Hop legend who's inspired the likes of Eminem, Jay-Z, and Nas, pay tribute to the predecessors who influenced him is a palpable reminder of the power of music."That was humbling, man," he says. "My brother used to play George Clinton. I think he was the first one in our town that knew about Parliament-Funkadelic, and my brother had a big boombox. Every day and every night, he used to play Parliament-Funkadelic, so I grew up listening to him. Then I learned his music and realized what made George so great. To hear him do that, it's the most humbling and one of the greatest things in my career."Rakim was unaware Clinton knew his music that well. But obviously Rakim knew his. In 1988, Eric B & Rakim sampled Funkadelic's 1975 single "No Head, No Backstage" for "Lyrics of Fury" off the duo's sophomore album, Follow the Leader. Even Clinton was in awe."When I sampled that, George said he lost his mind and didn't really realize that anybody knew that song," Rakim says. "Everybody knew him for the other popular songs. The first time we met, he told me a crazy story. He said before him and his band went out on the road, he would make his band quote ‘Follow the Leader' to see if they had rhythm. If they had rhythm but couldn't quote ‘Follow the Leader,' he would leave them home. He would call people, and they would verify it, too, man. I couldn't believe it."Rakim has experienced a string of magical moments like that throughout his career. In fact, Rakim was about to hop on our Zoom call when the phone rang. It was Chuck D, Public Enemy front man and Rakim's longtime friend. I put him on speaker so they could chat.Coincidentally, Chuck was driving by the exit for Wyandanch, the hamlet of Long Island where Rakim is from. Both Hip-Hop legends grew up in the "sixth borough," and they laughed at the serendipitous timing. The conversation lasted for mere seconds, but in that brief moment, they expressed a mutual admiration for each other's vast cultural contributions.Public Enemy and Eric B. & Rakim's debut albums arrived around the same time. Public Enemy dropped Yo! Bum Rush the Show in March 1987, and Eric B. & Rakim delivered Paid in Full just four months later. The former was riddled with revolutionary, sociopolitical content, while the latter was a lesson in jazz-inspired, complex rhyme schemes.Nearly 40 years later, Rakim is still pumping out projects and touring the world (so is Public Enemy, for that matter). His upcoming collaborative album, The GodBody LP (due September 18), finds him swapping bars with Tha Dogg Pound's Kurupt and Wu-Tang Clan's Masta Killa. Additional guests include KRS-One, Snoop Dogg, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah and Daz Dillinger. Speaking to VIBE ahead of its release, Rakim reflects on the very first rhyme he wrote, his songwriting process, and what it's like to have JAY-Z quote your lyrics.—VIBE: I love that you included JAY-Z quoting one of your lyrics: "constant elevation causes expansion." I also love how Eminem's talking about how you basically revolutionized Hip-Hop with your style of rhyming. What does that say about you?Rakim: It's confirmation that what I do is relevant. Two people that I admire and respect crazily, Jay and Eminem, to hear your peers show you love and speak on you in their moment is very humbling. I'm a humble person. I put art out, and I hope people love it. When I hear people like that show me love, it makes everything that I do make sense.Do you remember the very first rhyme you ever wrote?Yes, I do. It's funny. But I remember writing it and how dope I thought it was. I was a little kid. I'm gonna say the rhyme so you'll know how young I was.Oh, this is gonna be cute [laughs].At this time, it was nursery rhymes, late ‘70s/early ‘80s. It was "Mickey Mouse built the house/ He built it by the border/ Earthquake came and rocked his crib, and now it's in the water." I thought that was one of the cleverest dopest rhymes that a kid could make. But that was my start.I grew up going to Disneyland because my grandparents lived in California. I had the Mickey Mouse ears and all that. It was serious.Our era had a big impact on us. With rap, we always kind of speak about what we live, what we love, or what we feel is relevant. And it was just ironic that my first rhyme had something to do with Mickey Mouse.I'll get you some Mickey Mouse ears.I'll put them up in the studio [laughs]. That'll remind me of my beginnings, man.How do you write these days?People that's been around when I write kind of know, and sometimes I got to fill them in so that they won't wonder what I'm doing. Me and my manager laugh a lot because I complicate the situation. It's not easy for me. I sit in the room, I listen to a track, and I like to be alone. Sometimes it's my brother or close people, or my manager, or my wife, or my kids might be around. That's like the only people that I'm comfortable around where I can block them out and go where I need to be. But I sit there, I listen to the track for however long it takes until the track kind of tells me what to do. I always like to complement the track and be able to add my instrument to the track.What sparks ideas?Sometimes it might be a little rhythm or melody inside the track that I like to emphasize, so the track kind of tells me where to go and what to do. The sound of the track gives me direction. If it's a dark track, I take it there. If it's a summertime-sounding track, I try to take it there. But I let the track tell me what to do. But the process is kind of crazy because I sit there and these ideas start coming. And at first, it's just a bunch of concepts, words, phrases, and rhythms. I sit there and try to figure them out and start putting them together.Then the joke is, the way I explain it, sometimes I will go all the way around the world to find a word and realize the word was right next door. So that's my complicated process. I see the word right next door, but it's like, no, I don't want that one. That's right next door. So I'll go all the way around and then realize, you know what? That shit next door was dope. Let me get back to the crib and start with that. It's never an easy process. It could be the easiest beat, the easiest concept, but I always complicate it.That reminds me of you telling me the story about you and your brother listening to John Coltrane and hearing those two notes played at the same time.Oh, man, that blew us away. To this day, I can't find a record. We talk about it all the time. John Coltrane did about 30 different versions of "My Favorite Things," and I got about 20 of them.So you got 10 more to go.You heard. So we look from time to time, like I got so many records and I might look through a section or look through another section another time. But we're so mad that we can't find that record, man. But when we heard it that day, we couldn't believe it.You might have to go around the world to find that one. That one's not going to be next door.That's right. And that's one that I'm willing to search for because it's worth it.When you were coming out, you were among, or if not the first MC to not rhyme each line, right? Did you realize that you were pioneering a new style at the time?I was following my heart, and words and styles were coming to me. And I'm not really knowing what it was at first, but I think my jazz influence and just music period. I had a profound understanding of music, and I was kind of displaying it in my rhymes. In the beginning, I didn't know how different it was, but yes, I was trying to be me and show what I know, and it kind of came out.It worked just a little bit [laughs]. That brings us all the way to now and this new record. What was it like to work with Kurupt and Masta Killa, who are also such incredible MCs?What I love about doing projects like this is it breaks down the barriers of East Coast, West Coast, the Dirty South, Midwest—wherever you're from. It's a group of artists getting together to show how they love music, and how groups and people can come together from different cities and different styles. It's like a melting pot of Hip-Hop. It's bringing a bunch of artists together to do different things.Is this another M80 project?Big up to M80, man, because he's really passionate about putting all of these different artists together, matching different music and making us sound like one. Even with the JAY-Z and Eminem interview, M-80 felt that was something he wanted to show people and highlight. Being able to work with all of these different artists on one album should show the industry that this is something we should have been doing a long time ago. And a lot of people did it, but let's continue to bring Hip-Hop together.We have Ice-T coming out with a new solo record. We have Big Daddy Kane dropping one, too. It's great to see so many pioneers and architects doing new music.That's one of the things I love. I always hated that Hip-Hop felt that there was an age limit. I quietly disagreed. And one of the ways that I tried to show that there isn't was to keep doing what I do at a high level.I was in L.A. for the Bone Thugs in Harmony star ceremony a couple of weeks ago, and Ice-T was one of the presenters, so we met up at his hotel to do an interview. He was talking about the same thing. He's 68 years old. George Clinton just turned 85 and was just in New Orleans unveiling the Mothership 3.0.Come on, now. Who says that we ever have to stop?Like Ice -T, you've never switched up. You stay true to who you are. Is that important to you?Yes, that's very important to me. It's hard as an artist to stay relevant; you want to evolve and reinvent yourself, but stay true to what you do. Sometimes some of the new listeners expect you to do what's going on today, but it's important—and I don't want to make myself feel old—but I have to stay in touch with my roots and who I am and what made me and what people expect from me. I try not to change that, but at the same time, you know, make sure that it's 2026.The new record is coming out soon. How do you know decide who you want to collaborate with? Do you just hear them on a track?That's the start of it. When you hear a track, you can picture certain people on it. It's some people that you might be like, ‘They'll be good on track, but they'll be better on track five."It's like a puzzle almost.Yes, ma ‘am. It's easy to do that when artists stay true to themselves because you hear them on certain music. It's like a trademark. So you try to mix and match the best way you can and make sure that you're facilitating artists on what they sound best on.Oh yeah, KRS-One sounds great on "Still Ill." He could have recorded that with Boogie Down Productions. What do you hope that your music teaches the next generation?That's important, man. It's making a statement at this time. Hip-Hop is so diverse, and artists that value their brand want to make sure that people respect and value it as well.There's a lot going on, and sometimes, it's like you get up in the morning, you got a few things to do. But the first thing you got to do is take care of business. Then later on, you can get in the pool. For us, artists that come back after a while or feel we have something to say, we got to take care of business first, and then after that, we can have a little fun.You have to let artists be themselves, evolve, mature, and age the way we want to. It's important that we showcase that because that was what made them resonate with us in the beginning. Who we are, what we were about, what we speak about. We've got to remember that and stay true to that. Right now, it's just about preserving the culture and making music that we feel validates it.
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