Rakim and Oh My God

[mellowmanisback]

Hey everyone.  I wanted to say a few words about the Rakim situation and why he left.  Keep in mind I was as disappointed as anyone Oh My God never dropped on Aftermath.  Also keep in mind I had nothing to do with any of the decision making in regards to the situation.  I want to give everyone a little third party view of what happened, while at the same time respect the privacy and honor of everyone involved.  Why did Rakim leave? Who is to blame? Rakim left due to a number of reasons.  The main reason is that it just wasn't meant to be.  Everyone involved is partially to blame (me included).  There was so much hype about this album that a lot of pressure was put on before and during the recording of the album.  On this forum a long time ago while Rakim was still on Aftermath I placed a lot of the blame on Jimmy I for the album taking so long to come out.  To clarify i immensly respect Jimmy.  I personally have no problems with him.  He is a giant in the industry and he deserves the respect and kudos he gets.  However he is known for always wanting a pop hit to release as a first single.  It seems like any album submitted always gets rejected and kicked back until a "perfect" pop single was done.   Rakim never wanted to do a pop album, a pop single, or a gangster rap album.  Those three things definelty put a strain on getting Interscope's full backing and promotion for the album.  For the record Dre never personally requested Rakim to "get the guns out".  Dre wants every artist to be themselves and won't ever ask them to change who they are.  However Dre knew that Oh My God would never come out until Interscope got the album they wanted so it really put him in a tough spot.  Dre and Rakim really struggled finding a way to balance things out and make the album dre and rakim wanted while at the same time make the album Interscope wanted.  My main beef with Jimmy is that when it comes to rappers he sometimes only wants to release controversial artists or black rappers that relay the sterotypical gangster image.  Rakim definelty isn't either of those and that definetly hurt him.  Rakim also didn't really want hooks.  Songs without hooks somehow aren't good enough these days.  Never mind that Rakim's greatest songs never really had hooks.  making pop hooks was not something Rakim was good at, so he struggled in that area.  Rakim is by far the most talented rapper I have ever heard. Rakim is a lyricist not a hook writer.  And there was no way Rakim would ever let someone write a hook for him.  So that was another problem.  So there defineltly were conflicts there.  Dre and Ra could never come up with the balance they needed and it was really tough on both of them.  In the End Dre and Ra realized that it was going to be really tough to do the music they wanted and get Interscope's approval and their machine behind the release.  So I disagree with Rakim saying he and Dre had creative differences.  Ra and Dre simply could never find a way to make interscope happy and yet make an album they themselves were happy with.
I think Rakim would really get frustrated by interscope's wishes and really struggled with preparing himself the way he needed to put 100% of himself into making the record.  The thing with Dre is that he expects his artists to be there when asked and be ready to work as hard as they ever had before.  Rakim is a very cool cat, but at the same time kind of an enigma.  Somedays he would be gung ho ready to go and other days he would be hesitant or not in the studio.  When he was focused Rakim was pure magic.  When he wasn't he was hard to figure out.  Common thought is that only a few tracks were recorded for Oh My God.  That is false.  We may not have got a lot of full songs with vocals recorded (altough we did more than has been reported)but we created a lot of instrumentals with Rakim in mind.  Like Dre rakim is very picky in the beats and sometimes he would pass on beats that we thought were perfect.  However the shit Ra and Dre did do together were mind blowing.  I wish you could of heard it.  I would get crazy excited when those two were orchestrating tracks together.  I was convinced that a classic was being created.  In the end though it just didn't work out.  I will always wonder what might have been.  I am sorry you guys never got the album you deserved.  It just wasn't meant to be.  I have the utmost respect for Ra, he is truly a lyrical genius with the perfect voice and flow - and a good man.   I don't know if you are ever going to hear a new Rakim album ever again.  I just don't know if he will ever be able to put it together.  Dre won't tell me if he and ra have recorded since Ra left or if they have made any plans to do so.  Dre did tell me right after rakim left that he was confident they would be able to work together again someday and when they did they would make the classic shit that they should have been allowed to make on Aftermath.   In the end no one will every truly know the exact reason Rakim left, except Rakim and Dre.  I hope he one day is able to share his god given talents to the world one more time, with some help from Dre of course.  I do ask that you guys don't place too much blame on any one person.  Like I said it just wasn't meant to be. Let's just keep our fingers crossed that a new version of Oh My God gets released someday with a few tracks featuring the greatest mc ever and the greatest rap producer ever working their magic together. peace.

[STILLDRE IS THE GODFATHER]

thanks now keep us updated on shit and whatsgame next single

[Don Seer]

damn thats raw..  *just clicks props*.. (watch mellowmanisback's karma climb..)

[Twentytwofifty]

I guess a Dre/Rakim album was just too good to be true.   

Hopefully he can release SOMETHING by the end of the year.  It's over five years since his last album.

[Larrabee]

Thanks for the info. Did any of the instrumentals recorded with Rakim in mind get released on another artists album, like the tracks Dre did for Obie\G-Unit\Em\Game?

[broken_sword]

I guess a Dre/Rakim album was just too good to be true.   

porps to mellowman! this was an interesting read.

[Shallow]

Can I ask you something Mellow? How are the compsitions created for the most part with Dre. Do the in house musicians write the riffs mostly? An outside composer that sells the music? or are they old/foreign songs replayed? How much does Dre personally compose? I know it's pretty much all four, but what is the most common one?

[AlerG]

thanks for coming back, well if it wasn't meant to be it's better they didn't release something that people could've been disappointed about, looking foward to more posts from you in the future, props, peace.

[mellowmanisback]

Shallow - I won't go to into full detail.  If you look back at my old posts I have addressed how Dre makes tracks with rather lengthy and specific detail.  All four of the methods you mentioned have been used during Dre's career.  Right now we mostly just go in and hammer out original live music instrumental freestyles off the top of our heads.  Its always Dre on the drum machine first and whoever else creating riffs and chords and basslines off of Dre's leads.  When I first started Dre would tell me exactly what he wanted and he would either hum it or play the general idea on the on the keys for me to base my playing on.  Now he pretty much lets me run with it and doesn't really compose it.  He now trusts me enough to let me use my so called talents to compose my own thing instead of building on something he composed in his head.  Dre still shapes and molds everything and definetly still has the ear for composition.  I may be playing something and unable to find the right way to put it together and Dre will jump in and hum what I need to change to make it sound perfect.  He is really studying music now for the first time and i can tell the difference.  I still am pushing to use a full orchestra but Dre refuses to do so until he can compose and write the whole thing himself like his idol Quincy jones.  I can't wait to hear that someday.  Its going to be insane.  He brought in some small orchestras during the recording of 2001 but could never get them to do what he wanted.  he said they weren't funky enough. So for right now Dre is happy being the conductor of our mini orchestra. Dre is really stressing live instruments and original compositions right now.  Dre has always used mostly live instruments.  During the Ruthless and Death Row years he replayed a lof of things and mixed in some original compositions. But with all the bullshit lawsuits these days Dre is really hesitant to sample anything even if he can clear the sample with the original composer.  Thats why Dre is using people like Mark Batson.  Mark did some amazing work with Anthony Hamilton and is now producing the Dave Matthews Band's new album.  Dre doesn't want to bring in simply a musician.  He wants to bring in high quality and proven musicians and co producers.  Dre is humble enough to let people co produce his records because with the importance of being with his family Dre doesn't have time anymore to compose things in his head and is honest enough to know professional musicians can do that for him .  But there is no doubt Dre is the mastermind behind everything - believe that.  As far as Rakim instrumentals being used for other artists, yes we definelty used some.  I won't name names out of respect for Rakim.   If I did you might wonder why he passed them up.

[AlerG]

alright i don't think anyone has ever said this is one of your posts before mellow (correct me if i'm worng) anyway, enough about dre for a moment, when are we going to hear an album with mostly music composed and produced by yourself? i'm sure dre would oversee it but i'm interested to hear what you can do. I guess i might never know because you won't give your name out (and that's fine with me) but it'd be dope to hear some of your shit, kind of like how scott storch was taught or guided by dre ( correct me if i'm wrond about that as well) but he's doing real well for himself and released some of the hottest beats of 2004, let me know if you have the chance, peace.

[Petey]

I heard the beat to shit hits the fan was originally intended for rakim to flow on.....speak on it

[platinumk777]

I guess a Dre/Rakim album was just too good to be true.   

porps to mellowman! this was an interesting read.

[Dip Set Movementarian 4 Life]

thanks for the clarification on what happened...we all appreciate it...lookin forward to seein you back around here again...

[NobodyButMe]

so you're tellin me that dre and rakim, two legendary hip hop icons, cannot release whatever the fuck they feel like?

now that sounds fucked up.....

[::Mr. Hahn::]

Whoa..paragraphs.