Rakim

“I start to think and then I sink / Into the paper like I was ink, when I'm writing I'm trapped in between the lines.”

The architect of modern MCing. Before Rakim, hip-hop rhymes mostly landed cleanly on the fourth beat with animated party projection; Rakim introduced internal multi-syllabic chains, enjambment across bar lines, and a composed jazz-horn cadence that permanently rewired the art form.