Es hört nicht auf. NPR und ihre Tiny Desk Concert Serie kommt derzeit mit einem derben Künstler nach dem anderen. Zuletzt noch Newcomer (in Anführungszeichen) wie Tom Misch, GoldLink und Jorja Smith und nun wieder mal eine Legende. Anders kann man Rakim nicht beschreiben. Wie schon Big Daddy Kane vor ihm performt Ra lässig, wie es nur geht. Der Swag ist auf Lebenszeit gepachtet.

Begleitet wird er übrigens unter anderem von Adrian Younge am Keyboard und Ali Shaheed Muhammad am Bass.

Rakim Tiny Desk Concert Tracklist

It had been nearly a decade since Rakim released new music, but that drought ended Friday when the godfather of rap lyricism and one half of the revered duo Eric B & Rakim released a new song, „King’s Paradise.“ The track was written for Season 2 of Marvel’s Luke Cage, which premiered on Netflix the same day, but it wasn’t entirely new to select NPR staff; they heard it days earlier when the God MC performed at the Tiny Desk.

The New York rap icon wasn’t the only legend in the building that day. Ali Shaheed Muhammad of A Tribe Called Quest — who produced and co-wrote „King’s Paradise“ with keyboardist Adrian Younge under their new project The Midnight Hour — played bass, and rising blues torchbearer Christone „Kingfish“ Ingram sat in on guitar.

„King’s Paradise“ pays homage to the heroes of the Harlem Renaissance as well as its fictional superhero, the bulletproof Luke Cage. Rakim tipped his hat to Philip Payton Jr., Joe Lewis, Lena Horne, Malcolm X, Maya Angelou and Louis Armstrong, before concluding with a few bars about the comic book-inspired series.

Via RnB