I was listening to a song that I had saved on one of my playlists, and I thought something to the effect of, "yo, this shit is phat" in reference to how hot and tempting I thought the beat was. I had discovered the song in the weeks prior. I was attempting to get back into Eminem; I heard him mention that Rakim was a big influence of his. That would imply that Rakim is ol' school. And old-school rap was something I had not yet had a chance to get into. So, I listened to some Rakim songs, saved a couple of them I liked to a playlist, and then kind of forgot about them.

Then, some weeks later, I had some beat stuck in my head. What song is that? Oh yeah, it’s a Rakim song! I found the song, which happened to be "When I B on Tha Mic," and played it on repeat to my ears’ delight. After the fiftieth listen, I figured I’d do some research on the song.

I hoped it was one of his more unknown songs so that I could claim to be into some obscure ol’ school. You know, deep cuts. So, I looked it up and found that it was his most successful single by far. I was disappointed that the song I liked was the song that everyone else liked, too. All else equal, I would prefer to have a unique taste. But I also felt connected to my predecessors, to those who thought this song was sick as hell when it came out in ’99.