Follow the Leader by Eric B & Rakim

Follow the Leader, the second album from Eric B. & Rakim, dropped on July 26, 1988, and it came with a new deal: after Paid in Full, the Long Island duo had walked away from 4th & B'way Records and signed to Uni, a subsidiary of MCA. They cut it at Power Play Studios in Long Island City, Queens, producing and arranging it themselves, with Rakim's brother Stevie Blass Griffin chipping in on various instruments and Carlton Batts and Patrick Adams engineering.

The formula is lean and deadly: Eric B. building tough, looping beats, and Rakim riding them with a cool, unhurried authority that makes everyone else sound like they're shouting. The title track is the statement of intent. By AllMusic's later reckoning, hardly anyone disputed that they were the finest DJ and MC pairing of hip-hop's golden age.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.