'Knowledge of self': How a key phrase from Islam became a pillar of hip-hop

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Su'ad Abdul Khabeer, University of Michigan

(THE CONVERSATION) I was 9 years old when Eric B. and Rakim’s “Paid in Full” dropped. I have vivid memories of the bass-laden track booming out of car stereos and hearing it on Black radio, like Kiss FM’s top eight at 8 p.m. countdown.

On the track “Move the Crowd,” Rakim – also known as “the God MC” – rhymes “All praise is due to Allah and that’s a blessing.” Growing up as a Black Muslim in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, I was already familiar with the phrase. Like all Muslims, I learned to say it during my daily prayers and as an expression of gratitude.

But when Rakim laced those words into the lyrics of what ultimately became a popular song, he affirmed what I was seeing around me in my Brooklyn community – that Islam and Muslims were prominent features of Black life.

A key concept

Rakim dropped another familiar phrase in the song: knowledge of self.

When Rakim extols the benefits of “knowledge of self” to himself as an emcee and a human being, he is...