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Press Release: New album by legendary lyricist Rakim <em>Live, Lost & Found</em>

2:41 p.m. · February 27, 2008 · by Dave Park

(New York, NY) – Legendary lyricist Rakim is set to release a brand new album titled Live, Lost & Found on March 4th, 2008. Live, Lost & Found features four previously unreleased tracks, including the new single “It’s Nothing,” as well as an additional 17 tracks of classic Rakim material performed live.

Rakim is near-universally acknowledged as one of the greatest MCs — perhaps the greatest — of all time within the hip-hop community. His flow is smooth and liquid, inflected with jazz rhythms and carried off with an effortless cool that makes it sound as though he’s not even breaking a sweat.

After teaming up with Queens DJ Eric B. in 1986, Rakim recorded a string of classic material like “Eric B. Is President,” “I Ain't No Joke” and “Paid in Full.” The duo’s first two full-length albums, 1987’s Paid in Full and 1988’s Follow the Leader, are still regarded as all-time hip-hop classics; Rakim’s work set out a blueprint for other, similarly progressive-minded MCs to follow, and helped ensure that even after the rise of other fertile scenes around the country, East Coast rap would maintain a reputation as the center of innovative lyrical technique.

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