Eric B. & Rakim were an East Coast hip hop duo that popularised the jazz-influenced hip hop of the late 1980s. Despite spawning no major chart hits, the duo are generally considered to be one of the most influential and groundbreaking hip-hop groups ever. This is due to both Eric B.'s jazzy production and Rakim's revolutionary rapping style; which was smooth, seemingly effortless, and used remarkably complex rhyming schemes, involving internal-rhymes and sophisticated metaphors. It is the general consensus that almost all modern MCs have been influenced in some way by Rakim's rapping technique. Eric B.'s use of a James Brown sample in "I Know You Got Soul" introduced the "godfather rap" period of heavy use of old R&B and soul music as background music for hip-hop songs.

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