Eric B. & Rakim
At House of Blues, Boston, Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets $39.50-$65, www.houseofblues.com/boston
How has the world changed in the three decades since Eric B. & Rakim ruled the hip-hop roost?
“Drastically,’’ says Rakim, the rapper who has finally reunited with his DJ counterpart Eric Barrier 25 years after they split up. The two kick off a 20-date, month-long US tour Sunday at House of Blues.
The first thing Rakim mentions in response to the question are the recent shootings, and the young people who have responded with protests and boycotts.
“You might say I’m corny, man, but the Age of Aquarius is very much in effect. The way the kids took charge, and basically shook up the world. That’s a perfect example of the Age of Aquarius.’’
Rakim, born William Griffin Jr., isn’t often accused of coming off “corny.’’ With a voice like a dark alley and a facility for rhyme that overwhelmed his contemporaries, he earned the imposing nickname the God MC. Combined with Eric B.’s deft, polyrhythmic soul and funk samples, the group nearly singlehandedly elevated hip-hop from the playground chants of its early years to a deadly serious art form.
Though they went years without appearing together, Eric B. says the two remain family.
“We haven’t changed a bit,’’ he says, speaking in a separate phone conversation. “It’s like riding a bike. You might be a little wobbly when you first get on, but you be poppin’ wheelies when you get around the corner.’’
After teasing their impending reunion two years ago, last July Eric B. & Rakim headlined the historic Apollo Theater in Harlem to mark the 30th anniversary of “Paid in Full,’’ their electrifying debut album. Eric B. wore a tux, like he was in the center of a boxing ring. Since the duo split, he’s chased a lifelong dream of working in the fight game. He was part of Mike Tyson’s entourage before working with Riddick Bowe and Floyd Mayweather, among others.
“Everyone just has different things in their life they want to do,’’ he says. “I wanted to clean up my bucket list, explore the world. Rap was our gateway into anything we wanted to do.’’
The group’s music always had real force, like a relentless flurry of body shots. On the slinky “Let the Rhythm Hit ’Em,’’ the title track of their third album, they punctuated the off-beat with the repeated sound of a grunt, a punch to the gut.
“My approach to writing rhymes went hand in hand with the music,’’ Rakim explains, his iconic voice deep and thoughtful. “I’d try to make different rhythms with my rhymes on the track, by tripping up patterns, using multi-syllable words, different syncopations. I’d try to be like a different instrument.’’
Case in point: On the classic “Microphone Fiend,’’ he laid out his addiction to his craft. “Vocals, vocabulary, your verses, you’re stuck in/The mic is a Drano, volcanoes erupting/Rhymes overflowing, gradually growing/Everything is written in a code, so it can coincide/My thought’s a guide/Forty-eight tracks to slide.’’
The group has often been credited with cementing hip-hop’s infatuation with James Brown samples — not that Brown approved. At the mere mention of his name, says Eric B., Brown’s “hair used to stand up like Don King’s. He wanted some action with us. What he didn’t understand was, we were his biggest supporters.’’
But Eric B. was always taught to respect his elders.
“A guy like James Brown has walked the walk, talked the talk,’’ he says. “I can’t disrespect James Brown in any kind of way. In my household, the adults tell you where to get off at.’’
Both Eric B. and Rakim have grown children who have never seen their fathers perform together. Eric B. says the reunion tour is in part for them.
“Little Eric just turned 21,’’ he says. “If you ask me, last week he was just 5 years old.’’
Eric B. just returned from a trip to California, where he joined Kool Moe Dee, Slick Rick, and more of hip-hop’s pioneers to celebrate the launch of LL Cool J’s Rock the Bells Radio, a new Sirius XM channel dedicated to the music’s origins and golden age.
Both Eric B. and Rakim consider it a blessing that the music they made together has matured into a form of nostalgia, just as classic soul was for them.
“When you listen to old-school music, you can smell your mother’s food in the kitchen,’’ Rakim says. “You can feel where you was when you first heard that song. That’s what’s beautiful about music. It’s for everyone, but we all have individual memories that make us love it.’’
Working as a recording artist, he says, the music you release belongs not to the maker, but the listeners.
“I guess age and time helped me learn about that.’’
Eric B. & Rakim
At House of Blues, Boston, Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets $39.50-65, www.houseofblues.com/boston.
James Sullivan can be reached at jamesgsullivan@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @sullivanjames.
