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Back to Paid in Full 25-Year Anniversary

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Lyrics: "I'm just an addict/ Addicted to music/ Maybe it's a habit/ I gotta use it/ Even if it's jazz or the quiet storm/ I hook a beat up convert it in a hip-hop form"

Song: "I Ain't No Joke"

Sure, the opening line from "I Ain't No Joke" gets everyone crazy, as the horns build and Rakim declares, "I ain't no joke. I used to let the mic smoke." However, this line toward the end of Ra's first verse sums up the future of hip-hop. Even if it's jazz, hip-hop was going to make it its own. Fast-forward 25 years, and that's exactly what the genre has done. From pop music to dubstep, rap is omnipresent. To think, Rakim saw it coming the whole time.