Rakim: Tiny Desk Concert

It had been nearly a decade since Rakim released new music, but that drought ended Friday when the godfather of rap lyricism and one half of the revered duo Eric B Rakim released a new song, King s The track was written for Season 2 of Marvel s Luke Cage, which premiered on Netflix the same day, but it wasn t entirely new to select NPR staff; they heard it days earlier when the God MC performed at the Tiny Desk. The New York rap icon wasn t the only legend in the building that day. Ali Shaheed Muhammad of A Tribe Called Quest who produced and cowrote King s Paradise with keyboardist Adrian Younge under their new project The Midnight Hour played bass, and rising blues torchbearer Christone Kingfish Ingram sat in on guitar. King s Paradise pays homage to the heroes of the Harlem Renaissance as well as its fictional superhero, the bulletproof Luke Cage. Rakim tipped his hat to Philip Payton Jr. , Joe Lewis, Lena Horne, Malcolm X, Maya Angelou and Louis Armstrong, before concluding with