It was a full two years between Follow The Leader and this album dropping.

That might not seem like much but at the speed rap music was moving every three to six months in the late 80's into early 90's?

Two full calendar years for a rap act with no new music was somewhere between a Sade-sized layoff and dog years.

That same layoff essentially killed off Run-DMC (the biggest act in the genre's history to that date) over the course of two such layoffs (from Raising Hell to Tougher Than Leather was the killer but TTL to Back From Hell effectively put the final nails in the coffin).

PE survived one from It Takes A Nation to Fear but would have never made it if there hadn't owned the summer of '89 in between with Fight The Power as a soundtrack anthem featured in the year's most talked-about film, been on two of the biggest national tours during that time, stayed in the news due to controversy, released a video for seemingly every song off Nation which Yo! kept in rotation, broken up, then came back with the Terrordome/911 double-shot after the Griff flap.

When they went two, almost three, between Apocalypse and their next full-on album......they were DONE.

Waiting two full years after Bigger and Deffer is part of the reason LL seemed so out of step and passé in the minds of the rap-loving public when he dropped Walking With A Panther.

And L made damn sure to get Jingling (Remix), hop on a track with EPMD to solidify the base and drop Boomin System all within about six to nine months of Panther bricking and no more than a calendar year on the dot before dropping Mama Said that summer.

A nearly three year wait after that for 14 Shots To The Dome?!?

Nah B, take that weak shit home.

Stetsasonic In Full Gear>>>>Blood, Sweat & No Goddamn Ears.

Even Paul's Boutique bricked when it finally came out after License to Ill.

When they built back up from there and folks caught onto that hard left it was with a different audience who were more "Beastie Boys Fans" than "rap fans".

I could go on but you get the idea.

Not sure what the exact factors were in the case of Eric B & Rakim's time away but I'm guessing it was a combination of going from UNI to MCA along with perhaps Paul C's murder while he was helping them make it.

They survived, because Ra was/is The God and he was probably at his lyrical apex (co-sign Hood on "No Omega" btw, that was my favorite amongst the non-singles).

But they didn't *thrive* the way they did coming with Follow The Leader behind Paid In Full.

At least part of the reason I believe was that time gap.

Also it didn't have a "Microphone Fiend" or "Eric B Is President" move-the-crowd party single.

Let The Rhythm Hit Em as a lead single was basically an even darker, denser version of Follow The Leader.

In The Ghetto is an all-time great song but it was too soulful, moody, mid tempo and deep to connect in the same way as those early singles.

Plus they fucked up the sparse beauty of the original with the horn remix for the video version.

Mahogany might have been the better second single because it would have been a song that females could feel but rap fans still could respect.

But I'm not sure it would have mattered all that much.

It was two full years later.

Ra's voice had gotten deeper, the content had too and he was gonna do what he wanted to do.

This album I still view as a success though, probably the album I still most listen to out of the three, still kept a bigger portion of their fans than they had any right to expect considering the factors above.

But another two years for the next album and the flame was almost dead like the duo's recording relationship would be soonafter.