So The Black Album, Jay-Z's supposed final long player, just dropped. Jay's retirement is just about as big a deal as he's making it into; this is a man who has spent years revitalizing lyrical hip-hop in an age of excess, and when the dust settles, there'll be no reservations about putting Mr. Carter up there with Biggie and Chuck D and all the rest. Jay understands the legacy he's leaving behind, and he's making sure to go out on top.

And The Black Album is a pretty great record to leave with. There's only one problem (well, "Change Clothes" makes it two); Jay insists on calling himself "the greatest rapper alive." You know, Jay, you're high up on that list, I assure you. But last I heard, Rakim was still breathing. And until that changes, he's got you beat.

With an absolutely unparalleled bob-and-weave rhyme style and a sense of the language like few other emcees ever, Rakim still stands as hip-hop's finest lyricist. Others have come close, but in the more than fifteen years since he and DJ Eric B. released Paid in Full, nobody's found a way to attack a beat like Rakim.

Breaking open with "I Ain't No Joke," Paid in Full kicks out one brilliant track after the next. Eric B's barely there beats serve Rakim's effortlessly catchy rhymes beautifully. There's nothing to "I Ain't No Joke" but a little snare, a horn, some scratching and Rakim's razor-sharp lyrics. That's all it needs.

The classics don't stop, as Paid in Full gives us "I Know You Got Soul," "Move the Crowd" and the masterful title track. Each one, with its thick snare and Rakim's timeless rhymes, is so simple, but quite clever.

If you don't know Rakim's rap on "Paid in Full" ("thinking of a master plan," anyone?) after the third or fourth listen, your brain's at capacity. It will get in there, and it won't leave. That's lyricism.

Eric B's thunderous beats deserve their props, too, and they get 'em, both in the almost comically old-school (but incredibly listenable) "Eric B Is On the Cut" and "Chinese Arithmetic," and in verse in the slamming "Eric B Is President."

Maybe the single greatest hip-hop song ever, "Eric B is President" reinvents Afrika Bambaataa as a lo-fi James Brown cover band, with some rhymes I bet even Rakim can't believe he wrote.

It must tell you something that Timbaland, Eminem, Mos Def, Fred Durst, Master P, Snoop Dogg and just about anybody else you can think of have all lifted Rakim lines from Paid in Full practically word-for-word.

This is a man who wrote gospel and verse on lyrics that can't help but move the crowd, and one listen to Paid in Full (or its equally impressive successor, Follow the Leader) should make you a believer. That, I assure you, ain't no joke.

You say you love hip-hop? Don't have Paid in Full? Put off that Black Album until your next paycheck.

You'll like it better if you know where it comes from anyway.