Coming up in New York City in the 1980s, Rakim was a young kid obsessed with hip-hop and hip-hop culture "s emergence into the mainstream.

He remembers seeing Eddie Murphy on "Saturday Night Live" during his "Mister Robinson "s Neighborhood" sketches and being particularly taken aback by the character "s footwear. "When we seen his suede Pumas on TV, we felt that was so hip-hop, know what I mean?" says Rakim, his distinctive growl like a warm purr, during a telephone interview last week. "We had never seen suede Pumas on TV."

Rakim didn "t know it at the time, but he was about to make an even bigger stamp on hip-hop. In 1987, he and his partner Eric B. made the hip-hop masterwork "Paid in Full," which would go on to become one of the most influential and admired rap albums of all-time. Rakim — commonly known as the "God MC" — celebrates the album "s 25th anniversary with a concert Saturday night at the Masonic Temple in Detroit.

The album "s groundwork was laid in 1985 with his first two singles "My Melody" and "Eric B Is President," which were recorded in Queensbridge, N.Y., with pioneering hip-hop DJ Marley Marl and led to Rakim "s record deal. "My Melody" laid bare his relaxed but intricate style, which focused on complex rhyme schemes that elevated hip-hop beyond the standard rhyme patterns of the day.

Rakim was a student of artists like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, the Treacherous Three, the Cold Crush Four and Kurtis Blow, but had a style all his own and a delivery that was notable in its effortlessness. He liked that hip-hop was still so young that he could pretty much make up the rules as he went along.

"Nobody knew what to expect, nobody had an idea what I should be doing," says Rakim, born William Griffin Jr. "So I was free at the time."

Eric B. and Rakim entered Power Play Studios in Queens in the early warm weather months in 1987 and kept a lively studio atmosphere, with their friends, cousins, brothers and various other producers hanging around. "We kept our friends close, so we could understand who we was doing it for and not get sidetracked," says the 44-year-old. "We still knew that the streets and the listeners was our bosses."

The environment was loose, and so was Eric B. and Rakim "s recording style. They would loop up beats, Rakim would write to them, and he would go in the microphone booth and read the rhymes off his pad, rather than memorizing and reciting them.

Looking back, it "s the one thing he wishes he could change. "It would have came out the same way, I just think I would have had a little more control and I would put a little more emphasis on certain things," says Rakim, who calls himself his own worst critic. "Just knowing it better, you can kind of convey it better."

The first song he wrote for the album was "I Ain "t No Joke," the opening song. He was looking for a slogan or a phrase he knew New Yorkers would embrace, something that would look good written on a sweatshirt; when he settled on "I Ain "t No Joke" he knew he was onto something. Songs like "I Know You Got Soul," "Move the Crowd" and "Paid in Full" followed and rounded out the project. Upon "Paid in Full "s" release in July 1987, it was quickly hailed as a huge step forward for hip-hop.

For Rakim, the positive feedback was overwhelming.

"I was such a fan of hip-hop that to know I was (having an impact) was a great feeling," the rapper says. Over the years, he says, people have told him they used the album as a tool to grow up, and that their relationship with the album made Rakim feel like a family member.

"People tell me they felt like I was their brother, or they grew up with me. We try to make music to inspire people, so to hear that is a beautiful feeling, man."

Rakim is working on new material with Pharrell Williams and hopes to have a single out by the end of the year, with an album to follow in 2013. But Saturday "s show is about celebrating "Paid in Full" and its lasting impact.

"I definitely want to showcase that album, as a tribute to that the fans that love it," he says. "Hopefully we can kind of rebuild that energy we had back then and bring it back."

Rakim

with Big Daddy Kane,

Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh

7 p.m. Saturday

Masonic Temple

500 Temple St., Detroit

Tickets $55-$65

(313) 832-7100

Ticketmaster.com

detroitnews.com