Eric B’s Part
Rhythm Section
In my opinion, Follow The Leader is completely carried by a standout beat by Eric B. It opens with a beautiful, kinda-TB-303-sounding bassline that the New York Times at the time called, “Space Age”. The line (and the song) are unusually fast for hip-hop, clocking in at a steady 110bpm. The bassline uses two sequences of short 16th notes, first from the 1 to the 2, then from the 3 to the 4. The quick repeated notes give the bassline a driving quality, further emphasized by the short length of the looped pattern.
The beat comes in quickly, with single bar intro that transitions elegantly into a looped percussion sample from Coke Escovedo’s I Wouldn’t Change A Thing. The sample features heavy use of open high hats, twice per bar, first between 1 and 2, then between 3 and 4. This interfaces well with the repeated bass loop, further emphasizing the forward drive of the fast beat.
Samples
On top of the rhythm section, Eric B peppers in two more instrumental samples throughout the song. First, a repeated horn riff from Baby Huey’s Listen To Me. Again, the horn is precisely selected to work with the rhythm of the bassline, coming in on the 2, the pickup to the 4, and the 4 itself. The sample’s time-stretched very slightly, giving the horn a subtly ethereal sound.
Doubling down on ethereal, Eric B introduces a string sample from Bob James’ classic Nautilus. Nautilus has since been heavily oversampled, (189 times, by WhoSampled’s count), so in order to see if the song meets this somewhat-absurd metric of originality, I checked to see who was first. Prior to 1988, when Follow The Leader came out, Nautilus had apparently already been used a handful of times by artists such as Ultramagnetic MCs, Ice-T, and Geto Boys.
Anyway, the Nautilus sample is of an electric keyboard using a soft, mysterious tone. It quickly moves into a string line, to which Eric has added a distortion making it sound very digital/artificial/futuristic. A strong reverb adds to the acidic spaceyness. The sound evokes a 50s-style theremin-backed alien invasion, almost, but when combined with the moving vibes of the rest of the beat, it creates a feeling more like leaving on a spaceship.
Chorus
Eric B uses a Primo-style chorus: an interlude featuring turntablism and vocal samples over the same beat that drives the verses; rather than a separate recorded section. In this case, I think the style of chorus serves to add to the forward motion of the song that I keep talking about. By continuing the same beat, rather than a separate chorus-beat-section, Eric avoids breaking up the movement. He keeps the chorus short, quickly returning to Rakim’s steady flow.
Rakim’s Part
Lyrically, Follow The Leader comes from a time when people were just barely starting to say thoughtful things in rap music. It shows. Content-wise, the song is pretty empty, replete with boastfulness and signifying.
Nation of Islam bullshit
In a couple instances, R flirts with content by incorporating a vague theme of enlightenment. In one short snippet near the end of his second verse, R reveals through reference that the enlightenment to which you might follow him is found within the Five Percent Nation:
God by nature, mind raised in Asia / Since you was tricked, I have to raise ya / From the cradle to the grave / But remember - you're not a slave
Five Percenters believe that God is the Asiatic Blackman, that 85% of the world has been misled or “tricked” by a malicious 10% to believe that god isn’t the Asiatic Blackman, and that it’s up to the remaining 5% of the world (the Poor Religious Teachers of the Five Percent Nation) to open eyes. Read within the context of this segment, the whole song becomes a call to follow Rakim’s lead and join the Five Percenters. Fortunately, what Rakim lacks in lyrical content, he makes up for with wordplay and clever rhymes.
Beef
One interesting historical tidbit contained within the song is its references to short-lived beef between Rakim and EPMD’s Erick Sermon. In his 1987 track, I Ain’t No Joke, Rakim used the lines,
Play ‘em, so I’mma have to dis and broke / You could get a smack for this, I ain't no joke
In their debut single, a year later, EPMD used the lines,
It’s like a diggum smack / Smack me and I'll smack you back
Because of the similar use of the word “smack”, R’s fans took EPMD’s (actually cereal-referencing line) as a comeback diss, a response to Rakim’s own verse, and goaded Rakim into retaliating on Follow The Leader,
Stop buggin' a brother said dig him, I never dug him He couldn't follow the leader long enough so I drug him
To be honest, I’m not entirely sure how this constitutes a retaliation. I can’t find a specific reference within this line to EPMD, but Erick Sermon disagrees, saying that the line was Rakim’s attempt at “destroying [EPMD].” He later told NAS the story, and NAS summarized it in his 2004 track, UBR (Unauthorized Biography of Rakim),
EPMD put a record out, was dope / Tension spread, and I quote "Smack me and I smack you back" / Sounded like the answer to the I Ain't No Joke track