The lyrical giants of Hip-Hop’s mid-’80s aren’t the type of guys to always appreciate a camera up in their world. KRS-One, Big Daddy Kane, Rakim (as well as Kool G Rap, Kool Keith, Ice Cube, and Scarface) are big on their privacy.

Rakim’s not a Twitter guy, and he’s never been the type of person that was easily accessible to his peers, let alone those who want to document the culture that Rakim helped re-shape. Before you press play, you know that Rakim agreeing to a video vignette is no small deal. Then, after watching this amazingly-edited vignette on Rakim, New York, and all things between, you really get it. Hip-Hop is still living with giants, and Rakim’s impact on the culture and Heads in 2014 can be lost sometimes, but this stellar film by Matt Bieler just gets it.

Moreover, they got access to Rakim in the studio, backstage, on stage, and traveling. Listening to The R rap his rhymes slowly, over some accented production drives home how timeless the saxophone player-turned-God MC really is.

WORDS BY RAKIM from Matt Bieler on Vimeo.

Related: Rakim Speaks With Chairman Mao (Video)