Put Your Mind on Pause: Eric B. For HOF President, Rakim for Vice

Pull your heads out your white-privileged assholes,
It's time for legit Rock voters to mob the polls.
One from Long Island, the other from Queens
Slayed the whole world and the '80s rap scenes.
Sampled sick beats like a Saturday at Costco,
Waist-deep in grooves, fleshed 'em out, let 'em grow.

"Paid in Full" — that's a landmark, a watershed
Cover of the album has 'em rollin' in bread.
Who needs an epic when you're trading in truth?
Spent a week slingin' rhymes standing in the booth.

F*ck Grandpa Flash, Rakim unleashed a furious
Five, they weren't spurious, and if you're curious,
He spit fires while B. backed him up
With a thick bass line; go on, raise up your cup.

Album No. 3 gave us more of the same traditional
Wordplay and sc-sc-scratching; it's just medicinal:
"Too many milligram/But what made a iller jam,"
Give a standing O to that lyrical grand slam.

Nothing lives forever, the pair cleaved in Ninety-Two.
There were court battles royale, the rift between 'em grew.
Public still paying their respects to seminal rap duo
Thousands of hits on YouTube, immortal like Chang kuo.

Let Mr. West tell you he owes them no debt,
Run back to your bookie and place a fat bet:
It's Eric B. for HOF President, Rakim for Vice.
Turn up your hearing aid, ain't gonna say it twice.

The voters: Who are you? Who who? Who who?

Allegedly, there are 500 voters who choose the Rock Hall inductees every year. There are no complaints about these people when the obvious artists get in — Run-D.M.C., Sex Pistols, U2 are among the more recent — but when there are no clear-cut hitmakers to choose from, it seems like this nebulous collection of ghouls falls flat on its face.

So who are they? One of our missions here at CDNR will be to find each and every one of these gods of the hall. Here's one:

Name: David Leaf
Occupation: Award-winning writer, director and producer 

"Did you say Hüsker Dü or Scooby Doo?"

Why he can be trusted to make the cool choices: He directed the rad doc "The U.S. vs. John Lennon" and "The Night James Brown Saved Boston"
Why he can't be trusted to make the cool choices: Based on his resume, he seems to only work with artists in the classic rock realm, including many projects on the Beatles and Beach Boys. Those are two amazing bands, but all his focus is on stuff from before 1980. He also wrote a book about the Bee Gees and did an A&E thing on Billy Joel.
Assessment: Leaf is an incredibly accomplished director and writer and, obviously, a music fan with (mostly) good taste. But do you think he knows who Paul Westerberg is? Do you think he could accurately judge Green Day beyond "American Idiot"? If he's still around will he have the stones to vote against Bush getting in? I say no. I say he's got to go.