SAN FRANCISCO, CA--Aging gracefully in the rap game is no easy task.

Just ask Flavor Flav.

At 38 years old and without an album release since 1999, legendary rapper Rakim has provided no way to judge if the years have been kind to his flow, widely considered to be the greatest of all time.

But in a jaw-dropping performance at Slim's in San Francisco last night, the self-proclaimed microphone fiend put any doubts to rest, blazing through a set of songs and lyrics that are forever ingrained into hip-hop culture.

Backed by famed New York DJ Kid Capri and wearing a dark velour sweatsuit, Rakim took the stage to a deafening applause for a relatively small venue. He basked in the response for a moment and then jumped right into "My Melody," the insta-classic from 1987's Paid in Full, Eric B. and Rakim's debut album.

It was clear from the outset that Rakim was on his game, performing tight turns of phrase and lyrical gymnastics with ease. While the incessant shouts of Kid Capri and wordy boasts of opener Ras Kass struggled to get the crowd hyped up, Rakim's mere presence on stage commanded the room's attention.

The set included tracks from Rakim's two solo records and his four albums with Eric B., reciting phrases that MCs have since mimicked countless times, from "flip the script" and "don't sweat the technique" to "pump up the volume" and "it's been a long time."

Rakim's lyrical content is about as limited as it gets. He raps about how tight his flow is and how he can out-rhyme anyone on the planet, and that's about it. But when can you actually out-rhyme anyone on the planet, who's to argue?

As on all of his albums, the beats simply provided a head-nodding backdrop on which Rakim painted his lyrics. Eric B. raided the catalog of James Brown for samples long before it became standard operating procedure in hip-hop, so the beat of every song seemed to have a terribly familiar air to it.

And Rakim did answer the biggest question hanging over the performance, saying he's going to release his long-anticipated solo album in January. He performed a brief snippet of one song off the record, called "It's Nuthin'." Rakim signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath six years ago but the two were never able to finish an album due to creative differences, and it's unclear on what label his album will be released.

But logistics aside, on this night, Rakim rapped it best himself on his classic "Follow the Leader"--"I can take a phrase that's rarely heard / Flip it / Now it's a daily word."