Review: Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II
Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II (2009) [EMI] // Grade: A-
Even with a title like Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II, and a cover that in more ways than one tries to evoke thoughts of the Purple Tape, I kept my optimism very guarded. Let’s be frank, Rae’s spent the last 14 years unable to deliver a suitable follow-up to his debut’s genius. So there was no way I just going to fall for these obvious ploys to prey on my nostalgia. Show & prove.
Slowly tracks would leak here and there… the internet grew hungry and I heard the numerous howls of a “return to form.” Again, I wasn’t falling for it. J. Dilla’s “House of Flying Daggers” isn’t so much a throwback to OB4CL or vintage RZA as it is to Wu-Tang Forever and 4th Disciple/Mathematics/True Master (take your pick). Not a bad song at all but if this was supposed to be the centerpiece of OB4CL II it didn’t really do much to raise my expectations. So naturally I grew more suspicious that Pt. II wasn’t going to be all talk as usual.
But here I am eating my words… or sentiments rather, which I made loud and clear in the office any time someone spoke about the album. What I was pessimistically hoping would at least provide a couple of strong songs, turned out to be one of the best albums I’ve heard this year. What’s even more staggering is that it does such over 22 tracks without ever feeling bloated. The who’s who on production, the lyrics, the guests MCs and of course Ghost & Rae all weave an intoxicating tapestry that delivers on all of those promises to not only transport you back to 1995, but do so without it ever feeling like just a throwback.
Is Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II as good as the original? Of course not, that would have been silly to expect. However OB4CL II is Rae’s Supreme Clientele… a great Wu album arriving right when you least expected to soundly reaffirm that the saga continues.
September 4th, 2009 at 9:41 am
Bump status since it dropped in my lap the other day. Subtract the two Dre tracks (awkwardly out of place production) and it’s solid front to back. Rae and Ghost back together to show all those fools what REAL coke rap is about. Total kick back with a blunt, close your eyes and let them narrate the movie type shit.
Everybody steps their game up and drops solid material, even Cabbiedonna.
September 4th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
This album has briefly restored my faith in hiphop. I like you was very guarded about this living up to the hype of being another classic but this may very well be one of the best pieces of hip hop i have copped over the past 7-8 years. The production is a lesson on how to put together a hip hop album (you mean using Alchemist, DRE, J Dilla, RZA, Marley Marl, etc. beats over the course of an album is a good idea?). Raekwon is spitting on par as usual. Ghostface sounds extra extra hungry too on his verses which is making me want his new album to live up to this standard as well. Thanks for the good post though. Just very happy to finally have an album that really brought me back to why I loved hip hop. These days all I hear from people is “you don’t like it cause it is grown n sexy rap” or “his style is maturing” or this rapper is trying to “do something different” or “he is bringing the future and you are living in the past”. All those comments are asinine to me. Did people ever stop to think that some of us don’t like our hip hop “grown n sexy”, think the sounds of the “future” are ass, and what is wrong with the past when the sound from the 80′s/90′s was what made hip hop hip hop. I am a 20 year+ listener of hip hop and it has been so trash over really the past couple of years that my faith in it has worn thin and it is just refreshing to have veterans of the game put the essence back into a hip hop album. This album is hip hop in its truest form. Props for the good review and thank for the vent space ha ha.
September 4th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Got the album 3 days ago and it was dope, i mean its not the like first one but this is 2009 version of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II. I’m also disappointed with Blueprint 3 i know Jay mentioned he moves on with music and makes something new and if you want the old jay go buy Reasonable Doubt or the Black Album, etc.. But Raekwon’s shit was good. I was bumping all night just chilling to it. Now I’m waiting for Ghostface’s new album which is dropping on Sept. 29th, Ghostdini: The Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City. I hope it gets leaked out soon.
All NYC real Hip Hop heads Stand Up………
September 4th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
This is the greatest rap release since Hell Hath No Fury. Maybe top 5 wu release status.
Perfect to blast lifted.