In today's Classic Review, editor Alex Thompson takes a look back at one of the definitive rap albums of the mid 90s.
While Wu Tang’s 36 Chambers may have paved the way for gangster rap in the mid 90s, it was Raekwon who perfected the art form on his 1995 magnum opus Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. It’s an album that went on to influence the gangster rap of artists like Jay Z and the Notorious BIG with its vivid portrayals of New York gangs and crime as well as its biting instrumentals and lavish production. The album built on the violent imagery of previous Wu Tang projects, combining the Kung-Fu violence of 36 Chambers with the world of drug dealers, hit men and mafiosa. This album is laced with narcotics and the world of organised crime.
While this album is billed as a Raekwon solo effort, I’m going to treat it as another Wu Tang album - after all everyone bar ODB features on this album and it feels in many ways a spiritual successor to 36 Chambers.
Raekwon paints images of corruption, chaos and violence across the albums dense 18 track run, there’s still that grit and violence of 36 Chambers but, on Cuban Linx, it seems much nastier and darker. This is mirrored in the production aesthetics and instrumentals, dark and moody beats that blend the sparse and haunting horror-core elements of early Wu Tang with lavish horn sections, dense piano melodies and choppy drum grooves. This leads to moments like the juxtaposing and jaunty swing of the groove on ‘Knuckleheadz’, which sits in stark contrast to the gun shots, vicious lyrics and staccato delivery. Other tracks are more straight forward Wu Tang material, the eerie piano and vocal samples on ‘Knowledge God’ for example.
Perhaps the stand-out track from the album, ‘Criminology’ sees the perfect blend between punchy instrumentals and dense lyricism. Ghostface and Raekwon deliver some manic and violent verses that sit nestled among a sparse piano melody and relentless drum beat. It’s utterly engrossing, the swirling and haunting production elements combined with booming horns and razor sharp lyrics making it a timeless example of the group's work.
Tracks like ‘Incarcerated Scarfaces’, ‘Ice Cream’ and ‘Guillotine (Swordz)’ continue this momentum across the album, delivering heavy and heady boom-bap beats and bulletproof bars. Punchlines hit hard and heavy, lines about drugs and guns come thick and fast. It’s not just mindless violence, however. There’s a calculated malice to Raekwon’s bars, the rapper using violence not just to shock but also to paint vivid narratives of mafia raids, drug deals and hits. It’s like watching Scarface and Goodfellas rolled into one, Raekwon and Co creating a world of violence, wealth and vice.
The album has a real cinematic quality to it, with Raekwon billed as the ‘star’, Ghostface the ‘guest star’ and producer RZA as the ‘director’. This creates a tightness to the cinematic themes at play, reinforced through the verses, instrumentals and production aesthetics. Everything feels interconnected and linked, much like the Cuban chain alluded to in the album's title.
These tracks are interspersed with skits that actually serve a narrative purpose. There’s nothing worse than hip hop skits that serve purely as filler but thankfully Cuban Linx never falls into this trap, using samples, skits and sound effects to add to the texture and narrative of the album. For the perfect example of this, look at ‘Rainy Days’ where the opening skit hooks into the themes and subjects of the track, with even the sound effects finding their way into the fabric of the production itself.
The flipped remix of ‘Can It Be All So Simple’ sees Raekown chop and play with the Wu Tang classic, pulverising the beat until it's barely recognisable before stomping all over it with his trademark grit and growl. Inspectah Deck also appears on this track to deliver a perfect Wu Tang 16, a verse that harkens back to the glory of 36 Chambers while playing with some new ideas. Other tracks couldn’t be further from this blueprint. ‘Glaciers Of Ice’ is dense and lavish in its production and beat, sounding more like the tracks off later solo albums like GZA’s Liquid Swords. It doesn’t feel out of place, it simply keeps the album feeling fresh and stopping it from falling into the group’s comfort zone.
‘Verbal Intercourse’ sees the group’s first collaborative effort with Nas, who brings one of the best verses on the entire album who dives between drugs and violence over a pitched down sample of The Emotions. This is peak Wu Tang, the gore and vivid imagery of the group’s storytelling combined with a gutted and skewed soul sample and that haunting RZA production.
Overall, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx is a truly unique album that changed the course of hip hop in the 1990s. It’s innovative, cinematic portrayals of gangs, drug dealers and mafias paved the way for gangster rap of the late 90s and changed the perception of rap forever. Production and instrumentals are stunning, some of RZA’s finest beats and samples find their way onto this project and combine with some iconic Wu Tang bars to create classic tracks. This album builds on everything that made 36 Chambers such a groundbreaking project but injects a theatre and cinema that gives it a totally unique quality. This is Wu Tang storytelling at its finest, as the synthesis of innovative production and samples with clever lyrics and punchy verses creates a bloodthirsty and drug fuelled narrative.
Think of this album as one of the group’s iconic laced joints. The framework of this album (the joint if you like) is Wu Tang through and through, sprinkled with an energy, creativity and textural richness that keeps it feeling fresh and punchy (the cocaine in this analogy).
And while that may be a somewhat heavy handed metaphor, it doesn’t stop me from thinking of this album as a “Wu Banger” of a project.
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