219. Raekwon, "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx"

 


I really liked this album, which was heretofore unknown to me.  Once again, I betray my breathtaking ignorance of modern hip hop music.  Modern-ish, I guess; this came out in 1995.  

There's the undeniable swagger you expect from any Wu Tang album, but what got me were the densely packed rhymes.  Check this out, from "Knowledge God":

Fake niggaz throw shit in they drinks
Club nights we snatch linx politic, Africans and chinks
While World of Sport niggaz snort coke by the seconds
Niggaz projects filled with fiends injectin
Morphine, the God seen more CREAM, and upstate
Cousin Reek, almost got hit with fourteen
Chill Pah, the God'll be a Star when you come home
Light bones and let you rock my 3G stone
So, see cousin, yo I was workin, cats I'm jerkin
And uptown these niggaz actin like they hurtin
Keys twenty-four a brick
Columbians be on some bullshit, that's why Poppy got hit

There's a lot going on here, but you get the idea.  This album is fascinated by crime; it's shot through not just with ordinary, drug-dealing stuff, but also there's a lot of references to organized crime and the Mafia and mafioso figures.  If you're an up and comer in New York City, and you're interested in crime, look to the people who did it best, the original originals.  

There is also more than one reference to a criminal who would go on to bigger things:

I probably wax, tax, smack rap niggaz who fax
niggaz lyrics is wack nigga
Can't stand unofficial, wet tissue, blank bustin Scud missles
You rollin like Trump, you get your meat lumped
For real, it's just slang rap democracy
Here's the policy, slide off the ring, plus the Wallabees

The beats, by RZA, are great.  As you'd expect, the samples are expertly chosen and perfect for the songs - sparse, cold, a little foreboding.  It's incredible to think about RZA in his Staten Island studio, cranking out one Wu Tang album after another.  It's a feat of production that might never be equalled again.

My lack of deep knowledge about rap history keeps me from authoritatively being able to place this record in its proper context, but I'll trust what I've read and seen and say this is a landmark album, one of the best of its kind.

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? Yes.

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