Critical Voices – Raekwon: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Part II

Just going by the album cover, which features Raekwon and partner-in-crime Ghostface Killah recreating the unforgettable pose they struck 14 years ago on the front of their original classic, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, this sequel purports to recapture the style of the original Mafioso classic. The music itself doesn’t disappoint either, as Raekwon and the rest of his Wu-Tang Clan-mates deliver another installment of gritty, vivid mobster rap over cold, menacing beats.
Although producer the RZA, the original architect of the Wu’s distinctly cold and dark sound, only contributes two beats to the album, he serves the album well as executive producer, getting East Coast heavyweights the Alchemist, Marley Marl, and Pete Rock to approximate the Clan’s cold, menacing aesthetic. Posse cuts like “House of Flying Daggers,” laced with a plodding, skull-rattling thump courtesy of the late J Dilla, recall the Wu-Tang debut album Enter the 36 Chambers. “Sonny’s Missing,” full of eerie horn stabs and brooding strings, finds Raekwon in top storytelling form, narrating a gruesome murder/kidnapping: “Chunk of meat flew off his cheekbone/ broken teeth/ blew a hole in his shirt and we took all his weed.”
Indeed, this album certainly has the feel of the Clan’s classic mid-90s releases, with every member (except the reclusive U-God) making an appearance.  Ghostface still brings his high-pitched, turbocharged imagery, agile-tongued Method Man delivers sharp witticisms and side-splitting punchlines, and Inspectah Deck strings together more assonant syllables than you can count.
Like the 1995 version, this is gangsta rap in its most vivid, literary form—equal parts braggadocio and soul-baring honesty about the paranoia and violence that comes along with the life of a cocaine kingpin. In an era when coke rappers are a dime-a-dozen and Scarface references are nearly obligatory, it’s refreshing to hear the originator of the Mafioso subgenre reassert his dominance over the rest of the crowd.
Voice’s Choices: “House of Flying Daggers,” “Kiss the Ring,” “New Wu”