Album: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...
Release Date: August 1, 1995
Producer: RZA
Review: Kung-fu movies may help set the tone for the average Wu-Tang affiliate project, but Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... could be called the closest thing to a concept album so far on the Map of Shaolin. The story goes that Raekwon and Ghostface (who appears on the album nearly as much as Rae) transition from being petty New York thugs to setting up a future, even if that means doing so illegally. The album begins with a skit where Raekwon discusses getting a better deal wholesaling drugs; similar skits are peppered throughout the album. For example, the remix of "Can it Be All So Simple" opens with Rae catching a thief stealing from his operation; Raekwon gets shot trying to bust up the robbery. "Wu-Gambinos" starts with RZA receiving a call from Ghostface Killah, informing him that a man who's just arrived for an illicit deal is tied to a criminal who's been caught and is "singing like a canary" at a nearby police station. Furthermore, the already-nickname-laden Wu-Tang Clan and other guest stars receive extra aliases to sound like mobsters for their appearances on this album: RZA is Bobby Steels, Raekwon is Lou Diamond, Masta Killa is Noodles, Cappadonna is Cappachino, Nas is Nas Escobar, U-God is Lucky Hands and Inspectah Deck is Rollie Fingers. Continuing with pre-existing names from their earlier careers, GZA is The Genius, Method Man is Johnny Blaze and Ghostface is Tony Starks (the latter two after the Marvel Comics characters of the same name). GZA is also referred to as Maximillian, referencing (alongside Masta Killa's "Noodles") the gangster film Once Upon a Time in America.
Understanding the Scarface-style conceit of Cuban Linx helps understand just part of what made this album so influential, but more on that later. It also runs the length of the album and lends an air of realistic fiction to the disc. If we imagine the pinstripe suits and mountains of cocaine associated with films like The Godfather and Scarface, respectively, RZA's smoother beats and lighter pianos fit like a glove. It's no wonder there are so many samples from the John Woo assassin movie The Killer throughout the album. RZA has admitted in interviews that he spent close to four years in his basement studio, working on production for Enter the Wu-Tang, Tical, Return to the 36 Chambers, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Liquid Swords and Ironman. This led to a consistent but never repetitious sound across all six albums. Cuban Linx's proper music starts with a bang (literally) on "Knuckleheadz," a popping and buttery-smooth hip-hop joint followed by a triple threat of gang-related Wu bangers - "Knowledge God," "Criminology" and "Incarcerated Scarfaces." RZA's beats turn to a beautiful wariness on "Rainy Dayz," which features an unforgettable violin line; more strings and a curious guitar follow on "Guillotine (Swordz)."
On the first half of the album, there are plenty of great lyrics waiting to pounce on the listener - especially from the guest stars. "Knuckleheadz" alone provides some great lines: Ghost's verse starts with references to the yakuza ("chop his fingers in the drug game,"a punishment for mistakes by gang members) and The Killer ("lead singer, humdinger, flash is the aftermath" referring to the nightclub singer who is blinded by a gunshot in the beginning of the film); U-God blasts off with a tongue-twister: "The rap scar is on, rap parmesan / Put it on, seal it on; we're silicone / Spark it to your talkathon, this rap phenomenon." "Rainy Dayz" is a great moody piece that finds the return of Blue Raspberry, who provided the interpolation of "I Will Survive" on Method Man's "Release Yo' Delf." Here, Blue Raspberry provides beautiful, original vocals about her man going insane from the life of a criminal. "Guillotine (Swordz)," my personal favorite on the first half, provides perfect space for Inspectah Deck to unleash yet another mind-blowing verse as well. His spot opens with "Poisonous paragraphs smash the phonograph in half / It be the Inspectah Deck on the warpath." He's giving himself a shout-out - which you come to expect in hip-hop - but implying that his lyrics (paragraphs) infect your body like a poison and are strong enough to break the record (smash the phonograph in half). Great rhyming. None of this is to imply that Rae is outshone by his contemporaries, though. The Chef brings it to the table on every track - "Incarcerated Scarfaces" and "Knowledge God" are 100% solo tracks that stand well on their own, with "Incarcerated Scarfaces" receiving considerable airplay despite never being a single.
At the midway point in the album, RZA returns to the eerie, murky beats reminiscent of Tical with "Ice Water," which also marks the first-ever guest spot of the unofficial 10th Wu-general, Cappadonna. Cappadonna is known for his odd line breaks and spread-out imagery, and he shows initial traces of that on "Ice Water" with the following:
"Donna holy fat bags of weed, ravioli
Pasta, bodyguard the killa bees
songs like Kevin Costner
Infrared all inside your bumbo
Rasta, Cappadonna pimp the derby like a mobster."
If that sounds a bit freeform, look at it again using the words "pasta," "Costner," "rasta" and "mobster" as the anchor points. They rhyme, but they land at such strange places on each beat (as is shown by the structure I used above) that it's easy to be thrown off by them, unlike his earlier clearly-structured couplet "Sipping on Moet, laid up, Rae-Gambino / Mastermind the plan, Tony Starks, Cappachino." Cappadonna has been a "love him or hate him" voice since debuting on this song.
Blue Raspberry returns on "Glaciers of Ice," which also features Masta Killa - one of the most mysterious members of the Clan. Masta Killa smuggles in some deep thoughts before slipping back into the shadows, e.g. "Violent temperaments left continents dented / Poison vintage wine rhymes I invented / Drunk by the drunken punches that puncture the heart / Vital sparks from the arteries start." Nas guest stars on "Verbal Intercourse" alongside Rae and Ghost. "Wisdom Body," a Ghostface solo track, brings back a great staple of RZA's production - old-school soul music, specifically in its jazzy New York piano. Before RZA's self-described "closing credits" song "North Star (Jewels)" that ends the album/story, the NYC jazz piano from "Wisdom Body" goes a lot more uptempo for two of the album's best tracks - "Ice Cream" and "Wu-Gambinos." The active and engaging drums, bass, piano and string sounds go to great lengths to set the Wu family up for some of the finest verses of the '90s. "Ice Cream," the album's third single, boasts a hook from Method Man that sticks in your head for days along with the music behind it, but Ghostface's opening lines (once again) kill it. "Yo honey dip, summertime fine jewelry drippin' / Seen you on Pickens with a bunch of chickens how you're cliquing" translates from Wu slang into an anecdote of Ghost making his moves on a beautiful, diamond-wearing girl on Pickens Ave. in Brooklyn surrounded by either 1) several low-class, promiscuous women or 2) cowardly men. Then "Wu-Gambinos," my other personal favorite, lights off an intensely loquacious verse from The RZA himself in his only lyrical guest spot on the album. RZA's style has only gotten more unique and intelligent over the years, but when he spits his fast and conspiratorial lyrics on "Wu-Gambinos," it's easy to see he's always had it in him. "Double-breasted, bulletproof vested, well-protected / The heart, the ribcage, the chest and solar plexus / Casting stones, breaking two hundred and six bones / And watch your ass get blown to a sea of fire and brimstone," he states, followed later by "Local biochemical, universal giant, the black general / Lickin' shots at Davy Crockett on the bicentennial." It's a flurry of Biblical, criminal and biological warfare imagery that depicts the stakes of the attempted characters' heists and coups before the album settles to its logical finale.
In short? Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... is regarded alongside GZA's Liquid Swords as being the best solo album from the Wu, and with good reason. It's a 73-minute mindfuck of fantastic music and Grade-AAA lyrics.
Legacy: The Italian mafioso theme of Cuban Linx has been imitated and echoed by rappers for close to 20 years. It's one of the premier albums to associate hard gang life as something more than utter chaos and degradation, likening it to the strategic and psychological power playing of the classic mobster. Cuban Linx is such a perfect album in music and lyrics that some critics and listeners trashed Rae's sophomore release, Immobilarity, simply for not being another hour of the same. Rae had such big shoes to fill from his own debut that he would spend the better part of the 2000s just working on the sequel, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt. 2. Many critics have hailed Cuban Linx as one of the greatest rap albums of all time. It is an absolute must-own for any hip-hop listener in general, let alone a Wu-Tang fan. If you don't own it already, shame on you. If you do, pull it out and give it another listen. If you're already listening, turn it up. This is the sound of the industry changing forever.
Recommended Tracks: All of them, really, but you shouldn't put away whichever device on which you're reading this until you've heard "Guillotine (Swordz)," "Rainy Dayz," "Ice Cream" and "Wu-Gambinos."
Next Week: GZA - Liquid Swords.
Sources:
http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2010/08/raekwon-the-making-of-only-built-for-cuban-linx/
http://www.acclaimedmusic.net/Current/A951.htm
You're best one yet, not having read Liquid Swords.
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