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Only Built 4 Cuban Linx by Raekwon

Only Built 4 Cuban Linx

Release Date: 8/1/1995

Recording Date: 1/1995

Tracks: 18

Length: 01:11:51 Hrs

Label: Loud

Type: CD,CS,LP

Genre/Styles:
United States of America, Gangsta Rap, East Coast Rap, Hardcore Rap, Electronic Drums

Album Tracks (18)

Song Title
Length
1.
Striving for Perfection
01:43
2.
Knuckleheadz
04:05
3.
Knowledge God
04:27
4.
Criminology
03:49
5.
Incarcerated Scarfaces
04:30
6.
Rainy Dayz
05:17
7.
Guillotine (Swordz)
04:21
8.
Can It Be All So Simple [Remix]
04:10
9.
Shark Niggas (Biters)
01:39
10.
Ice Water
04:02
11.
Glaciers of Ice
04:54
12.
Verbal Intercourse
04:07
13.
Wisdom Body
02:34
14.
Spot Rusherz
03:51
15.
Ice Cream
04:16
16.
Wu-Gambinos
05:09
17.
Heaven & Hell
04:57
18.
North Star (Jewels) [*]
04:00

What the Critics Say

A serious contender for the title of best Wu-Tang solo album (rivaled only by the Genius' Liquid Swords), Only Built 4 Cuban Linx is also perhaps the most influential, thanks to Raekwon's cinematic imagination. If the Genius is the Wu's best overall lyricist, Raekwon is arguably their best storyteller, and here he translates the epic themes and narratives of a Mafia movie into a startlingly accomplished hip-hop album. Raekwon wasn't the first to make the connection between gangsta rap and the Cosa Nostra (Kool G Rap pioneered that idea), but he was the one who popularized the trend. Cuban Linx's portraits of big-money drug deals and black underworld kingpins living in luxury had an enormous influence on the new New York hardcore scene, especially Mobb Deep and Nas, the latter of whom appears here on the much-revered duet "Verbal Intercourse." The fellow Clan members who show up as guests are recast under gangster aliases, and Ghostface Killah makes himself an indispensable foil, appearing on the vast majority of the tracks and enjoying his first truly extensive exposure on record. Behind them, RZA contributes some of the strongest production work of his career, indulging his taste for cinematic soundscapes in support of the album's tone; his tracks are appropriately dark or melancholy, shifting moods like different scenes in a film. Cuban Linx's first-person narratives are filled with paranoia, ambition, excess, and betrayal, fast rises and faster falls. There are plenty of highlights along the way -- the singles "Criminology" and "Ice Cream," the gentle "Rainy Dayz," the influential posse cut "Wu-Gambinos" -- and everything culminates in "Heaven & Hell" and its longing for redemption. Like the Genius' Liquid Swords, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx takes a few listens to reveal the full scope of its lyrical complexities, but it's immensely rewarding in the end, and it stands as a landmark in the new breed of gangsta rap. ~ Steve Huey, Rovi

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