Happy 25th Anniversary to Raekwon’s debut solo album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…, originally released August 1, 1995.
These three elements are intrinsic to the creation and sound of the Wu-Tang Clan: 1. Kung-Fu flicks, 2. The teachings of the Nations of the Gods and Earths, and 3. Crime. Life in the rugged sections of Staten Island a.k.a. Shao-Lin shaped many of the emcees in the collective. Like many aspiring emcees, members of the camp made their living through extra-legal means, seeking out hip-hop as a way to escape the violence and criminal activity that surrounded them.
The influence of this criminal activity is definitely present on Wu-Tang Clan’s transcendent debut album, Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993). And it permeates nearly every bar of nearly every song on Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…, the debut album by Corey “Raekwon The Chef” Woods. Released 25 years ago, it’s among the best Wu-Tang Clan related albums ever released, and also sits comfortably as one of the greatest hip-hop albums ever made.
Wu-Tang Clan’s roll out in the mid-1990s is the stuff of legend, and in 1995, they were firing on all cylinders. After leading with Enter The Wu-Tang, solo releases by two of the Clan’s most charismatic emcees emerged in the form of Method Man’s Tical (1994) and Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s Return To The 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version (1995). Months later, Raekwon got his shot.
Raekwon had been one of the Clan’s workhorses on Enter The Wu-Tang. He earned acclaim and recognition for his opening verse on the album’s biggest single, “C.R.E.A.M.” However, I don’t think many were expecting his solo release to be quite the tour de force that it clearly is.
OB4CL is just as influential and revelatory as Enter The Wu-Tang. Its depiction of ground-level street dealing and criminal escapades is fantastically detailed yet anchored in reality. Sure, rappers had rapped about slanging cocaine and crack before (Mob Style, Geto Boys, etc.), but this project practically created a sub-genre. OB4CL influenced acts for years to come, including Clipse, Roc Marciano, and the Griselda camp.
OB4CL unfolds like a late ’70s/early ’80s crime flick. Dialogue from John Woo’s The Killer and Brian DePalma’s Scarface are interspersed throughout the album, lending to its mood. Furthermore, Raekwon gave all of the members of the Clan Mafioso-influenced aliases for the duration of the album. For example, Raekwon became “Lou Diamonds” (eventually morphing into Lex Diamonds), while Inspectah Deck became “Rollie Fingers” and Masta Killa became “Noodles,” just to name a few. Ghostface Killah’s alias “Tony Starks” has endured throughout his career.
RZA’s effort behind the boards is indispensable to OB4CL’s success, as the album was his best production effort at the time. The Abbott’s dusty style was already transformative when the Wu-Tang was first introduced, but by OB4CL, he had further refined his approach, creating a unique atmosphere without sacrificing any of the grit. The album is a clinic in hip-hop sound manipulation, both subtle and bombastic.
OB4CL rocketed Raekwon into the A-list of emcees, as his performance here is in another stratosphere. The album brings Raekwon’s skill as a street correspondent into sharp focus. Long influenced by precise storytellers like Rakim and Slick Rick, Rae invokes feelings of fellow lyrical titan Kool G Rap this time out. Armed with an excellent gift for detail, Rae graphically describes intricate tales of living extra legally, hustling to make money through dealing drugs and dispensing death.
Raekwon exhibits his narrative ability on “Knowledge God,” painting a meticulous picture of a rival dealer, Mike Lavonia, and his own efforts to take him out. Meanwhile, “Spot Rusherz” is a captivating account of Raekwon plotting and executing a robbery of another rival dealer that comes in from out of town, horning in on Rae’s territory.
“Incarcerated Scarfaces” is a striking depiction of life in Staten Island’s projects. RZA’s understated production, consisting of a drum loop and spare keyboard note, puts the focus on Raekwon’s vivid rhymes. In between illustrations of desolate street corners and busted elevators, he shows a marked disdain for fake gangstas on the track, rapping, “I'll probably wax tracks, smack rap n****s, you facts / N****s’ lyrics are wack, n***a / Can’t stand unofficial, wet tissue, blank busting Scud missiles / You rolling like Trump? You get your meat lumped.”
Another central component to OB4CL’s enduring legacy is its role in putting Dennis “Ghostface Killah” Coles on the path to superstardom. I’ve written before how his guest verse on Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s “Brooklyn Zoo 2” was the beginning of Ghostface as we know him today, but he uses the full breadth and depth of his skills on this album. Ghost fittingly gets co-billing on OB4CL; his name appears below Raekwon’s on the album’s cover. Raekwon frequently acknowledges that OB4CL is as much Ghostface’s album as it is his own. Ghost raps on around 80% of the tracks (including the “Wisdom Body” solo track), kicking the flyest ad-libs ever and making the skits on the album all-time greats.
Raekwon and Ghostface first demonstrated their chemistry together on Enter The Wu-Tang’s “Can It All Be So Simple.” They continued to build on it with a pair of tracks that would go on to appear on the Fresh soundtrack (and appear on OB4CL as well). These included the “Can It All Be…” remix and “Heaven Or Hell.” The latter is the superior of the two, a melancholy tale of the pair sticking up one of their rivals. Raekwon reportedly wrote the song’s sole long verse, which features him and Ghostface passing the mic back and forth like the grimiest version of EPMD ever.
Ghostface’s lyrical performance stands out on his lead-off verse “Criminology.” Though both him and Raekwon attack the track like “blood-thirsty wolves” (to use Rae’s terminology from an XXL interview) Ghostface delivers one of the best verses of his storied career. The passion and ferocity are palpable in his voices and he weaves descriptions of hunting down his enemies. “While I’ll be trapped by sounds, locked behind loops,” he raps, “Throwing n****s off airplanes ’cause cash rules / Everything around me, black, as you can see / Swallow this murder one verse like god degree.” The track, which is RZA’s attempt at creating some breakbeat-based hip-hop, still sounds cinematic, with piano-note strikes and a neck-snapping drum track backing up soaring strings and horns.
Raekwon and Ghostface’s interplay on OB4CL’s skits also deserve attention. Whether it’s their “one last job” soliloquy on the album opening “striving for perfection” or Ghostface’s “crazy visions” of how to dye their omnipresent Wallaby Clarks, it infuses the album with an unmistakable character. The most talked about skit is still “Shark N****s (Biters),” where both Rae and Ghost attack style thieves (in this case, like The Notorious B.I.G.). While Raekwon rails against rappers who “wanna use your lines all ahead of time before you even get a chance to shine on your own shit,” Ghostface boldly proclaims, “I don't want n****s sounding like me… on no album.”
A Wu-Tang solo album was never just a Wu-Tang solo album. Not even two years after the release of Enter The Wu-Tang, The Wu was still largely an insular unit. Method Man and Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s success had made them sought-after commodities, but it was rare for other members of the crew to appear anywhere outside of each other’s projects. Hence, solo albums from members of the Clan celebrated the emcee’s talents and gave listeners previews of the group’s future.
For example, up until that point, most people’s only exposure to Masta Killa had been on the final verse of the Wu-Tang Clan’s “Da Mystery of Chessboxin’.” Here, he receives prime placement on “Glaciers Of Ice.” Over a chaotic guitar groove and many wailing vocals, Rae, Masta Killa, and Ghostface all deliver memorable verses, with Masta Killa rapping, “Violent temperaments left continents dented / Poison vintage wine rhymes I invented / Drunk by the drunken punches that punctures the heart / Vital sparks from the arteries stopped.” Ghostface steps in and delivers the exclamation point, sharing the Wu-Tang’s motto circa 1995: “My seeds grow with his seeds, marry his seeds / That's how we keep Wu-Tang money all up in the family.”
Similarly, most people had only heard U-God on a pair of relatively brief verses on Enter The Wu-Tang, as his incarceration had prevented him from recording more material. His verse on “Knuckeheadz” was a re-introduction to the emcee for most. According to U-God, he recorded the vocals two days after being released from prison. He implements a bouncy, sing-songy flow over a clipped piano loop, rapping, “Before we got dramatic and thoughts got sporadic / We grabbed golden tablets and quick guarded the Abbots.”
In an album that so heavily invokes The Killer and Scarface, “Guillotine (Swordz)” takes things back to Wu-Tang’s kung-fu flick roots, a posse cut featuring four of the Clan members brandishing their sharpest “sword” styles. It also whet the listener’s appetite for solo albums by The GZA (which would come a few months later) and Inspectah Deck (which would be delayed for years).
“Guillotine” features OB4CL’s best front to back lyrical performance. Deck does what he does best, leading off a great Wu-Tang posse cut with amazing precision. “Run fast, here comes the verbal assaulter,” he raps. “Rhymes running wild like a child in a walker.” Ghostface continues his hot streak throughout the album; after boasting about “gorillas injected with the strength of 80 midgets,” he vows that “hard-heads get shattered like mirrors / Beretta shots splatter your goose, scatter your feathers.”
However, it’s GZA, Wu-Tang’s elder statesman, who has the best verse on the song. “I bomb facts, my sword is an ax to split backs,” he raps. “Visible, like dope fiend tracks / Sky’s the limit, n****s is timid / And nobody knows how we move like wolves in sheep clothes.” After hearing this, Liquid Swords couldn’t come out fast enough for me.
The transcendent “Verbal Intercourse” features Nas on the sole “external” guest appearance on OB4CL. Back then, verses by Nas were also a relative rarity. Then basking in his post-Illmatic glory, the Queensbridge icon makes what represents only his second guest appearance since his debut album captured the imaginations of hip-hop fans worldwide (his other appearance, on Mobb Deep’s “Eye For An Eye,” also features Raekwon).
Nas, Raekwon, Ghostface, and RZA all move in synch, sculpting about a nearly perfect song about the spoils and consequences of a life in crime. Nas begins the track with literally one of the best verses of all-time. It’s always a joy to listen to Nas operate during these early years, striving to be the best emcee on the planet, but making it look easy and effortless. “It's like a cycle, n****s come home, some’ll go in / Do a bullet, come back, do the same shit again / From the womb to the tomb, presume the unpredictable / Guns salute life rapidly, that's the ritual.”
Raekwon and Ghostface also rise to the occasion, especially Ghost’s stark and brutal depiction of life behind bars. RZA also crafts a unique track, sampling an odd portion of The Emotions’ “If You Think It (You May As Well Do It),” leaving in portions of the opening dialogue in the loop. It comes together as a rare piece of hip-hop perfection. And on a personal note, it rounds out my top five favorite songs of all time.
OB4CL also features the first appearance on a major label release by Duane “Cappadonna” Hill. Cappadonna had been one of the O.G.s of Staten Island’s rap scene, mentoring members of the crew. He also went to prison for some years, and soon after getting out, U-God brought him down to the studio. As a result, he graces a pair of tracks on the album. Cappadonna makes his first appearance on “Ice Water,” sandwiched between verses by Ghostface and Raekwon (and apparently beating out GZA for a guest spot). RZA creates one of the most dizzying tracks on the album, filled with mesmerizing vocals and wraithlike howls, trills, and horns.
Cappadonna later joins Raekwon and Ghostface again on “Ice Cream,” arguably the album’s most acclaimed single. A dedication to the female form and the appetizing sweetness of the opposite sex, all three emcees kick some explicit smooth shit for the ladies. Method Man contributes the song’s hook, his best and most memorable since “C.R.E.A.M.” But the beat by the RZA is the song’s centerpiece, as he executes perhaps his strongest sample flip. He takes the mellow guitar strains of Earl Klugh’s “A Time For Love” and turns it into a haunting, yet inescapably catchy production masterpiece.
“Wu-Gambinos” is the album’s other Wu-Tang Clan posse cut, featuring verses from Ghostface, Method Man, RZA, and Masta Killa. The piano-driven sample and strings give the song a grand feel, as all five emcees roll through as crime rap dons, prepared to control the underworld and the hip-hop landscape as a whole through their “family” connections. “Ain’t nothing fraudulent here, we pioneer,” Method Man (a.k.a. Johnny Blaze) brags. “Commandeer a new frontier, this be the Wu, yeah.”
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… was great enough to transcend being a part of Wu-Tang’s continuing domination, entering the pantheon of timeless hip-hop classics. It’s a flawless entry and its impact is still being felt as a blueprint on how to speak about criminal activity on record while sounding as fly as a motherfucker. It led Wu-Tang to a peak that it had yet to reach and helped them cruise along on this elevated plateau for years to come.
LISTEN: