60 RAPPERS IN 60 DAYS: Raekwon

By Keith Murphy
With the return of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Raekwon the Chef is back to cook up something marvelous

Raekwon is quite aware of the doubters. In fact the Wu-Tang Clan spitter can relate. How do you make a sequel to one of hip hop’s most revered albums 1995’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… (Loud)? A work that raised the proverbial stakes on crime-laced lyrics, with its dusted, soul-drenched production courtesy of the Wu’s resident studio genius, the RZA. For nearly five years, Corey Woods, now 39, was struggling to find an answer to that elusive question during the making of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II (H2O/EMI). The results? A classic, if you let Raekwon tell it. *
VIBE: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II was four years in the making? Why the long wait?

Raekwon: It was just all about building that chemistry. It was about the comfort zone that I wanted to be in with this album. With following up a classic I didn’t know how long it was going to take. The most important thing for me was getting the sound right—that vintage Cuban Linx sound that everybody has been looking for. When we made the first one I had a lot of beats on that album that were five years old. So it’s ironic that some of the tracks that we are releasing now are three to five years old as well. And then on top of that, I was shopping for a new record deal. Everything wasn’t actually coming the way I wanted it to come. So it was like a blood, sweat, and tears thing I had to go through with this album.

You mentioned trying to get a record deal. How close were you to signing with Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment?

It was more or less a situation that could have transpired, which basically winded up being a big rumor. Dre and I didn’t work it out to where we felt like it was going to be a comfortable situation because he was very busy. I knew I was making an album that was very important to hip hop, so if I’m not getting that time I’m going to feel discouraged like, Yo, you really not respecting what you have in your face. But you never heard Rae say, Yo, I’m an Aftermath artist now. I let people go with their own imagination because that’s what they are going to do anyway. If it’s a good rumor, run with it [laughs]. But the great thing is me and Dre still remain friends, regardless. He gave me some heat! I even remember him telling me, and this is some real shit, “Yo if you don’t put this album out on a major call me for an investment purposes.” He was really sincere with everything he was saying. And that was good enough for me.

Early on it was reported that Busta Rhymes would be playing an executive producer role on Cuban II.

Busta played a huge role in the making of this album. He’s a very good friend. Busta is a five-star general. You don’t have too many artists who are 20 years in the game and still spit like they been out for two years. But he was a huge motivator when I was making this album. Sometimes you have to listen to those that are close to you to get the truth. Sometimes you can deal with advice better from your friend faster than you can from your woman. Your girl will be like, Well, I told you that a long time ago! [laughs].

For this album you collaborated with outside producers in addition to RZA, who was responsible for crafting the original sound for the first Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. Who else was involved behind the boards?This happens to be one of the most incredible hit list of producers in a long time. I got the RZA on it, of course, I got J Dilla on it, God bless his soul. I have Pete Rock, who is a legend in the game. Anybody that recognizes hip hop recognizes him. There’s Marley Marl, who built The Juice Crew and then Dr. Dre. These are all cats that I felt were the parts that gave me a chance to build a robot.

So RZA knew he had to come with some heat, huh?

[Laughs] Exactly. So with these different producers involved in Cuban II it was like Rae being an evil scientist building a robot to challenge RZA. That’s what I think is so interesting about this album. RZA came in as a backseat driver and Rae became the driver. RZA felt like I had enough experience to control this project. At the end of the day I have to control my situation.
It seems you also made it a point that the producers kept in tune with RZA’s dirty, unpolished sound. How important was it to give a nod to OB4CL’s original conceptual production?

I wanted to get that vintage sound that everybody loved; the karate flicks, that dirty Wu-Tang sound that we gave hip hop. This album is going left to everything going on today. This is a collector’s item album. Y’all want a classic? We are giving you a classic. My thing is I’m put on a pedestal to where people already recognize what I’ve done. Now they want to see if I can get back to where I need to be at.

Another aspect of the album that folks are sure to talk about is the unity Wu-Tang Clan shows throughout, something we haven’t seen in years.

Ghost came in and did what he had to do. Meth, the Genius, and the RZA all came through. But the dude that people are really going to be talking about is Inspectah Deck. He took it to another level and I’m so happy for dude because he’s so underrated.

There are also some non-Wu cameos on Cuban II, right?

Yeah. Jadakiss, who come from our school of hard knocks, Beanie Siegel and Nas. I feel like we are the same kind of cats in a way. We are stubborn street dudes [laughs]. I just wanted to stay close to the people I felt were built like us.

Are you worried about the newer generation of hip hop fans not being able to digest an album like this from a veteran artist?

No. This is beyond the young generation. Now some of the younger generation might be up on it. But my thing was to satisfy the people that know about it. The people that have followed me, the people that made me; the people that today when I go out there and tour constantly beat me in the head with, “Where the fuck is Cuban Linx II!” Those are the ones I’m worried about [laughs]. I’m a more advanced MC, so I wouldn’t really expect but so many kids to follow my lingo. This is not nursery rhymes. This is a grown-man’s album.

It’s interesting to see someone from that era release an album on their own terms.Well, when you talk about going back to what we did 15 years ago, those were big lyrics we were shooting. I come from the school that maybe might have been that era of the best MCs ever. We came after Big Daddy Kane and Slick Rick. Not just talent, but art. Niggas was making murals and shit. Now you may get a regular 5 by 7 and that’s cute. But we made our art big. And I think that this album reflects that.

Now that you are a father, were you hesitant with going back to the hardcore drug-dealing storylines of OB4CL?

I wouldn’t really recommend this album for kids. You really have to be a certain age to really go out and get this album. This is Rated R. If you want to listen to it you have to be with someone else to basically take you through it and tell you this is a movie. It’s not for you to get influenced to go back into the streets. That’s the thing I had to think about when I was making Cuban II. It seems like everybody is not respecting my artistry unless I’m talking about guns or coke or killings and this and that.


You created a monster, right?

That kind of fucks with me at times. Because I’m a chef, man. I can make a turkey burger and a fucking fish sandwich for you. But no, you want the turkey burger though. So I’ll give you that this time.

Part of OB4CL’s mythology is its references to ’hood fashion. What’s the one shoe you had to have as a kid growing up?

The Gucci joints. Those shoes were a form of you making it. Those sneakers back then were about $180. You wore them and people knew you had some kind of style. The first thing women look at is what’s on your feet. We were always into clothes and that sneaker meant a lot. That goes for the Clarks as well. We got all our style from the older brothers. They were always fresh.

If you could get any producer to fill in for the RZA on those earlier Wu-Tang albums in the ’90s, who would you recruit?

I would have went at Marley Marl, Pete Rock, DJ Premier, and Dr. Dre because I was a huge N.W.A fan. These dudes revolved their life around hip hop. You got people that talk about the parties and events that were going on in the early days. Well these cats were disciples to this shit. A little nigga won’t eat, but buy a turntable. To me that’s the passion and the love for it. That’s the fun of becoming an icon.

What’s the underlining theme you want the fans to get from Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II?

That I didn’t try to compete with [the original] Cuban Linx because that’s already in a glass case. That’s ’95 action. But what I did do was add on and keep the same vibe and energy that you felt from the early ’90s. This is not about being all over the fucking radio. If it does that, that’s a plus, if not I’m happy because I kept it where it needed to be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jP1PliAiuc