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Tracklist:
Baggage Handlers [prod. J. Dilla]
The House of Flying Daggers (feat. Inspectah Deck, Ghostface Killah & Method Man) [prod. J. Dilla]
Sonny's Missing [prod. Pete Rock]
Weak Spot (feat. RZA & GZA) [prod. RZA]
Secret Indictment aka Black Mozart (feat. RZA & Inspectah Deck) [prod. RZA]
Wu Oooh aka New Wu (feat. Ghostface Killah & Method Man) [prod. RZA]
Thug World (feat. Inspectah Deck, RZA & U-God) [prod. RZA]
Surgical Gloves [prod. Alchemist]
State of Grace (feat. Busta Rhymes) [prod. RZA]
Rockstars and Smoking Barrels (feat. Inspectah Deck, GZA & Stone Mecca) [prod. RZA]
Catalina (feat. Lyfe Jennings) [prod. Dr. Dre]
No Matter How Hard You Try (feat. U-God, RZA & Inspectah Deck) [prod. RZA]
10 Bricks (feat. Ghostface Killah & Cappadonna) [prod. J. Dilla]
Kareem Khan (feat. GZA & Masta Killa) [prod. Justice & RZA]
N*gga Me (feat. The Game) [prod. Dr. Dre]
Kiss the Ring (feat. Inspectah Deck & Masta Killa) [prod. Scram Jones]
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt II, the sequel to Raekwon’s 1995 mafioso rap masterpiece, had a long and difficult production process, suffering from years-long delays before its eventual release. In short, Raekwon and RZA conceptualized the sequel in 2004, shortly after the release of Rae’s previous solo effort The Lex Diamond Story which, much to the disappointment of Wu fanatics, lacked any input from the Clan’s mastermind RZA. Throughout 2005, Rae and RZA worked closely together, recruiting Busta Rhymes as an executive producer, and fellow Clan members Inspectah Deck and GZA to feature heavily, filling the role Ghostface Killah provided on the first LP. Unfortunately, Ghost was absent during the recording sessions, but in early 2006 he claimed to have sent Rae three verses over the internet to be included on the album. In interviews from late 2005, Rae assured that the album was basically finished and nearly in the mixing stages. It was to be produced entirely by RZA, barring two contributions from Dr. Dre and a few from J Dilla as well. Scram Jones and Alchemist were also known to be shopping beats for the album around this time, but it’s unknown if Rae had recorded on those yet.
With the album being virtually completed at this time, Raekwon gave multiple release dates: Winter 2005 (to coincide with the tenth year anniversary of Cuban Linx 1), January 2006, and April 2006. The only issue was that Raekwon was having difficulty finding a label to distribute the album. In mid-2006, RZA struck a deal with Dr. Dre, and the album was finally set to release on Aftermath. Raekwon quickly turned sour on the deal as he noticed that Dr. Dre had his focus set entirely on Detox and had no actual plans to release OB4CL2 any time soon. According to an anonymous Aftermeth rep at the time, Dre returned from his Christmas vacation and was asked about the album, simply stating, “Nah, I ain’t fukkin’ with that no more.”
Over the next two years, Rae spoke frequently about the “label bullshyt” he was facing, but must have held on to some glimmer of hope as he didn’t officially leave Aftermath until 2008. Rae had ditched RZA at this point in the production due to a falling out as RZA had taken many of the tracks intended for the album and repurposed them for other projects. To fill these holes, Rae recorded a bunch of new material for the album with producers BT, Necro, MoSS, True Master and Icewater Productions. Ghostface came in clutch and recorded a bunch of verses, and even some other Wu affiliates like Blue Raspberry put in some last minute contributions. Raekwon ultimately decided to release the album independently on his own Ice H20 label.
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2 was praised by critics and fans who felt that it recaptured the same essence of the original. However, the album we got in 2009 was quite drastically different from the album promised in 2006. Sure, the Dre songs both made it on there as well as the Dilla-produced House of Flying Dragons, but only two RZA cuts made it onto the final product, GZA’s “co-starring” role was reduced to a single appearance, there were far more non-Wu guests than promised, and U-God was completely absent. This compilation attempts to reconstruct to the best of my ability what Cuban Linx II would have sounded like in early 2006. I kept it to 16 tracks (same as Cuban Linx 1 minus the skits) to avoid the bloat that the final release suffered from. Two of the songs on here are my own edits: State of Grace with Busta's verse and Thug World with Rae & U-God's verses (later released on Execution in Autumn). Enjoy!
Sidenote: If any of ya'll bothered to read all that and are interested, let me know because I may expand on the history behind this album for a blog post (similar to my last one on Ghost and DOOM's unreleased project)
On a personal level I have always held Raekwon's marvelous '95 debut "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..." to be the single greatest album ever c...
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