{"id":251,"date":"2013-08-13T17:21:26","date_gmt":"2013-08-13T17:21:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/batterymedia.com\/blog\/?p=251"},"modified":"2014-03-27T15:38:22","modified_gmt":"2014-03-27T15:38:22","slug":"rs-480-raekwon-only-built-4-cuban-linx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/batterymedia.com\/blog\/?p=251","title":{"rendered":"RS #480: Raekwon, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx"},"content":{"rendered":"
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#480<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Raekwon,\u00a0Only Built\u00a0<\/em>4 Cuban Linx<\/em><\/h3>\n
Release Date:<\/strong>\u00a01994<\/div>\n
Previously Owned:<\/strong>\u00a0No
\nFirst Time Listen:<\/strong>\u00a0Yes<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\"Raekwon
Is Raekwon getting photobombed here?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Impressions:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0The title of the album itself is a challenge: “Are you tough enough for this?” \u00a0I guess we’ll see. Hmmm, kinda takes a while to get going… “Knuckleheadz,” production boring, but bouncy. Not bad, but seems a bit ordinary for ’90s hip hop. “Criminology” clicked a bit more from me.\u00a0This album’s vibe takes me back to college; living in a post-graduate haze back in the “slums” of Champaign, IL, \u00a0shooting hoop and hanging out with local hip-hop and techno DJs. That’s some weird deja vu. Lyrically, it’s a densely packed album, that showcases cinematic storytelling, it’s more of a audio track of a movie about the rise and fall of gangsters. Raekwon can get a little one note as a rapper, but there’s a lot going on here. “Rainy Dayz” has a nice female back up singer and string sample that mixes thing up. Kind of long and too many “skits” in between songs, although I will never get enough of kung-fu movie samples. Nas makes an impression with his smooth flow on “Verbal Intercourse.” I don’t know what it is about the Wu-Tang brand… I like and admire them, but for some reason they’ve never won me over completely as a fan. Maybe it’s my personal taste or something, but for a group with so much skill and so many members: their whole world view seems really narrow. But, I guess that’s the point of this album, hence the crime narrative. I also suspect an album like this will suffer from my one-listen-and-review format. I could see a record like this needing a bunch of listens before it becomes fully appreciated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Starred Songs:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0“Criminology,” “Rainy Dayz”<\/div>\n
Sneaky Track:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0“Heaven and Hell”<\/div>\n
Should this album be on the list?\u00a0<\/strong>It’s good, super-influentual and mostly a continuation of the Wu-Tang sound. I could see it falling off.<\/div>\n
Replace With:<\/strong>\u00a0I had my druthers I’d maybe drop A Tribe Called Quest’s “Midnight Maurauders” in here. That’s a little more my taste.<\/div>\n
Will you listen to this again?<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Maybe.
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Verdict:<\/strong>\u00a0Quality ’90s hip-hop classic from the Wu-Tang collective, but is it great enough for this list?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Rating:<\/strong>\u00a0\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

#480 Raekwon,\u00a0Only Built\u00a04 Cuban Linx Release Date:\u00a01994 Previously Owned:\u00a0No First Time Listen:\u00a0Yes Impressions:\u00a0\u00a0The title of the album itself is a challenge: “Are you tough enough for this?” \u00a0I guess we’ll see. Hmmm, kinda takes a while to get going… “Knuckleheadz,” production boring, but bouncy. Not bad, but seems a bit ordinary for ’90s hip hop. … Continue reading RS #480: Raekwon, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,36,31,10,7,77,14,9,76],"class_list":["post-251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rolling-stone-top-500-albums","tag-61","tag-3-stars","tag-debut","tag-first-time-listen","tag-hiphop","tag-raekwon","tag-replace","tag-unowned","tag-wu-tang-clan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/batterymedia.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/batterymedia.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/batterymedia.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/batterymedia.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/batterymedia.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/batterymedia.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":772,"href":"http:\/\/batterymedia.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions\/772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/batterymedia.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/batterymedia.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/batterymedia.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}