On August 1, 1995, Raekwon “The Chef” Served Us This Mouthwatering Joint Right Here…
SO MANY BANGERS!!!
Knowledge God
Criminology
Incarcerated Scarfaces
Rainy Dayz
Guillotine (Swordz)
Can It Be All So Simple
Glaciers of Ice
Verbal Intercourse (Feat. Nas!)
Ice Cream
Wu-Gambinos
Wow, another 20 year anniversary… 1995 was a damn good year for Hip-Hop apparently! A few of my emcee friends rate this as the best Hip-Hop album EVER made, and for good reason. Seriously, I can randomly pick a song out of the 10 listed above and put it up against ANY song from ANY other crew aside from the Wu. Any day of the week. Twice on Wu Wednesday…
20 Years Is A HUGE Accomplishment!
To me, “The Wu” represents success at its finest. Having that dream. Believing in yourself. Working hard. Sticking together. So many components that as far as I know, only The Wu has achieved on such a massive scale. Now that I think about it, every since Marley Marl’s, “The Symphony”, I’ve had a love for large crews who can show and prove.
It’s just more dope to me when you got like 8 emcees dropping bombs on one track. All with different styles but each with a comparable skill level. That, versus one really dope emcee spitting through the whole song.
Obviously not taking anything away from the solo artist, but unity is an added factor that can’t be measured by yourself. And I’ll just say it: As black men we need to stick together but it’s hard to. Period! So that’s why to me, The Wu shines above all other groups. Not just lyrics and beats, but TOGETHERNESS!
After bumping Built 4 Cuban Linx for these past 2 decades, I can still safely say there’s not a crew out there, past or present, that can fuck with The Wu. We can debate all day about individual members. Raekwon is arguably one of the dopest emcees ever. Or is it Ghost? or RZA? or GZA? One thing you can’t argue with is when you put all these brothas on a track, and then you have NAS bless the intro… there’s NOBODY fucking with that!
It’s amazing how fast time passes. I wonder how many young rappers under 20 have never heard this album. What I’m even more interested in is how many of the youth HAVE heard Cuban Linx… Know ALL the lyrics… The ones that have been influenced, and bump it to this day, those are the artists I look forward to hearing… If that’s you, hit me up in the comments and let’s connect the dots!
Raekwon – Built 4 Cuban Linx – Full Album!
Couple in Futuristic Flying Car Bumpin Night Rider by XRAYi!
The Future Is Now. Press Play!
