Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... - Background

Background

Raekwon released Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... as his first solo album, and the third seen from the Wu after the release of their debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), with Method Man's Tical and Ol' Dirty Bastard's Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version released prior. The song "Can It Be All So Simple," from 36 Chambers, marked the first recorded exhibition of Raekwon and Ghostface Killah as a duo, as the two would further establish this alliance on Only Built 4 Cuban Linx.... Much of the content on the album deals with real life topics and situations that both Raekwon and Ghostface Killah commonly encountered and experienced while growing up in Staten Island, New York. In an interview with Wax Poetics, Raekwon explained "I grew up in the street, so I talked about the shit I knew and saw. We did the hustlin’ thing, we did the crime thing; we did all the things that made us feel like mobsters or Mafiosos in some way." In a different article, Ghostface Killah recollected "Back then I was punchin' a lot of rap niggas in their face, and niggas was getting beat up in the clubs. We were banned from everything. They wouldn't even let me in the Tunnel. Niggas was scared to death when I was out there wilding. I was fucking niggas up, robbing niggas, fucking a lot of bitches, just doing dumb shit."

In regards to his and Ghostface's partnership, Raekwon later commented "Ghost and me, especially at the time, had this identical-twin effect on each other. We would joke about the same things and laugh at the same shit. We were into the same clothes and shit. We were like the EPMD of the crew." Producer RZA also commented on the duo's congruency:

Rae and Ghost together, those two right there were notorious kids from two different projects. Cuban Linx was an opportunity for Rae and Ghost to give us the street side. When we did it, I said, "yo, it's gonna be a very dangerous album; it's gonna change the game. We gonna invite those demons, every negative stereotype, and deal with them." It's like the shit was lived; a lot of it was lived or experienced in one form or another. It's so natural, it don't feel like songs. It was a chance to show the world not only how New York lived, but also how Shaolin preserved New York. An older generation was leaving and getting older. We're from the crack generation - that real gritty, rough project shit. We was on corners at 15, 16, doing shit you couldn't imagine. —RZA

Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... features a wide array of Wu-Tang members, as well as Wu-Tang affiliates Cappadonna, and Blue Raspberry. It also features a guest appearance from rapper Nas, making this the first collaboration with a non-affiliated artist on a Wu-Tang related album. Regarding this event, Nas later recalled "Rae would come out to Queensbridge, I would go to Staten Island. We'd just ride and hang out all night. We didn't call each other to work. We called each other to hang out. Somehow we wound up in the studio. RZA had a couple of beats. He played them for me. I got on both of them. The other one never came out. I was honored to be asked to be on the album. Raekwon was ahead of his time. I knew Rae was a classic artist and the album was going to be a music classic."