Deep Album Cuts Vol. 394: Raekwon
Last week I made a Wu-Tang Clan playlist, and I wanted to follow that with some playlists from Wu-Tang solo careers, starting with Raekwon The Chef.
Raekwon deep album cuts (Spotify playlist):
1. Knowledge God
2. Verbal Intercourse f/ Ghostface Killah and Nas
3. Spot Rusherz
4. Rainy Dayz f/ Ghostface Killah and Blue Raspberry
5. Ice Water f/ Ghostface Killah and Cappadonna
6. Sneakers
7. Casablanca
8. Missing Watch f/ Ghostface Killah and Polite
9. Smith Bros.
10. 10 Bricks f/ Ghostface Killah and Cappadonna
11. Broken Safety f/ Jadakiss and Styles P
12. Have Mercy f/ Beanie Sigel
13. Kiss The Ring f/ Inspectah Deck and Masta Killa
14. Criminology 2.5 with Ghostface Killah and Method Man
15. Masters of Our Fate f/ Black Thought
16. Last Trip To Scotland f/ Lloyd Banks
17. Double Dragon f/ Mean Doe Green
18. 1,2 1,2 f/ Snoop Dogg
19. Live To Die
20. Nothing
21. M&N f/ P.U.R.E.
22. Wild Corsicans f/ Conway The Machine, Benny The Butcher, and Westside Gunn
23. Pomogranite f/ Inspectah Deck and Carlton Fisk
Tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 from Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... (1995)
Tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 from Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... (1995)
Tracks 6 and 7 from Immobilarity (1999)
Tracks 8 and 9 from The Lex Diamond Story (2003)
Tracks 10, 11, 12, and 13 from Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II (2009)
Track 14 from Wu-Tang Presents...Wu-Massacre with Method Man and Ghostface Killah (2010)
Track 15 and 16 from Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang (2011)
Track 17 from The Tonite Show EP (2013)
Tracks 18 and 19 from Fly International Luxurious Art (2015)
Tracks 20 and 21 from The Wild (2017)
Tracks 22 and 23 from The Emperor's New Clothes (2025)
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...has always been one of the most revered Wu-Tang solo albums, and if anything its reputation has only grown over the years, at this point it might be giving Enter the Wu-Tang competition as the greatest album to come out of the whole crew. Obviously it was only nominally a solo album, though, Ghostface's name and face are on the cover and he raps on over half the songs. Rae's absolutely one of the best MCs in the crew but it never felt like he's a hitmaker, Cuban Linx's biggest hit "Ice Cream" is carried by Method Man and Ghost and might have felt more at home on one of their albums,
While most Wu-Tang rappers besides Ghost had trouble following up their debuts, Raekwon really struggled with the sophomore slump with Immobilarity. I didn't even listen to the entire thing until recently, I just remember seeing the videos on "Rap City" back in the day and it did not feel like anybody cared about that record. RZA is credited with producing 2 skits on the album but he doesn't have any beats on it, and really other than a Meth feature and a Masta Killa feature, Wu-Tang's not really involved in the album, "Sneakers," a catchy little sneaker head anthem produced Pete Rock, is really the kind of thing Rae could have released as a single if you ask me. All the other tracks on Immobilarity are by no-names or second string Bad Boy and Terror Squad producers, though, some of the tracks are nice and some are awful.
By The Lex Diamond Story, Raekwon might have gotten a bit defensive about the reverence for his debut. "Smith Bros." opens with Raekwon arguing with a nerdy journalist who suggests his best days are behind him ("Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... was your classic album, are you gonna match that again?" "Listen, you fucking asshole, you's a fucking dick, man, talk about something that means something, man, we're talking about me, we're talking about the movements that I'm making right now"). And then the next solo album Rae released was Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II, which I kind of complained was overrated because of '90s nostalgia at the time, but it's pretty great, easily his second best solo album. "10 Bricks" is killer, and "Have Mercy" is probably the last classic Beanie Sigel verse.
Rae started talking an eventual Cuban Linx ... Pt. III on his next album, Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang. That has yet to happen, but his latest album The Emperor's New Clothes, part of Mass Appeal's Legend Has It... series, was purposefully released just before the 30th anniversary of Cuban Linx. It's fun to hear Rae on a song with the Griselda guys, who probably wouldn't exist if not for Cuban Linx, on "Wild Corsicans."
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on Tuesday, March 17, 2026 at 11:12 AM.
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