Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II is released

Why it matters

Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II came out September 8, 2009, on Ice H2O/Decon/EMI. It is Raekwon's long-awaited sequel to Only Built 4 Cuban Linx in 1995. The fourteen-year gap was unusual; sequels-to-classic-rap-albums had almost never worked when other rappers had tried them. Rae waited fourteen years partly because he wanted the production right and partly because his post-Wu-Tang label situation had been a mess. The Cuban Linx II production roster is a who's-who of mid-2000s underground rap producers, plus the late J Dilla (who had completed beats for the project before his death) and RZA, who handled several tracks. Pete Rock, Marley Marl, Erick Sermon, Necro, Alchemist, Scram Jones, and others fill out the rest. The album is structurally a continuation of the 1995 LP's mafioso-narrative conceit, with Raekwon and Ghostface again the central voices. The album was treated by most critics, on release, as a successful sequel, which is the rare verdict. You should hear it. Most belated-sequel rap albums are bad. This one is not.