Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... is released

Why it matters

Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... came out on Loud on August 1, 1995. It is Raekwon's solo debut, the second Wu-Tang member solo album (after Method Man's Tical the year before). RZA produced everything. Ghostface Killah is on the album so heavily he is functionally a co-star; many people call the album Raekwon and Ghostface's joint album, even though Raekwon's name is on the cover. What this album does is invent the mafioso rap sub-genre that would dominate New York rap for the next four years. The conceit is two Staten Island kids playing characters out of a 1970s Italian gangster film. Raekwon raps as "Lex Diamonds." Ghostface raps as "Tony Starks." The samples are obscure 1970s soul (the Emotions, the Delfonics, Al Green) cleaned up by RZA into slow, smoky atmospheres. "Incarcerated Scarfaces," "Glaciers of Ice," "Ice Cream," "Verbal Intercourse" (with Nas, his first feature on a Wu album). Cuban Linx is on the short list of perfect Wu solo albums. You should listen to it in order. The mood is the point.