Raekwon the Chef. The man has been cooking up lyrical flavor for 16 years and with the release of Only Built For Cuban Linx 2 he takes us right back to the kitchen – and it’s stocked. Rae’s original Cuban Linx album, released a whopping 14 years ago and known as his masterpiece, brought the rap audience back to his original Wu-roots as he, yet again, painted pictures of the grimy street-life that New York has to offer.

The album begins with “Return of the North Star” which features Papu Wu. The track serves as an introduction to the album through the taped dialogue that is played talking Raekwon’s reputation. The track’s title is a little less subtle.

The second track, “House of Flying Daggers” is a good old Wu throwback with production done by the late J. Dilla, the eerily vacillating strings and pounding bass pull the melody back and forth while Rae and guests preach on the fact that they’re still street soldiers – filling their resumes with stories filled with drugs and violence in order to do so. One of the concerns I had with this project when I first started listening to it was that the lyrical content was situated around the street-life, which in my mind isn’t congruent with Raekwon’s current place in rap and is fairly annoying considering his perspective from the top, where he actually is, would be a much more engaging one than the one he utilizes.  Regardless of actual content, Rae’s penchant for storytelling is very much still intact as he weaves  stories  together not just giving the listener the ‘who,’ ‘what,’ or ‘where’ but the ‘why’ which adds immeasurable depth to his lyrics.

Tracks like “Black Mozart” and “Catalina” showcase the talent and variety of the production on the project. Black Mozart’s ominous organ line and basic drums makes it the feel like a track out of a Tarentino flick while Catalina’s standalone piano and subtle hand percussion give the feel of a sluggish salsa track flipped for rap use. The album’s varied production, coming from 14 different producers, shows not only that each of the men behind the boards have talent doing what they do but that Raekwon still has an ear for beats and the talent to write to them.

Aside from the static lyrical content, CL2’s above-par beats and Rae’s storytelling makes the release fantastic to listen to and dynamic enough to stay relevant from a musical perspective for much longer than other releases from this year.

For more information on Raekwon or Cuban Linx 2, click HERE.