Album review: Raekwon's 'Cuban Linx II' not the Bible

September 18, 12:19 AMSan Diego Rap Music ExaminerQuan Vu

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By all accounts, this album should not exist. The sequel to the quintessential drug rap album, 1995's Only Built For Cuban Linx, was first announced in 2005. At the time, Raekwon's follow-up was to be executive produced by Dr. Dre and released under the good doctor's Aftermath label. Then the inevitable happened: it got pushed back. And back. And back. Working with Dr. Dre is an exciting prospect for any artist but his label has a tendency to, well, not actually release music from its artists. Rappers from Eve to King Tee to the venerable Rakim have parted from Aftermath, years of work left sitting on the shelf. The Wu Tang faithful pined away. Cuban Linx II would not come to pass.

And yet, by Raekwon's sheer force of will, Cuban Linx II has come to pass. He bulldozed through all obstacles with ferocity, securing an unbelievable cast of contributors, releasing the album through his own independent label, then flooding the streets (and the Internet) with several quality mixtapes and PR like no other. Finally, the mythical artifact has surfaced. The Ark has been recovered. And it is ...... very good.

The biggest thing going against Cuban Linx II is that it bills itself as the sequel to arguably the greatest rap album of all time. It demands comparisons to its forbear. The difference is that the original is a grimy sonic masterpiece helmed by the visionary RZA, the real head of Wu-Tang's Voltron. The sequel finds a bunch of excellent producers--including Pete Rock, Marley Marl, and the late J Dilla, among others--trying very hard to re-capture that spirit but not quite getting it exactly. It's the difference between a worn pair of jeans and a pair of jeans designed to look worn. There's a certain quality of truth that you just can't duplicate.

But if Cuban Linx II is a pair of jeans, it is a very expensive pair from a team of very prestigious designers. To put it bluntly, these beats knock. Funk busts out of every seam, Godfather strings whine beautifully, kung fu samples weave in and out, and disciples chant on. The producers feel the weight of Cuban Linx on their shoulders and bring their A-games to bat. RZA even approaches the magic of the original album by injecting strange details into his productions--ODB-esque wailing at the end of "Black Mozart" and the interlude that interrupts "Fat Lady Sings." Small details to be sure, but they are important pieces of unpredictability that this album needs.

Raekwon, having striven for perfection and achieving it on the original Cuban Linx, discovers how fleeting perfection really is. Still, he keeps pushing. The same dogged determination that brought this album into fruition drives it forward. Raekwon rhymes like everything--him, the Wu, rap--is on the line. He crafts every detail of every line with the care of a surgeon, aware that any slip-up would be fatal.

That said, he flourishes in brief bursts. Short songs (really, you might mistake them for interludes from their length) like "Sonny's Missing," "Pyrex Vision," and "Penitentiary" provide the perfect format for Raekwon to narrate single, focused, visceral scenes, exhaustive in detail. Frequent guests--from Ghostface Killah, Method Man, and Inspectah Deck to Slick Rick, Jadakiss, and Beanie Sigel--prevent you from becoming overwhelmed with Raekwon's dense rhymes. To that end, they all work fairly well, some better (Ghostface, Deck) than others (Jada, Meth). But they are like comic relief to Raekwon's torrential spit.

In the end, the "almost-thereness" of Cuban Linx II is heart-breaking. Raekwon and his long list of collaborators seem to have put their all into this album. It's like they believed if they could will a classic album back into existence, they could will the good ol' days back along with it. And you want to believe that it could happen too. But it can't be that it was all so simple. Cuban Linx II is very good but it has not shifted the earth like its predecessor. It is unquestionably a bout of fan service. It preaches to the choir and that choir sings its praises to each other. Meanwhile, rap rolls on outside, unflinchingly.