Artist Raekwon

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Raekwon

Hip-hop had more or less written off Raekwon when he was unceremoniously dropped from Dr. Dre’s Aftermath label while still at work on a sequel to Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… , arguably the greatest Wu-Tang solo album of all time. Some folks doubted Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. 2 would ever be released; the album briefly threatened to become the Chinese Democracy of hip-hop. But Raekwon shocked everyone in late 2009 by releasing a follow-up worthy of the original: a dense, overstuffed opus rich with grimy atmosphere and novelistic detail. The new Shaolin Vs. Wu-Tang isn’t the unexpected triumph of Pt. 2, but it does match some killer verses from The Chef to beats from a stable of up-and-coming producers.

Updated 04/13/2011