Hip-hop had more or less written Raekwon off when he was unceremoniously dropped from Dr. Dre’s Aftermath label while still at work on a sequel to Only Built For 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; as release dates kept getting pushed back, the album 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.
Updated 04/13/2011
