Raekwon The Chef has plans to further raise the Wu-Tang banner as he puts the final seasonings on his much anticipated fourth studio album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. Scheduled to hit stores later this summer, Rae told Hip-Hop Wired, “Expect heat my ni%ga. Rae being in Rae mode again. It’s me really just bringing that real street Hip-Hop back to the table. I feel like I ain’t missed a beat and I’m still where I need to be at. Still rhyming my a*s off and my ear is still golden. All I can say is I’m gonna bring fire to the table. Production was my main purpose right now. I really wanted to really show people that there are still cats who’ve been in the game as long as myself that still can go out there and get the proper music and bring another side to Hip-Hop back to life.”
Expecting to raise the bar, Raekwon has been releasing several heaters through the Internet and mixtape circuit with tracks like “Gutterman Music” featuring Jadakiss and “Flashback Memories” with The Game. Rae further added, “Hip-Hop is a child’s sport right now. It ain’t what it used to be as far as creativity is concerned so I really just kind of went back into my artistical messages and really just came with the right production. I really never had a problem with rhyming because I come from a rhyming camp. So that wasn’t really my issues that I was stressing over. It was really more or less production and I went out there and made sure I was able to bring a new sound to the table again. Like when you hear a lot of Shyte today, it ain’t really no creative production going on no more. It’s just typical music and I wanted to go a little bit farther and just basically make some ill production happen.”
Raekwon also had previously been in talks with Dr. Dre to executive produce the album and possibly signing to Aftermath Records. The Chef stated, “Nah that’s not gonna happen. We didn’t reach terms of agreement and you know at the end of the day, we just vowed to still be friends and be fan of the music and basically just support one another. I don’t point no fingers at Dre as far as how the situation turned out. But you know at the end of the day, Rae gone just continue to do what he gotta do. If any situation ain’t really what I want it to be, and I don’t feel comfortable then I’mma fall back as well and it just kinda wound up being like that. Like things just ain’t really working out, timing is not really where I want it to be at, and communication is everything so once I realized that it wasn’t a good lane for me I just fell back and you know we both kinda understood that it wasn’t right so we just let it be.”
While putting the final touches on Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2, Rae also delved that he was getting back into the movie game after previous appearances in such films as “Black & White” and “The Coalition.”
“We working on a movie called “Cash Rules Everything Around Me” which is basically a biopic film of the streets of any kid that could relate to what’s going on out there and trying to survive. That’s what the movie is about and I don’t know if I’m gonna play in it. I’m more or less coming from the executive producer side but I’m definitely opening my doors to do visuals now more or less than the music. The music is always there. I love the music but at the same token, I ‘m trying to climb new heights and basically come with something else that people can say, “Yo, he got on some Ice Cube Shyte real quick. And he did a good classic flick so that’s the next Shyte in the making and I’m sure … I guarantee you I will touch every side of life from the ghetto to suburban America. They gone respect this film because everybody knows that money is the route to all evil but it’s like all the Shyte that a ni+*a gotta go through to get it …Like me, I could have died 100 times before I became a rapper. I just want to give an opus into that style of where I came from with it, ya know. “
In related news, the Wu-Tang Clan dropped Chamber Music yesterday on Koch Records. The album features previously unreleased material from the Wu and collaborations with A.Z., Mobb Deep, M.O.P. and Masta Ace.
