
Songs from Raekwon's still upcoming Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II have been leaking since early spring, and in each case it's been very hit or miss. For every Wu-banger that reinstated your faith in the crew ("New Wu"), there's been one that sees them recycling their act without much panache or excitement ("Criminology II"). Sadly, this latest taste of the Chef's product is of the latter, failing as a tired retread of the Wu's mid-nineties glory days. It has no right to be this way, either, because any track that features Ghost, Rae, and production from the late, great J Dilla should be at least a 5.5 on the rap banger richter scale. Unfortunately, the beat is off-putting and relatively weak, the vocal hook is a repackaged version of "Clan In Da Front," sans ingenuity, and Ghostface, once again, is the only member making things exciting.
All roads point to a mixed bag this August from Raekwon & Co.
Download:
Raekwon "House of Flying Daggers" (MP3) ft. Inspectah Deck, Ghostface Killah & Method Man
Gotta disagree slightly with this. The track is hot when they are rhyming....The hook, I could do without
Brent
I think my expectations were too high seeing all the names on this track.
"I'm a old mummy, my gold weighs as much as king tut's" - Ghostface Killah got a sharp ass sword!
7th Tai
Wow, whoever wrote this article needs to get fired!!!!!!!! This is the problem when classic hip-hop songs are made and idiot writers bash classic songs but call 50 Cents In Da Club Classic. This is a J-Dilla beat that is classic with all his other material, I cant believe you said that Ghostface & Inspectah Deck's rhymes were weak, did you even listen to the song or jus like a minute of it, seriously stick to writing about alternative music beacause you know nothing about Hip-Hop.
Justin Herschel
Hey Justin,
I'm with you all the way, I felt Ghostface was fantastic on the track. I love the Wu. The problem is here that I feel a lot of the strength of their tracks is built on the production (36 Chambers and Cuban Linx are two of the best produced rap albums ever), and I just felt the production on this track was not exceptional. Especially given a heavy hitter like J Dilla being behind the boards. The song was a little better on second and third listen, but I still don't think it stacks up to material like Incarcerated Scarfaces or Da Mystery of Chess Boxing.
I swear, I could listen to Meth rap the dictionary, and I still would be nodding my head. I know he's not that great, but I think he's got one of the best voices in hip-hop.
lol everyone else is just goin nuts over this track, yall are INSANE
Hiphopfan
Yea this dude's retarded. Criminology 2 is also pretty dope, reaffirming we can go ahead and file this review away as class A Internet worthlessness along with keyboard cat and chocolate rain. Better luck next time. Maybe you should consider about writing about tapestries or whatever.
AV15
The final version of this track is rugged and brilliant. It becomes apparent now that the song was unfinished when it was leaked to review.
It's worth nothing that many months after this review was posted, it now reads as totally idiotic. This song is widely regarded as one of the strongest from a very strong album. Bad call, Prefix.
Calibrated