XXL Making of Ready To Die

[TuKer Says: Angeles Records is the truth!!]

I'll go with all eyes on me or life after death 

[Larrabee]

Ite, no doubt. Since it is the West Coast connection forum, I gotta post the 'All Eyez On Me' for those that haven't peeped the article. Then, Life After Death, if I spread the typing out

[LEON]

props Larrabee for rewriting the article!

[Traumatized]

Wow, Larabee that's A LOT of work! Thanks a lot, I really appreciate that

[TraceOneInfinite]

Much props and respect to the cats that posted the article, can we get the rest?

[Larrabee]

Anytime, homies. Here, lemme wrap it up for ya'll...

15. "Friend Of Mine" - Produced by Easy Mo Bee

Easy Mo Bee: Big used to be out on the avenue. He used to be standing out there with 'Lil Cease. And we could either find him on the avenue, or he was around the corner on his stoop. If he was in the neighborhood, he was in either of them two places. I remember hooking up this beat and finding Big at this fried chicken spot, which to my knowledge is still right there on Fulton between Washington and St. James. I rolled up in the car, I got the beat ready, I'm happy. I was like, "Yo Big." He came over to the passenger window, I told him to get in, and was like "Yo, check this out, man." He was like, "Yo, I'm lovin' that, Mo." I think what was helpful was the hook that I had on there. That just told him what to talk about on the record. He ended up doing a relationship-type record, talking about a chick. The thing about that record is the hook I sampled: "You're no friend of mine\You know that ain't right." That's Black Mambo. I might've been working with hard ass Big, but I was gonna pull a whole other crowd because of that Black Mambo. Black Mambo was from the Paradise Garage. DJ Larry Levan would throw that on, - either mix it with beats, with other songs, or he would just throw on a capella by itself in the club - and you would hear people stomping and going crazy. So I knew that anybody who heard that song was gonna think about the Paradise Garage - a disco, dance-music type of club from back in the day. So there are dance music elements attached to the song, but they fit.

16. "Unbelievable" - Produced by DJ Premier

DJ Premier: "Unbelievable" was the final song recorded for Ready To Die. I used to see Big all the time over on Washington and Fulton St., because I used to live on Washington between Lafayette and Greene, at Branford Marsalis' crib. We'd always go down to the corner to get our 40's and Big and all of them, Kim, everybody used to be on the corner every Friday. I used to see Big and Big was always like, "One day I'm gonna get a beat from you." But when it came to him asking me to do "Unbelievable", I didn't really have time to do the song because I was about to go on tour. He was like, "Dawg, I gotta have you on there." He even told me, "My budget is over, I have no money. Preem, please look out." I was getting top prices back then. But it was Big, so I was like, fuck it. I did that song for $5,000. I was telling him, "Dawg, I don't know what to give you, because if I do something for you, it's gotta be bananas." He said, "Man, I don't care if you take 'Impeach The President.' Take that and do a beat." I said, "Really, you serious?" He was like, "Hell yeah!" I went in and got the Honeydrippers breakbeat classic "Impeach The President", took the snare and kick and chopped it up and started playing those little sounds. I wanted to make something more hardcore, 'cause he had played me 'Warning' and stuff like that. I wanted to make something that was equally as hard or better. And he was like, "Nah, keep playing them little buttons you pushing and change it up and make it do different melodies on the hook and stuff." He sat there a while and went in there and did the vocals. I never saw him write nothing. He'd be like, let me get a pen and a pad - and then he wouldn't write shit. Might scribble little funny objects or something. That was it. Matter of fact, when we were doing "Unbelievable", he brought Faith to the session the day we laid the verses, and said "Yo Premier, this is gonna be my wife. I'm about to marry this woman." I was like, Word? I didn't think nothin' of it. And all of a sudden he was married. Big was the one that told me to do the R. Kelly scratch on the chorus. He was like, "Yo, scratch that part off of 'You're Body's Callin', cause 'You're Body's Callin' was popular at time. I was like, "That might not match the key." He was like, "Just try it." I didn't have that record with me that day, so I went in and got it the next day from my crib, brought me back to studio, made the scratch and I was like, Damn man - this shit actually goes!

17. Suicidal Thoughts - Produced by Lord Finesse

Lord Finesse: When I first worked with Big, he was as street as you can get. You couldn't get any more street than what Big was rapping about and what he was bringing to the table. But him and Puff were both growing at an incredible rate, between Puff being at MCA getting ready to go to Bad Boy, and Biggie just being able to absorb what Puff was sending him like a sponge. Biggie watching and learning Puff was like Payton and Malone, ya know? Puffy dishing it and Biggie capturing and scoring, dunking. That combination was incredible. Puff was at a point where he was growing at an enormous rate; he had Craig Mack, and he'd just come off Mary and Jodeci. He was ready to show the world. He was able to sculpt Big to not only be an underground artist, but to be well rounded. To not just dunk, but to be able to finger-roll, crossover dribble, to be the best player he could be in the game. And Big learned it real, real quick! When Ready To Die was almost done, Big had all the raw street incredible songs and Puff said "Okay, you got to do what you wanted with the album. Now let's do what I want to do with the album." Big was like, "Puff said to do this, so I'm going to do it. Puff let me do what I want to do, so I'm going to do what he wants too." Because of that, putting his ego to the side, like "I'ma try this", that gave him the edge. And after that, he tried everything and it worked! It was crazy. When we did "Suicidal Thoughts", I laid the beat and Big told me he had this incredible idea. But I wasn't in the studio with him when he laid that song. I didn't hear "Suicidal Thoughts" until the album came out. People kept telling me, "Yo, that song that you did with Big was crazy!" And I was like, What is they talking about? Because I wasn't at the session. But when I heard it, all I could think in my head was...wow...

"Prince" Charles Alexander: "Suicial Thoughts" was funny, 'cause at the end we were trying to get a "Thud." At the end of the song, he drops the phone and he falls, 'cause he has shot himself. So he shoots himself, the phone drops and there was supposed to be a body thud. But we could not get a body thud,  we looked on all kinds of different tapes that have sound effects. So I was like, "Yo, you know what we're going to have to do?" So Puffy and I told Biggie to go in there - and to his credit, he's a trooper, he was really a great guy - we turned off the lights and we played the music and we said, "Biggie, when the gun shoots, just fall. Just fall as hard as you can." Man, the gun went off and we heard the biggest fucking thud you ever want to hear in your life. We started rolling. We thought it was hilarious. 'Cause we didn't think he was going to do it. But he did it and when I listen to it now, that's one of the things I always think about that day. It was me, Puffy, Biggie. It was the way you would think an album was done - all the creative people are all in one room. I don't know if Puffy works that way anymore. That was really intimate. He's very much an executive now. He comes in and sanctions and puts his name on things that he's requested. Back in the day, we were creating on the fly.

Nashiem Mayrick: That song is so real. I never talked to Big about that record, but everybody else was like, "We don't even know if that can go on the album." 'Cause he killed himself on the record. It's like, how could you come back from that? No one has ever killed themselves at the end of their album. The energy that came through him was the truth to everybody. He said things that was in everybody's head, but no one has ever put it down like that. He said things on that album, and that record in particular, that a lot of people in the hood, people in the streets - think that way. He said, "I'm a piece of shit, it ain't hard to fucking tell." I was like, "Wow, how could you say that, son?"

***Article taken from the April 2004 issue of XXL Magazine***

[makaveli11]

Propz for ready to die. Any chance for life after death larrabee?

[Larrabee]

Yeah no doubt, once I get some free time, I'ma get to it. I also got the issues with the Making of the"All Eyez On Me" and "Makaveli" albums.

[GATMAN]

props for this?  Good read

[makaveli11]

Yeah no doubt, once I get some free time, I'ma get to it. I also got the issues with the Making of the"All Eyez On Me" and "Makaveli" albums.

Major props. I really appreciate your kindness to type all of this information. The all eyez on me would be pretty cool too.

[Machiavelli]

do you have the making of the Only built 4 cuban linx?

[alkhamist]

Thanks for typing this up.... woulda taken a while.... heres All Eyez On Me and Cuban Linx...

- XXL - The Making OF 2Pac - All Eyez On Me -

"Skandalouz"
Featuring Nate Dogg
Produced by Dat Nigga Daz

Nate Dogg - That song was done in 10 minutes. The beat was always already made. We dont go in the studio and
wait on nobody to make a beat. We'd Never stay in their long enough. [Working with Pac was] like working with
your little brother. He was a little wild muthafucka, full of life. He got an opportunity and ran with it. Cause he didnt
want to be on Death Row Records. And I think he had a three or four.....Im not sure what kind of album deal he had.
But he wanted to get off, though. So he pushed out at least two to three songs a day.

"Got My Mind Made Up"
Featuring Dat Nigga Daz Kurupt Redman Method Man
Produced by Dat Nigga Daz

Kurupt - The original record was me, Rage, Redman, Method Man and Daz. I told Daz, "Man, this is the one, we
need to drop this, we need to put this on Dogg Food." 'Cause we did it when we was making Dogg Food. When Pac
came home, we put it up for Pac, like "You want this record?" Pac was like "Hell, yeah, I want that record!" And he
dropped his verse where Rages was, cause Rage said she'd put her verse on something else, and thats how that
record made it on Pacs album. Me, Method Man and Redman and Daz and Rage - that was the original record, and
Inspectah Deck was on it at the end. Thats him you hear at the end - "Wish....this....bliss...."Thaats Inspectah Deck. I went and picked up Red and Meth and Deck personally and too them to Dazs house. We knocked the record off in about three, four hours. It was a done deal, and then we....we didnt use it, cause Daz wasnt feeling like mixing it and
doing all that. We end up taking it to Pac when Pac came cause Suge was like, "When its time to work on a project,
everybody needs to give everything to whoevers project it is."

Daz - We did that song at my house. Kurupt had brought Method Man and Redman over to my house. And
Inspectah Deck was on the song too. He was at the end - "I.N.S., the rebel...." Just his voice. They had taken his
voice. They had taken his verse out and kept the background cause it sounded good. It wasnt originally 2Pac song. I
had transferred it at Dr. Dres house and had left it out there. [2Pac was] flossing like. "I got a beat with Method
Man, Redman. Dre made it." Thats what Dr. Dre told 2Pac. Thats how the whole fued started between Dre and
Pac. Cause I happened to be walking by the studio like, "Thats my beat. I did that." 2Pac [was] like, "thats your
stuff?" from that situation, thats when he and Dre started fueding. Dr. Dre was taking credit and wasnt doing
nothing, wasnt coming around.

"California Love [Remix]"
Featuring Dr. Dre Roger Troutman
Produced by Dr. Dre

Tommy D - Fuck it, I can say it - Dre really didnt want nothing to do with that record. He didnt like it at all that 2Pac
came to Death Row, which I thought was kind of interesting, cause I remember he said, "Thats it, Im done with
Death Row now that 2Pac is here." I was like, "What the fuck!?" I mean, if you look at that album, he didnt do shit
on "All Eyez On Me" except for "California Love," which basically was, ughhh, that was going to be his single for
Aftermath, right? And Suge heard that shit and said, "Fuck it," and rushed up to Dres house and made him put 2Pac on there. So basically he lost his first single for Aftermath, and it ended up being the first single for 2Pac. Because
the original version of that is three verses with dre rapping on it. The only person whos got that original version is
DJ Jam, Snoops DJ. So basically Suge was like, "Fuck it, we're putting 2Pac on that shit, and this is going to be the
single off the record..." that shit was dope. Suge aint no dummy.

"Life Goes On"
Produced by Johnny J

Johnny J - We had people in sessions you want to call them street guys or hardcore, they were deep into their
thing - and they broke down in tears. I cant believe I saw that. [that record] just had so many people emotional.

Dru Down - That was more on the serious tip. When they got serious about something, there wasnt too many people
up in the studio. When a nigga wanna really be serious, Pac just dumped out all the weed on the mixing board-about
four ounces of smoke-and was writing. And niggas had to be quiet. It was on the real low, quiet tip. That was a
serious time.

"2 Of Amerikaz Most Wanted"
Featuring Snoop Doggy Dogg
Produced by Dat Nigga Daz

Dave Aron - We were in the studio and Pac was there, and Snoop was in there. In walks big Suge, and this was
before they did "2 of Amerikaz...." Hes so big, and he walks up. Snoops kinda talll, but he was very skinny. He
grabs Pac with one arm, and he grabs Snoop with the other and pulls them both together, almost squeezing them
into one. Hes like, "I think you guys oughta do a song together. I think that'd be great." That was awesome to see
how big he was, and he put em both together like that. And they ended up doing that song.

Daz - Pac was going to court. Snoop was going to court. There was a lot of chemistry between them.

Rick Clifford - Pac was very adamant that the album was spontaneous. Everything that you hear, everybody got one
take. They couldnt go back and fix anything. Pac said that number one, hip-hop is different from R&B. If a guy cant
get out and spit eight to 16 bars, hes not ready yet. Then he said he loves the first take because theres a certain feel to it. He said if people go back and try and fix it, they would start thinking about it, they would lose the feel, they
would mess it up. So the only one who refused to get out there like that was Snoop. Snoop said he'd come back
tomorrow and do it. I think Snoop went home and wrote his stuff, learned his stuff came in and knocked it off, first
take. All Snoop said was, "Wait a minute. You aint going to put me out on one take. I'll come back and do it
tomorrow"

"How Do You Want It"
Featuring K-Ci And JoJo
Produced by Johnny J

Dave Aron - Danny Boy was originally on the hook. I already had it mixed. And at the last minute. Pac wanted to
put K-Ci and JoJo on it. Maybe that was a decision between him and Suge and whatever I dont know.

K-Ci - One night we were sitting in the crib, and Suge Knight gave me a call, cause we real good friends with Death
Row family and everything. They asked us would we like to do a song with Pac, and we were like, "Hell Yeah, why
not?" Thats our boy. So we got in the studio that same night, actually, that we got the phone call. Man, we were just
tripping in the studio, having fun. If yall read between the lines, yall know what we was doing up there. [We] had the
girlies up in there, doing our thing. The song came out blazing. The funny part was at first, when Pac was trying to
sing it, trying to teach us how it go. I was like, "I see where you're trying to go, Pac, but its not sounding too good."
Anyway, then we heard him doing his rhyme, and we're like, "Man, we got to rip this, because he came strong."

"Ambitionz Az A Ridah"
Produced by Dat Nigga Daz

Kurupt - First day he came home, "Ambitionz Az A Ridah"- that was the first record that he did. Suge brought him
in. The word went through the office that Pac was home. Everybody [who was] at the studio at that time was up
there. I came a little bit later, and when i came, Daz already had the beat started. Pac wasnt in the studio for any
more than 45 minutes before he had his first verse done and laid. that fast. He didnt even wanna chill; all he wanted
to do was get on the mic. Whatever day he landed in Los Angeles, two hours after he landed, he had his first verse
laid.

Dave Aron - Thats the first song I ever did with 2Pac. The day he got out of jail, he didnt go to the clubs. He didnt go try to meet women. He went straight to the studio like he was on a mission, and he recorded "Ambitionz Az A
Ridah" and "I Aint Mad At Cha." 2Pac came in, and he was fresh out of jail. I seen them give him his Death Row
Medallion that same night. And then he came right in. He was ready to go. He was very hyped, very focused, a lot of
energy-mad energy. And you could tell he was really one a mission. He really had a real vision of what was going on, and he wanted to get a lot done in that short amount of time.

Daz - The idea came from the me sampling Pee Wee Herman. So if you listen to Pee Wee Herman [The Champs'
"Tequila"], I just put the gangsta twist on it. I gave it to Pac. Came back to the studio, and it was done.

"All About U"
Featuring Snoop Doggy Dogg Nate Dogg Fatal Yaki Kadafi
Produced by Johnny J 2Pac

Nate Dogg - It was me, him and Snoop, and we was talking about all the girls that we had seen before. The whole
thing came from a video shoot. We was at a video shoot, and it was so funny how, if it wasnt Snoop that knew the
girl, 2Pac knew her, or i knew her. Its like, "Damn, everywhere we go, we see the same girls." And thats how the
song came about. It was the same as it always is - A little liquor, a little weed, we aight. Pac was one-taking his
verses. He did that a lot. We was having so much fun, the song just came out.

Johnny J - That was one of the most hilarious records ive ever done with 2Pac....I used Cameos old school cut [1986
single, "Candy"]. Nate Dogg, Snoop, everybody sitting around on speakers, doing their thing. Next thing i know
[sings] - "Every other city we go. Every other video..." I'm like, "Nate, I know you gotta be fucking playing."
They're like, "Nah, man. We're dead serious. Thats the hook- we're talking about video hoes"

Dru Down - It was me, Pac, Syke, Rage and a couple Outlawz in the studio. We always had bitches in the studio. The only thing crazy was, the Outlawz niggas-Fatal Hussein and Yafeu Fula-was gonna get on the track. It was like an
interlude at the end. I did the beginning [uncredited ad-lib-bing]: they was gonna do something at the end. Then them muthafuckas did something where they fucked up. They couldnt get it right. They was too high and too drunk. They
was messing up. They was in the microphone booth, and they was fucking up, and Pac said, "Yall gotta get the fuck
up out of there. I dont know what the fuck yall are doing." They was just playing around. They was taking too long,
wasting time. They laughed they ass up in there and all the way out.

"No More Pain"
Produced by DeVante Swing

Dave Aron - I was at the studio at 8 late-10, 11 p.m. At 3 a.m. DeVante showed up by himself. He wanted to lay a
few more parts before they mixed it. It was a very sparse track. But the keyboard parts he put in were very eerie
and weird sounding. He was very quiet that night. Very focused. It was interesting to watch him work. He finished
about five or six in the morning and said, "I want to mix this now." We mixed it that same night. It was a long night.

"I Aint Mad At Cha"
Featuring Danny Boy
Produced by Dat Nigga Daz

Kurupt - We knew when that was done, it was over. Oh, yeah Pac heard the beat and flipped out. And basically he
was just like, "Man, this is it. "We sat and we drank and then Daz was just operating on the record, and when Pac
was in there working, he wasnt with the distractions. It was more or less all, "Lets knock this out, Lets knock this
out. Lets knock this out." I mean, he'd get mad at the engineers for moving too slow. That was his thing. He'd be on
top of them like that. You know, "Come on, man, what the fuck? This aint too goddamn hard. All you have to do is
press fuckin; record. Press fuckin record. NOW!"

"Tradin War Stories"
Featuring Outlawz CPO Storm
Produced by Mike Morsley Rick Rock for Steady Mobbin Productions

Rick Rock - I dont know where the fuck I got the sample from. Dionne Warwick or something. When I ended up
doing it with Pac, I told him it was "It's A Mans World," And it got cleared under that, but I dont know who it was. I
know I didnt get it from James Brown. I got it from somewhere else, but it sounds like, "A Mans World." I couldnt
remember, cause I used to do beats and i didnt keep my samples. I just had all my shit on a disk. And when I came
to California from Alabama, I used to carry a bag full of disks.

Napoleon - That song was personal for me. When I was three years old, i witnessed my mother and father get
murdered in front of me. I got shot in the foot. So on that song, I kinda touched up on that. I was saying, "Brothers
wanna talk about war stories, I seen my first war story at the age of three." Pac already knew what happened to my
parents, so he was excited that I touched on it. He knew that it was real. When Pac came and got me from the hood,
he seen that I was going through it at an early age. I think that was one of the reasons he embraced me - not that he
felt sorry for me - but Pac had a good heart. He saw this brother lost his parents and said, "I feel its obligatory to
help him out."

"Only God Can Judge Me"
Featuring Rappin 4Tay
Produced by Doug Rasheed for Mad Castle Productionz and Harold Scrap Freddie

Dave Aron - I thought that was pretty introspective. Pretty Straightforward. [Doug Rasheeds] beats werent that
complex. They usually were comprised of a few loops and some percussion and a good solid drumbeat. I recorded
Rappin-Tays vocals for that. Hes a fun guy. He had his little pimp status going on. He really fit the Oakland mold.

"Ratha Be Ya Nigga"
Featuring Richie Rich
Produced by Doug Rasheed for Mad Castle Productionz

Richie Rich - 2Pac called me and told me to bring some bay area niggas to put on the album. As many people from
the bay. Everybody was in this one big studio. 2Pac comes at me like, "I want us to do a song about bitches. When
you want to be down for them, but not be there....man you know." He finished his verse in six minutes. He came
over to me, and i was still writing. He laid his verse then wrote his second verse. When I spit the verse, he said
"Thats why i fuck with you. You know exactly what the fuck Im talking about."

"All Eyez On Me"
Featuring Big Syke
Produced by Johnny J

Johnny J - That was the very first track I laid when we got together at death row. When he just got out of jail, just
got released, two days later hes like "J get to the studio, im with Death Row now." I assumed it was a joke,
somebody perpetrating 2Pac. I'm like "Hell no - Pac is locked up!" Hes like "J, im out" I walk in, 15 minutes into
the session, the first beat i put in the drum machine is "All Eyez On Me" I wasnt going to show him the track,
honestly. I was like, "This track? Nah, its not finished. Its imcomplete." My wife says, "Hey, its a dope beat!" So I
just pop it in, Titles just come right off his fuckin head.

Big Syke - Pac was going on the pac of, "If you dont have no lyrics by the time I finish doing this first verse, your
ass aint on the song." He'd finish it. It was a test anytime he picked up the pen. It was like, "Nigga, on your mark,
get set, go. And you better have some cutting shit."

"Run Tha Streetz"
Featuring Michel'le Mutah Storm
Produced by Johnny J 2Pac

Dave Aron - Thats what was great about working on the album. You got to work with so many people. Who didnt
grow up listening to that "No more lies" song? And then you work with Michel'le and you hear the little voice, and
its true. The little voice is little, and then she sings, and its just so big, and shes such a little girl. And shes so sweet.

[alkhamist]

The Documentary -
Ten years ago, some men with rhymes changed the face of hip-hop music. In the shadow of fellow Wu-Tan Clan
stars Method Man and Ol Dirty Bastard, Raekwon and his lyrical accomplice, Ghostface Killah created Only Built
4 Cuban Linx... a criminology rap classic that hustlers worldwide relate to.

BUILDERS -
Raekwon the Chef a/k/a Lex Diamonds
RZA a/k/a Bobby Steels
Ghostface Killah a/k/a Tony Starks
Method Man a/k/a Johnny Blaze
Inspectah Deck a/k/a Rollie Fingers
Masta Killa a/k/a Noodles
GZA a/k/a Genius a/k/a Maximilian
U-God a/k/a Golden Arms a/k/a Lucky Hands
Cappadonna a/k/a Cappachino
Blue Raspberry, guest vocalist
Nas, guest rapper

INTRODUCTION TO 'THE PURPLE TAPE'
Hov and Kris can claim albums they've christened as blueprints. But if any recording from rap's modern age has
earned the title, it's Raekwon the Chef's colossal Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... released on August 1, 1995, behind solo efforts from Method Man and Ol' Dirty Bastard, the Chef's showcase broke new ground, deviating from past
Wu-Tang efforts, which emphasized nimble verbal jousts, and bringing something completely unexpected: a
narrative - driven concept album that followed two ambitious street hoods (Rae and in a star making perfomance,
partner-in-rhyme Ghostface Killah) along their rough road the riches. Cinematic in structure, infused with Rae's
personality and humor and Ghost's indelible worldplay, and supported by some of Clan svengali RZA's finest
production work, Cuban Linx inspired hip-hop hustlers everywhere to chronicle their own grimy paths to glory - from Jay-Z with Reasonable Doubt to 50 Cent with Get Rich or Die Tryin'. ."I was straight up into a drug zone vibe,"
raekwon recalls of making his autobiographical opus. "It was like a tablet of my life, where I wanted to go, and all
this shit I seen. We was just showing niggas that we master all sides of the streets when it comes to trying to get to
the top." Although East Coast rap gangstas like Kool G. Rap and Mob Style (the late 80's Harlem outfit that
included Pretty Tone Capone and famed crime lord the original AZ) had covered similar subject matter, Cuban
Linx's gritty vignettes elevated such storytelling to another level, potraying a slice of underworld life where Five
Percent Nation theology, gangland robberies and recreational cocaine bumps commingled freely. The album also
kick started several trends withing the rap game. Cuban Linx was the first instace of rappers adopting
mafia-inspired aliases (Wu-Gambinos), songs like "Incarcerated Scarfaces" and "Ice Cream", initiated slang like
"politic" and "butter-pecan Rican", into the hip-hop vernacular, and Cristal became the bubbly of choice for the
ghetto fabulous set, thanks to Rae and co.'s endorsement in various song lyrics. Nothing, however was more
indicative of Raekwon's allegiance to the street soldier aesthetic than the LP's intended full title, Only Built 4
Cuban Linx Niggaz - as much a declaration of its musical potency as a forewarning to those not perpared for the
uncut raw contained within, (Eventually and understandibly, the N-word was dropped). Rae also cosmetically
distinguished his product from those of other artists, insisting on a purple-tinted cassette and CD case instead of a
conventional clear version. "I wanted to potray an image that if I was selling cracks or dimes in the street, you
would recognize these dimes from other niggas' dimes", he explains "recognize that I'm putting myself in another
class, where this might not reach everybody table, but for the niggas who table it do reach, it's like, Yo, that's some
hip hop bible to the streets." Ultimately, this uncompromising approach remains Cuban Linx's most enduring legacy. Raekwon and Ghostface would create their own slang, devote skits to Wallabee Clarks, use entire dialogue
passages from their favorite films as interludes, and invite just one guest star to their coming-out party (Nas),
because they didn't give two shits about fitting in with what other rappers were doing. As the duo spelled out on the
controversial skit "Shark Niggas (Biters)", the whole key was to "be original". In this spirit, XXL alslo breaks
form - from devoting our expanded Classic Material tributes to groundbreaking works of the dearly departed. On
the 10-year anniversary of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...'s release, we spoke with Raekwon and his collaborators for
their reflections and insights on the creation of this hard-boiled hip-hop classic.

01: Striving For Perfection
RAEKWON: When we sat down and did "Striving for Perfection", we knew how important the intro to an album is.
We were comming in as young, scrambling niggas. We had visions-- goals and dreams. And when we was saying
certain things, shit was relating to niggas' lives for real. But at the end of the day, we was just trying to let it be
known that, Yo, we gonna do this and we ain't gonna stop. If we fall off, we fall off. But if we get on, this is only the
beginning. It was just something like, Yo, if this shit don't work right there, gotta go another route. Probably gotta go get on some robbin some bank shit. Some ol other shit. So, we felt like we was just striving to get recognized in the
game as those dudes that really repped the streets hard. And basically let niggas know: We will be rich in the next
year - I guarantee you that.
RZA: The theme of the album is two guys that had enough of the negative life and was ready to move on, but had
one more sting to pull off. They're tired of doing what they doing, but they're trying to make this last quarter million. That's a lot of money in the streets. We gonna retire and see our grandbabies and get our lives together. Being that
Rae and Ghost was two opposite guys as far as neighborhoods was concerned, I used John Woo's The Killer. (In
that movie) you got Chow Yun Fat (playing the role of Ah Jong) and Danny Lee (Inspector Lee). They have to
become partners to work shit out. Mostly everything (of the spoken interludes) is from The Killer on that album,
that or personal talking. I met John Woo that same year. He sent me a letter. He was honored that we did it. I felt
confident we could settle anything that came up. You can usually settle that shit. It's part of the budget, man. But
John Woo didn't want nothing, never no money for that. We actually became friends. He took me and Ghost to lunch and dinner many times. He gave me a lot of mentoring in film.
METHOD MAN: In RZA, you got a guy that watched karate flicks most of his childhood. He has that type of mind;
his imagination is crazy. So when he put those (early Wu) albums together, he was like a kid in a candy store - like,
Now I can finally make my own karate movies. So when the solo albums dropped, mine took up where Wu-Tang left
off, so it was good for me to come then. Dirty's still had the kung fu element, but it was more twisted; it was like
screwed music because it was seen through Dirty's eyes this time. When Raekwon's album came, since he was on
some mobster shit, that's how the nigga structured his album. Every gangster movie he could find, every quote - it's
like the way he put that album together.

02: Knuckleheadz
RAEKWON: That's a track where we runnin around. We doing what we do, getting paper. We smackin niggas up.
The beat just had us feeling like, Who the knucklehead wanting respect?! That was just one of them tracks where
we felt like we just got finished robbing a bank and we got hohe and broke that money up. See this knucklehead
nigga try to get slick with that paper; "One for you, two for me". It's like "What are you stupid? Tom-and-Jerryin
me, nigga?"
RZA: My idea was besides them rapping the verses, after they talking all this brotherhood shit, they splitting the
money up and he cheating them. The idea is that U-God gets killed in "Knuckleheadz." It's like a movie. One dies,
two others go on. To me, the album is a movie and shit. You get to hear U-God come in. After that song, I had to
give Rae a few back-to-back solo joints.
U-GOD: I was like two days out of prison. I just came out the penitentiary. Id' just come home on Wu-Tang's debut
album Enter the Wu-Tang, 36 Chambers, too. I did two years in prison. I came home on paorle - work release right
before the first album was done. That's why I'm only on two songs on the first album. Then I got violated.
Knucklehead cats out in the world, you know how we do. So I got violated for another eight more months. Then I
came back home and got on Rae and Ghost's album. When I did my verse for Knuckleheadz, it was a come up time,
everybody trying to come up and get into the game. I ain't get a chance to do my vocals over. When I did that, I got
locked up again.

03: Knowledge God
RAEKWON: Knowledge God was a serious story that I wrote. It's like I'm sitting down and writing a letter, but it
folded out into the crime scene of what he was gonna do. I was talking about going to go hit up a real nigga, a store
owner like Mike Lavonia - them niggas that be having money in the hood and they be trying to stay out of the way
of the tough guys. But at the same time, he still hold his ground because he got business out here in these streets.
He's thinking, I'm not gonna be intimidated by yall young boys, but at the same time I know some of yall young boys might be scheming. That's where that character came from. In them ealry 80s, cocaine was a rich nigga high. So if
you was doing that back in the day and you had knowledge of self, you was a sharp nigga to us, cause that was the
sign of the times then. But nobody never said nothing about it. The sniffing at the start of the song just happened.
That was a part of the take. When I did it, it wasn't like we knew that was gonna be a part of the track.... I just did it
on some (makes sniffing sound). You know , a nigga don't gotta yell to hear the mic. A nigga could do another sound
to hear the mic. So that happened to come out. I felt when I was sitting down writing that drug pararphernalia rhyme, that I could've been a nigga on it like that at that time. We could have really been getting skied up, going to get this
nigga after that. So, it matched perfectly. But that wasn't like we was sniffin coke in the studio or no shit.

04: Criminology
RZA: That was me trying to produce like a DJ, produce a breakbeat. Ghost actually asked me to make one of those
beats. You listen to old DJ tapes. That's how I made that song, and he wanted his shit to sound like a breakbeat. He
had a rhyme that he knew was going to change the game - that was the verse that got him recognized. Cypess Hill's
DJ Muggs called up and was like "Yo, he killed that shit. He ripped that shit" Form that point on, he's the co-star.
He wins Best Supporting Actor. Rae got nominated, maybe won or didn't - but Ghost definetly wins.
GHOSTFACE KILLAH: I wrote that verse in San Francisco. We used to carry the beat machine around a lot. We
was out there a good two weeks, so RZA was making beats all day. I heard that beat and I loved that track. The
year was 95. Hip hop was still hip hop, and we was going in. I don't know if I was drunk when I wrote that, but I know when I went in the booth, I had a battery in my back, fucking with the Ballantine Ale. I recorded a lot of my shit on
Ballantine.

05: Incarcerated Scarfaces:
RAEKWON: The way RZA had it poppin back then, we would come into his spot. It was like dudes would come in
on their own time and create stuff. I remember I just came in, and the beat was just pumpin. I wrote the hook - that
was the first thing I did. I think one of my mans just got hit with some heavy time around that time. I had a lot of
niggas up there, too. So it was like. Yo, this one gotta be for them niggas right here. This right here will be just fo
them niggas in jail. It won't be for nobody else. I just wrote it out real quick. I did three verses on that, so Ghost
didn't have to come in and really do anything to it.
RZA: I wasn't making that beat for Rae. I was finished with Rae. I like having 13 tracks. I don't like having 18. I
was making it for GZA probably. He was next. But then Rae heard that beat, grabbed his pen and paper, and
started writing. Two hours later, it was written.

06: Rainy Dayz
RAEKWON: When we wrote "Rainy Dayz", I think we was already out of the country. We was in Barbados, by the
water. Some joints we had the beats to we went out of town with. And that one specifically, we wrote by the water.
Had that good villa right off the ocean and shit. Three, four in the morning. wind is blowing, curtains is blowing, and
we just really got a chance to put it down. I think I wrote mine out there. We just basically gave you some action on
how niggas in the hood think. Like how a nigga lady think - they don't act like they there to try to bring you back
from doing what you gotta do, but they try to get you caught up. We was like, This is gonna be perfect for the
struggling girl who can't understand her man and he a thorough nigga. We wanted to put a girl from the movie in the
skit, at the start of the song, when she said "I sing for him and he isn't here". He ain't here, bitch , cause he makin
money! He trying to put some food on the table.
RZA: This is one of my favorites, if not my favorite track. It stayed on the grill for a long time. That's what we
called it back then. I didn't take a song off until I was satisfied. I generally like to do em, mix em, put em away. This
was too emotional and too real fo me, too close to my personal situation. This was the life we was living, just talking
and rapping and hoping. Record royalties take too long to come. We had a platinum album, but we waiting on the
check to come fast, like babies wanting they food.
BLUE RASPBERRY: I was on the microphone, singing that old song by Barbra Streisand and Donna Summe (No
More Tears (Enough is Enough)), that sings "It's raining, it's pouring, my love life is boring me to tears." I was just
singing that, and so then RZA started playing a track. So that's where "It's raining, he's changing" came from.
That's the kind of mind state it put me in. I got a little stumped in middle, so it's like, "No sunlight, more gunfights."
When I said "No sunlight," RZA brought in the "More gunfights" which brought me into a whole other realm of the
song, where I could go ahead and complete it.

07: Guillotine (Swordz)
RAEKWON: To me, that was a "Symphony" track. Meth had a piece of that beat on his album that was used as a
skit. Cause that's how RZA is. Sometimes he'd mix other shit in and give you a piece of something but not really act
like it's gonna be assigned to that. He'll see if somebody like it and use it for filler or whatever. I had told RZA
awhile ago after he did that. "Yo, I want that beat." We was the first to be talking that Cristal shit. I know that for a
fact. I never even heard of Cristal before that. Back then we would go do dinners and shit with Loud Record
President Steve Rifkind and them up at the label. And our mission would be like, when we sit at the table, we want
the best fuckin wine they go in the building .We might have asked for something else. We might have asked for
some Mo or something and they didn't have it. So we was like "What the fuck is the next best thing, Steve?" And
Steve's like "Give em the next best thing" They came out with Cristal. Me and Ghost liked the bottle, and the
name on the bottle was Louie Roederer. I was like, I'm Lou Diamond, Louie Roederer. Me and Ghost is loving how
fruity the bottle looked. It cost more than the muthafuckin other, so we was like, Cristal, nigga! That's our new shit!
RZA: For that beat right there, a very open beat, not too heavy on production. This is me trying to imitate the sound
Isaac Hayes did on "Do You Thing". That da-na-na...na-na, I found a way to imitate that shit. When you plug the
Yahama VL7 (keyboard) up to a MPC (sampler), because of the note cutoff of the MPC, it cause the notes to
stutter, cause it don't link up perfect. I heard it and I could reproduce it, but only with those two machines. I had the
prototype from Yahama cause I didn't want nobody else to get it.
GZA: I don't know why I only got on one track. Maybe cause it was just a Rae and Ghost album - it was featuring
Ghost, and I think he was probably pleased with me just getting on one. Just to fill in a slot.

08: Can It Be All So Simple (Remix)
RAEKWON: The remix came from when we used to do shows when Enter the Wu-Tang dropped. Me and Ghost
used to come out to that part of the beat in the middle of the show. RZA did a little bit of magic to it and touched it
and twirled it, and Ghost basically was talking about how he got shot back in the days when he was out of town. He
started going into his story rhyme shit. Back then a lot of niggas we knew was in and out of different states and
cities, andn you know shit could happen. So when he wrote, that I guess he was going back to the time when he got
popped: "Emergency trauma Black teen headed for surgery." It was like he was just describing the moment.

09: Shark Niggas (Biters)
RAEKWON: It was one of them skits where we was looking at our competition. And when Ghost is saying whatever
he was saying, we kinda knew who he was talking about, but it wasn't llike we trying to start a beef. It's just
sometimes, when you get in the booth and you start saying what you wanna say, it just happened. Back then we was
feeling good. The liquor's making a nigga feel stronger. We know we coming up with a good album. And we letting it
be known, listen : Blah blah blah blah blah. And that's all we did.
RZA: This was the end of the first side. That's how we thought of it right then. We was letting niggas know, we know
what we was doing, knew what we had in our hand. Don't sound like none of my crew. Eventually, niggas did bite. If
they would of have it in that year, they would have gotten fucked up. We was enforcing, we was fucking niggas the
fuck up. You grow up out of your meanness. Hip hop had only one rule: no biting. We knew that everybody was
already jumping on it already. You had a few niggas trying to clone our shit, already had a few fake Meth's popping
up. Fuck that, we gonna see you. At one point, a nigga would kill you if you sounded like them.
GHOSTFACE KILLAH: I didn't want niggas to sound like me. Basically, we was just wilding, starting a lot of
trouble. We was airing out at that time. I'm not here to fuck around and start throwing out names. But at that time,
nigas knew what was going on and who niggas was talking about. You know how Wu came through. At that time, it
was on for anybody. We came into the game, like Fuck everybody. Niggas can't touch this, whatever, whatever.
That was our mind-frame back then. We ran all that shit - jails, streets, Brooklyn House, Rikers Island and Up
North - Wu-Tang was what was up. So we was just them two niggas bugging out off of that shit. God bless the dead, I love BIG. He's a fucking icon. Even when I seen him out in Cali, I wanted to tell son, Yo, let's go ahead and make
this record together because I matured through the years, and at the same time, I recognized good music. We shook
hands on some peace shit, but that was all, cause they was on their way leaving out. A day or two later, niggas aired
him out. I felt bad like damn, the niggas aired out one of my New York niggas.

10: Ice Water
RAEKWON: Everybody knew Cap from the hood. We knew Cap could rhyme, and I think he was getting hot at that
time, too. Me and Ghost had already dropped our part, so we needed him to come up there and do his thing. He slid
right in between, and he do what he do. Cappa knocked GZA out, and knocked everybody else who had rhymed
over that track out. He knocked niggas out on the strength of the rhyme was phat; but also, when he said certain
names that was from the hood, everybody went crazy. So he kinda won with a landslide. But GZA came sharp. So
GZA felt robbed a little bit. He had to go back home, "Whatever, yo." We even laugh about that shit to this day.
Like, a nigga robbed GZA. But Cap won. Funny shit.
RZA: On side A, you had U-God come on the sting with them. In my mind, in the movie, he's killed already. Now
there's a new nigga coming in, with a whole new flow and shit. Cappadonna, he's hardly been to the basement. He
was in jail but he still sounded good, still had it in him. I let him know. "You can pop in how Green Hornet did". And
Big Un - he's in jail for life, a thorough ass nigga, a real street nigga. We let him do the talking between the second
and third verses. He confirmed Ghost and Rae's association from the streets. He was from Stapleton with Ghost...
So he's immortalized now. Music and film, it keeps you there forever.
INSPECTAH DECK: That's my shit. When I do shows, I come out and freestyle to that. Niggas be going crazy.
That beat is RZA on his weed high. I think RZA smoked weed that day. He don't normally smoke. When we smoke,
he don't fuck with us. He might take a pull or two, then comes with that crazy shit.
U-GOD: Cappa did eight years in prison. Cappa came home. I'm the one that came and got Cappa out of his bed
when Rae and them niggas were recording. He didn't even wanna come, cause he was bitter. When you in jail and
you come home and cats you grew up with his doing it withhout you, of course you gonna feel bitter. I got him out his
fuckin bed, slapped off all that bitterness and brung him down to the studio. Rae's carpet fell out. Cappa taught me
how to rhyme! I used to be his beatbox.

11: Glaciers of Ice
RAEKWON: The opening skit was something me and Ghost really wanted to stress, because around that time we
was really buying Clarks left and right. We had bumped into a Chinese nigga who could dye shit. That was Ghost's man. And we was just runnin back and forth to that nigga every time we was into shoes hard. We wanted to wear
Clarks because the shits was comfortable and nobody in the game was fuckin with em. So you know, we'd be going
to dye shit, ,and that's where Ghost came up with the idea to slice em. I was the solid-color nigga, he was the striped
nigga. We started coming up with different flavors. So he was letting niggas know, "I wanna get a pair of Clarks
like, I'm a murder em!" When I rhymed to "Glaciers", it wasn't even to that beat. It was the drum part of that beat
I rhymed to. That day, when I went home, I didn't like my rhyme. Everybody else kept stressing that they liked my
rhyme. But I didn't. RZA was like "Don't worry about it. Go home, get some rest, you tired, you buggin." I was like
fuck that, when I come back tomorow, I'm changing that shit. When I came back, it was like the shit was a whole
new different beat with the drums under it. He made Blue Raspberry hit certain notes. He'd have her scream, go
crazy. That shit's nothing but an AK festival with all the screaming. I took it like he had a shooting range with a
bunch of Iraq niggas just having a festival.
BLUE RASPBERRY: One night, I was just at the studio and I was playing around on the microphone, singing Patti
LaBelle's "Over the Rainbow." I was with no music, no nothing. I was sitting there, just singing. And when I got to
the end like "Why then, oh why c-a-a-n't I?" RZA recorded it. And that's where he put it in "Glaciers of Ice."
RZA: The Clarks skit is totally how Ghost is. He recorded the skit - I think we was in the car. I had a portable DAT. I made everybody get one, cause no telling where you gonna be at when an idea hits. Put it under your bed with your
bitch, whatever.
GHOSTFACE KILLAH: We was in the car one day, driving around with the DAT machine with a microphone. and
we just started talking shit about how we're gonna do it this summer with the Clarks. The dying was something I was
doing already. I'm an inventor. Niggas can't fuck with me when it comes to style. Only nigga that is right there with
me is probably Slick Rick. Other than that, I'm boss.

12: Verbal Intercourse
RAEKWON: We got in the studio, RZA played the beat. Nas was liking it, and he was trying different rhymes to it.
We would sit there, and he'd say some of his shit. But he didn't really know which rhyme he wanted to say. and I was there, being like his little coach. And I was like, "That it son", he was like "that's it?", I was like "Nigga, that's it!"
But he had already went through 3 or 4 rhymes, and he couldn't really see which one he wanted it to be. But I heard
it. Once it came out his mouth, I was like, That's it. Our main focus was just to make sure that he get his nut off and
do what he gotta do. When he did his thing, I wrote something real quick, just to get this shit really looking like
something. Ghost just put the cherry on the top. No hook, cause we didn't care about hooks like that. All we had was the "RZA, Chef, Ghost and Nas" which is more or less an introductory hook. Not really a hook.
NAS: Rae would come out to Queensbridge, I would go to Staten Island. We'd just ride and hang out all night. We
didn't call each other to work. We called each other to hang out. Somehow we wound up in the studio. RZA had a
couple of beats ready. He played them for me. I got on both of them. The other one never came out. I was honored
to be asked to be on the album. Raekwon was ahead of his time. I knew Rae was a classic artist and the album was
going to be a music classic.
GHOSTFACE KILLAH: Nas banged it out in one night. He went first with his shit. We all came after. Son was fast.
Nas had a couple verses. He spit one verse to us and then another, not on the mic. He just asked "How this
sound?" and then we picked the one he spit. He still had the pen in his hand and all the other shit, but son got in
there and just threw an ill crack verse. He was on fire.

13: Wisdom Body
RAEKWON: In my eyes, Cuban Linx was always Ghost's album as well as it was mine. That's one thing about me. I already knew that me and him was a pair. So even through people felt like it was a Raekwon album, I looked at it
like it was a Wu-Tang album, and this is me, and Ghost's departure right there, cause dudes don't really talk the
street stuff like that. Or dudes talk it, but don't talk it the way we talk it. So when Ghost had put Wisdom Body up
there on the album, I felt like, this track is definitely needed and it sound fly. I wasn't at the studio that day when he
did it, but I knew that rhyme he was gonna play, cause I remember RZA keep playing that beat over and over, like
"Somebody gotta eat this." That's how RZA is. "Somebody gotta eat that. Whether you wanna eat it or not,
somebody gotta eat that." And Ghost just ate it up alone.
RZA: This track was originally called "Fly Bitch Shit". At this time, Ghost became Tony Starks. On that song,
Ghost came in and did that song one day I actually put it in the stash; it was Ghost by himself at first. Then Rae
jumped on it. I was like, No, it's too personal to Ghost. It's a glitch in that performance, the way he did it the first
time on ADAT. He never came with that same wetness of voice. He's more high-pitched when other producers work
with him. His voice should be compressed on 90 MHZ and sloped down. I know that; other producers and engineers
don't know that. I had nine compressors - one for each MC - thath I could just patch in.
GHOSTFACE KILLAH: You can hear the punches in there. There's a few punches in there right in the beginning
when I say, "Check the bangin-gest". You can hear the shit switch up a little bit. RZA had to punch the other take
in. Cause back then, since I was drinking, I'd slur a lot so I had to do a bunch of takes. You can hear that I'm a little
bit drunk if you listen. That's why I punched in, because I fucked up one of my words. So, I just kept the beginning
and put the other take in. That's the thing about these albums that we made earlier. We used to keep a lot of the
fuckups. That's what made it raw. Everything ain't always gotta be too perfect.

14: Spot Rusherz
RZA: Spot Rusherz was another example of that zone. I wasn't really feeling the beat. I was done with Rae's album.
Another time I was was making beats for GZA. Rae and me got a similarity. We workaholics; we dedicated to the
cause. It's one of those things where he came in and aired it out. And to me, it saved the beat. I still don't like that
beat. I still wanted to get it off the album. The two gun shots at the end: Just in case you got bored, I was bringing
you right back.

15: Ice Cream
RZA: I gotta take total credit for the idea. I got this basement downstairs in my first nice apartment I had, in
Mariner's Harbor in Staten Island. There's a line running from the basement to the production room on the second
floor. I just zoned the fuck out one night and did the beat. Meth came over. I told him I got a crazy idea on this one.
I wanna use girls' breasts as imaginary ice cream cones. I came up with the idea to make T-shirts to go with it.
"Meth you gonna do the hook." It was the first song besides "You're All I Need to Get By" that we pressured him
into. He didn't like being the pretty boy. He took those words I said "French vanilla", "butter pecan" - and put
them in perfect order. It was really Wu-Tang's first reach out to women. Women wasn't even allowed into the studio. A woman wouldn't be allowed in the studio until 97. It's a distraction. It reminds me of the ingenuity of the mind I
had ticking and making these songs and we thinking we can make t-shirts. We must've sold 20,000 t-shirts at the
Wu-Wear store alone.
CAPPADONNA: Well, the first joint I did, the one that put me on the map was "Ice Cream" And we did that one
like, that was the beginning, nobody ain't really had nothing. We had a lil studio up on Clove Lake. RZA had an
apartment over there, with the studio in the basement. That's the studio that got flooded out. They had a flood in
there. But before the flood, I was out as a security guard up there at the time, and I had went in there and I heard
"Ice Cream"; I had heard Rae's verse; I heard Ghost's verse on there. And I had made a joke about me getting on
the track, and RZA took it seriously and was like "Yo, go ahead. Lace that."

16: Wu-Gambinos
RAEKWON: The Wu-Gambinos aliases come from how I used to like that movie Once Upon a Time in America,
with Robert De Niro and James Woods. I liked how these young little niggas grew up, from the ground up, not
having nothing to start, but still was confused about how they treated each other. And the names came. You know,
"Tony Starks" came from Iron Man. "Lou Diamond" came from me being infatuated with the diamond world. Back
then I was wearing alot of ice, was calling shit ice. But then I started giving some of my niggas in the crew names.
Being that it's my album, I wanted niggas to know, You gotta have a certain a.k.a. when you're on this track. This is
a Gambino track. Wu-Gambinos. I would call Masta Killa "Noodles" call GZA "Maximillian". Inside the movie,
Noodles and Max was partners. I felt like GZA was like "Maximillian" because he was like the brains of the crew.
He would say something real intellectual and smart, and I looked at him like a "Max". I called Deck "Rollie
Fingers" cause of the way he roll blunts. So names just started fitting niggas. "Golden Arms", U-God. Then niggas
just start making they own names up. "Bobby Steels" - RZA was on some real Black Panther, DJ, ill producer shit.
RZA: Now that these guys pulled they sting off, they got one more big sting. They gotta call the heavy hitters in on
this one. It's Rae getting the rest of the team to make this thing official. Actually, that was the first one where
everybody took on another name to go along with the concept of the album. That was done intentionally. We was
probably 11 songs into the album. "Everybody come with your Gambino name." My name was Bobby Steels when I
was 12, 13, so I brought that back out. It was me and Ghost the last to lay our verses. Ghost goes last; everybody
was up in the cut. True Master had to be the engineer to record me. I let niggas know I'm part of the sting. I'm
coming for that money, too. For me it was a chance to show niggas, because I hadn't been heard for a minute.
MASTA KILLA: That was all done in the same place. And it was a beautiful thing to see. Wu-Gambinos: You see
Meth come in; he lays his verse. You see Deck come in; he lays his verse. RZA is there; he lays his verse. It's
inspiring to just see other MCs come through. And not just MCs. This is your brother. This is your family. It's like
the Jackson 5 and shit. They all in one room. It's going to be magical. RZA was the Beethoven of the whole shit. I
think he orchestrated the whole shit. Alot of times brothers came and it was like you came in and you rhymed; you
could have left and you went wherever. When your album was completed, you came in to listen to what he stayed up
putting his magic touches on things.
METHOD MAN: We were high, hanging out. It was always a relaxed atmosphere because we were so used to
being there, sleeping on the floors and all that. So it was like being home, writing rhymes in your own house. You
went from the floor to the booth. It took three hours tops, just to put vocals on it. That was the first time we ever
used our aliases, The Wu-Gambinos names. We were sitting there like, "My name gonna be this" and "My name
gonna be that." People really thought my fuckin name was Johnny Blaze. Raekwon started that. Rae always had
that mobster mentality, always liked to watch gangster movies and read mob books and stuff like that, you know?
So he pretty much knew the names of the cats and what they was about. He polished his whole style like that. Plus
Staten Island is known for mobsters - that's where the Italians live. Not saying all Italians are mobsters, but you
know, we ain't blind and shit.

17: Heaven & Hell
GHOSTFACE KILLAH: This was one of the first songs recorded for Cuban Linx cause we made it for the Fresh
soundtrack. Rae wrote all of it, and then we just broke it up. I just did it with him. So, I was right there. I was the
co-singning like, I'm a say this part. There are a lot of things me and Rae do like that. I might write, and be like
"Yo, here, son just say these parts." But on that one, he had did that. We recorded it the same day.
GZA: Some artists work together. I've thrown lines at brothers, and I've gotten lines from brothers. That's how we
get down.

18: North Star (Jewels)
RAEKWON: "North Star" was a track I really, really wanted on my album. It was a track that I felt a vibe of it was
motion picture-like. I was havin a vision of that song: I could just see a little kid looking out the window, just eating a $100,000 Bar. He coulda been on the seventh floor, eighth floor. And just looking out the window, just looking at
these niggas out there in the street doing they thing. How they eat, how they get money. Back in them days, niggas
would run up to cars and stick they drugs in the window to make niggas buy em and whatever. So that beat always
reminded me of some slow, theatrical trouble that's to take place. The inspiration that Popa Wu was saying, he was
more or less giving a documentary of me with the words he was saying. He was talking about me like "Yo, just keep
your head up, man. Don't let nothing get you down." Just trying to really inspire me from being an OG's point of
view. And in the hood, OGs is legends to us.
RZA: "Fly Bitch Shit" and "North Star" was one song, but I separated them out. The idea is Rae did everything he
had to do. Eveything is over now. The job is over. Mission is over, it's a perfect closing to the album. Popa Wu was a very smart mentor in the younger days to me and ODB. I formed Wu-Tang Clan. Everybody had dibs and dabs of
street knowledge, knowledge of self, I brought him in to be a mentor to these men like, I love them and you the only
person I know that have the intelligence to keep them in sync with knowledge. It's very poisonous unless they got
proper guidance. He was the smartest man I'd ever met at a certain time in my life. After two years, they'd turned
him into a Wu-Tang member. His name used to be Freedom Allah. He was Five Percent. He came Popa Wu after
the experience, went from silk pants and buttom up shirts to fatigues.

UNDERSTANDING: Ghostface reveals the science behind a musical masterpiece
Rae was hot on the Wu Album, and when Loud decided to sign one of us solo, they wanted to carry Rae. I don't
know really how that went down, but RZA made the deal with Steve Rifking and asked Rae, and they had the
budget for the album. He was amped We decided to do the album together because our rhyme styles was
comparable. We both talked alot of street shit and liked the flossy and glossy shit. We already had the title. The
chain we used to rock back in the days was Cuban links. So Rae came up with the theory, like a Cuban link is one of
the roughest chains to break. Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Real niggas, strong niggas. We wrote it in South Beach. It
was just me and Rae down there for two or three weeks. It was recorded in the basement of RZA's old house in
Staten Island. We had alot of good luck in that room. We was in our prime. Back then I was punchin a lot of rap
niggas in their face, and niggas was getting beat up in the clubs. We were banned from everything. They wouldn't
even let me in the Tunnel. Niggas was scared to death when I was out there wilding. I was fucking niggas up,
robbing niggas, fucking alot bitches, just doing dumb shit - and I'm rhyming. We was on it. We was going in at the
time. We did everything. Rap niggas sniffed coke, too. Black niggas sniffed coke, too. Black niggas was street
niggas. I was a dusthead. Rae didn't really like that high. We was young niggas getting a lot of shit poppin. Talking
shit about niggas, all types of shit. I used to drink a lot back then, which is why I sound so aggressive on a lot of shit.
I was going through a lot of real internal shit during Cuban Linx. I was drinking my pain away every day. I used to
drink before I wrote my rhymes and even before I went in the booth. We tried to make every song a single, like how
Rakim had "Eric B. is President", "My Melody" and all that - every song was basically banging. We wanted to do
the same thing. It wasn't plots, like: Yo, you gotta rhyme about that. RZA came with a different sound. He started
off the shit that's going on right now with the little voices in the background, old samples, and it was just fresh... It
just happened that the beats made us talk a lot of shit. you might have a Scarface sample on Criminology, and
Wu-Gambinos had a mafia feel with the violins. So, we were throwing a little mobster in our rhymes. I came up with
all that "a.k.a. Tony Starks, a.k.a. Ironman...", Rae came after that with "Lex Diamonds." Then other Wu
members came in. Now you hear all these other rap niggas with aliases. A lot of dudes started taking our shit, like
Cristal and skits and "politickin". Even when we start rhyming, we be in the booth like, "Hey yo, hey yo, hey yo."
Raekwon started that shit. He's the first nigga I heard do that shit. That's the biggest shit niggas got now on the
mic. We done took that to the highest peak. We bonded as a tight family, so niggas is starting to try and do that
right now. Everybody thinking they have a strong family. We opened up the door for alot of niggas. The shit was just
crazy on how it came together. It was all meant because alot of the shit, I don't even remember. It was just how God
worked it out.

MY PHILOSOPHY: RZA reveales the life behind the beats
We started working on Cuban Linx after Meth's album in 94. The way we had it planned, Meth was first, Dirty was
second, then Rae and GZA. At that time, it was all my word on how it would go. We attracted the children and the
women with Meth; attracted the wild, crazy people not really into philosophy with ODB. Then the real street niggas,
the niggas we all were shying away from, we needed to hit them. Rae was an elder as far as MCing. Rae and Ghost
together, those two right there were notorious kids from two different projects. At one point, they was rivals. Ghost
is from Stapleton, Rae is from Park Hill. They kinda hooked up and seen that similarity in them, and that's how it
went down. They didn't know each other as well as they knew me - it was my concept. Me and Ghost was living
together; I lived in Stapleton in 91, 92. Me and Rae go back to second grade. Cuban Linx was an opportunity for
Rae and Ghost to give us the street side. When we did it, I said, "yo, it's gonna be a very dangerous album; it's
gonna change the game. We gonna invite those demons, every negative stereotype, and deal with them. It's like the
shit was lived; alot of it was lived or experienced in one form or another. It's so natural, it don't feel like songs. It
was a chance to show the world not only how New York livs but also how Shaolin preserved New York. An older
generation was leaving and getting older. We're from the crack generation - that real gritty, rough project shit. We
was on corners at 15, 16, doing shit you couldn't imagine. I was getting high at 11. We're street college guys - we
call it criminologists. We had a certain kind of look: cables, Guccis, Bally, Polo. We went to Red Parrot, Latin
Quarter. People would be like, who the fuck is those niggas? In my mind, we was what New York was about. This
was the real shit that was happening. People in the projects live this life. We felt we was the shit rappers rapped
about. I think Cuban Linx marked an era in hip hop personally. Cuban Linx to me solidifies it. Hip hop today is
basically rapping about how tough you is in the streets, how you raking in the bitches and shit, how fly a nigga is. We
wasn't trying to be R&B'd out. I wasn't going out ike that. We was velour suits, gold fronts. Rakim was a great
example, 86, to 87: a fly muthafucka, super cool, respected by corporate suits or niggas in the streets. I made most
of the Cuban Linx beats first, eight of the tracks. I gave Rae & Ghost a tape of 10 beat, sent it to Florida. They had
wanted to go to Barbados. But when they got to Barbados, the racism was so crazy. It was on some slave mentality.
The Blacks was being treated like shit. They stopped back in Miami, and everything was recorded in my basement.
No engineer, no assistant engineer. I did everything on that shit. The only two albums I did with nobody fucking with
me was Linx and Liquid Swords. I was on a mission. To make all those early albums took three and a half years of
my life. I didn't come outside, didn't have too many girl relations, didn't even enjoy the shit. I just stayed in the
basement. Hours and hours and days and days. Turkey burgers and bluntes. I didn't know if it was working. But
nobody could hear or say nothing, no comments, no touching the board when I leave. Everything was just how I
wanted it.

By the way I didnt type these up myself just had them saved.... Forgot where i first got them though 

[makaveli11]

hahahaaaa props for the one on OB4CL.

[SlickPants]

daaamn thanks everyone for the posts... real good reads.