raekwon

One of the handful of new tracks that will be on OB4CL2: Gold Edition is this smooth joint with an all-star Wu line-up. The RZA production isn’t the kung-fu movie sampling goodness that he’s acclaimed for, but rather a mellow backdrop for each emcee and singer Thea to ride. Each Killa Bee delivers his own way, with Raekwon taking a slow approach, Deck speeding it up to contrast the slow beat, and GZA going into storyteller mode. The Genius has been busy on the tour circuit so we haven’t heard much new from him since Pro Tools, but he clearly has not lost the touch. With a sharp mind like this, I’m optimistic about Liquid Swords 2, which was announced a few months back.

Download: Raekwon – “Rockstars” feat. Inspectah Deck, GZA & Thea

There was some confusion when “Wallys & Pringles” came out that the title of that song was “Alphabet Soup” but we can see now why it was clearly mislabeled. The Chef attacks the alphabet similar to past attempts by artists to incorporate different portions of the song starting most of the words with a certain letter. He gets from A-Z in about 3 and a half minutes which makes me think at the end he just said “Fuck it, this takes way too long. Let’s wrap it up!” lol. This joint is off of his upcoming tape called Brinks Boyz Volume 2: We Stayin’ which should be dropping next week.

Download: Raekwon – “Alphabet Soup”

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Phil keeps getting more buzz every month and now he gets the DMV heavy hitters Wale, Raheem Devaughn & Tabi to join him and the Chef on a remix of this single. “Hollywood” was initially on his mixtape Starting on JV which I consider still underrated although it has surely given him more attention. Our continuing technical problems didn’t allow me to post the video for “Always There” so I am including that with the download after the break. Look out too for Phil’s upcoming tape with Don Cannon called The Letterman which is releasing in June July 6th.

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Yet another Chef/Alchemist mixture for us to get our hands on. Rae has been on a crazy streak, constantly dropping tracks at least weekly for over a year now. Hats off to him, since it must be hard to release hundreds of verses when your lyrical content is so dense. Raekwon rocks this track with expected ease, and Alchemist made it all the easier by cranking the boom-bap to eleven.

Previously: Raekwon – “Wally’s & Pringles” (prod. Alchemist)

Download: Raekwon – “Jolly Ranchers” (prod. Alchemist)

This is one of my favorite songs to drop in the past couple months because this beat is so crazy and on top of that we get some of the best rappers of Wu spitting over it. The video, directed by Rik Cordero, is some dope shit too where they show you the carnage of a shootout and how it came to be later in the video. When I say carnage too I mean it, this is the bloodiest video I have seen in a while and although I think gore is usually over the top, for “Our Dreams” it is well utilized to convey the gangster story. You can cop the full album on March 30th.

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An unfinished version of this song leaked before with a different name but this is the CDQ of it. The song is unreleased and sounds like it was meant for the Purple Tape but for some reason or another it was left off. The beat is produced by Mondee and it comes from a different angle with the melancholy horn loops out and Rae does his thing on it. Wu-Massacre is dropping in a couple weeks too so this can help get all you Wu heads ready for the release. I’m not sure I have ever seen a record come out so fast after it’s announcement but it is a welcome change to the standard of pushing albums back.

Download: Raekwon – “Flawless Crown” (Unreleased)

I got my Wallys on and I’m listening to “Wally’s & Pringles” and it is dope shit. Rae samples Billy Squier for the song and you can’t even tell until the end when he screams “I got the big beat” which finally gave away what gem was on the Alchemist beat. “Wally’s & Pringles” is a quick song so all of you Wu heads don’t need to worry on missing something but I always like to hear the Chef chop it up. This song is not the promised Raekwon track “Alphabet Soup” but I certainly will be copping that along with Wu-Massacre which drops March 30th.

Download: Raekwon – “Wally’s & Pringles” (Prod. Alchemist)