Track listing
1. Striving For Perfection
2. Knuckleheadz - (featuring Ghostface Killah/Golden Arms)
3. Knowledge God
4. Criminology - (featuring Ghostface Killah)
5. Incarcerated Scarfaces
6. Rainy Dayz - (featuring Ghostface Killah/Blue Raspberry)
7. Guillotine (Swordz) - (featuring Ghostface Killah/Inspectah Deck/Genius)
8. Can It Be All So Simple - (remix, featuring Ghostface Killah)
9. Shark Niggas (Biters)
10. Ice Water - (featuring Ghostface Killah/Cappachino)
11. Glaciers Of Ice - (featuring Ghostface Killah/Master Killa/Blue Raspberry/62nd Assassin Of Sunz Of Man)
12. Verbal Intercourse - (featuring Ghostface Killah/Nas)
13. Wisdom Body - (featuring Ghostface Killah)
14. Spot Rusherz
15. Ice Cream - (featuring Ghostface Killah/Method Man/Cappachino)
16. Wu-Gambinos - (featuring Ghostface Killah/Method Man/RZA/Master Killa)
17. Heaven & Hell - (featuring Ghostface Killah)
18. North Star (Jewels)
Details
Playing time: 73 min.
Contributing artists: Ghost Face Killer, Inspectah Deck, Method Man, Nas, RZA, The Genius
Producer: RZA
Distributor: BMG
Recording type: Studio
Recording mode: Stereo
SPAR Code: n/a
Album notes
Personnel includes: Raekwon, 62nd Assassin Of Sunz Of Man, Lucky Hands a/k/a Golden Arms, Cappachino, Noodles a/k/a Master Killa (rap vocals); Blue Raspberry (vocals).
The Wu-Tang saga continues. Raekwon "The Chef" is already an irreplacable part of rap music's largest breed, the Wu-Tang Clan, but his debut proves him also capable of standing on his own two feet. On ONLY BUILT 4 CUBAN LINX..., Raekwon's street-tough lyrics spotlight the roughness of his everyday life and, combined with short story interludes, shape the plot for this gangster movie of an album.
The topics on CUBAN LINX are all Chef-centered braggadocio, and the beats constantly reflect the hip-hop underground. Raekwon defines the politics of the rap game on "Incarcerated Scarfaces," and invites any non-believers to test his skills. Joining Raekwon on just about every cut, fellow Clan-man Ghost Face Killer gives a great solo effort on "Wisdom Body."
In fact, CUBAN LINX bares closer resemblance to an actual Wu-Tang Clan album than any solo record by a Wu-Tang member. The backing track for "Guillotine (Swordz)" was previously introduced on Method Man's solo album TICAL, and Raekwon and his crew expand on it for a quick flashback. "Can It Be All So Simple" also returns--this time in a remixed form. These two songs, along with "Ice Cream" and "Wu-Gambinos" (both of which feature Method Man), should feed the habits of hungry Wu-fiends. Raekwon's chamber briefly escapes the Clan's musical borders on "Verbal Intercourse," and though the track evokes other Wu-Tang material, Nas' lyrical presence adds a different dimension to the album's haunting reality.
As usual, The RZA dominates the production on each razor-sharp cut, and with appearences from just about every Clan MC, ONLY BUILT 4 CUBAN LINX... could easily be a Raekwon-sponsored Wu-Tang reunion.
Editorial reviews
Included in Rolling Stone's Essential Recordings of the 90's.
Rolling Stone (05/13/1999)
Ranked #83 in Spin Magazine's 90 Greatest Albums of the '90s.
Spin (09/01/1999)
Ranked #14 on Spin's list of the `20 Best Albums Of '95.'
Spin (12/01/1995)
Included on Neil Strauss' list of the Top 10 Albums of `95 - ...an intricately worded, copiously produced disk that unravels with the delirium of an action film...
New York Times (01/06/1996)
Ranked #15 in Village Voice's 1995 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll.
Village Voice (02/20/1996)
Ranked #29 in NME's `Top 50 Albums Of The Year' for 1995.
NME
4.5 Mics - Superior - ...Raekwon...sprays out lyrics like gunfire....On CUBAN LINX, a barrage of sound effects, screams, samples and dialogue conjure up images of a gangsta movie....another success for Shaolin's finest...
The Source (09/01/1995)
9 (out of 10) - ...Much like the main character of Cain in MENACE II SOCIETY and Biggie in his READY TO DIE odyssey, Rae is threatening, funny, calculated, arrogant, charismatic, talented, so on and so on...
Rap Pages (10/01/1995)
8 - Very Good - ...the sonic equivalent of a John Woo movie; tales filled with gunshots...assassins with their own special codes of morals...and a beautiful woman mourning the loss of a lover caught up in the drama....Raekwon paints pictures so vivid you smell the gunpowder and wipe the blood on your shirt-tails...
Spin (11/01/1995)
Recommended - ...frequently excellent....the offshoots [of the Wu-Tang Clan] have been phenomenal....If ONLY didn't outstay its welcome by about 10 minutes, it'd be sharing a pedestal with [Method Man's] TICAL...
Melody Maker (08/26/1995)
8 (out of 10) - ...a serious depth charge of an LP....When you hear the rough street-edged voices, spouting gritty rhymes over heavy beats, you hear the word from the `ghetto' as if handed down from the mount...
NME (08/19/1995)
...rapper Raekwon at his lightning-quickest and producer RZA at his razor sharpest....Underneath the meaty rhymes are RZA's spooky, discordant keyboards and wailing female vocal samples... - Rating: A-
Entertainment Weekly (08/18/1995)
...Irreducibly New York, smeared and self-referential, like a neighborhood that feels familiar but isn't....An album of sense and sensibility...
The Wire (10/01/2001)
4 stars out of 5 - ...Thrillingly malevolent...and surprisingly melancholy...with RZA's dense sample collages as labyrinthine as the lyrics....[It] remains one of the milestones of '90s hip hop.
Q (08/01/2000)
...Raekwon rips through rhymes like no other lyricist exists--he looks at every other MC like dinner. Not quite a solo debut, Rae puts his man Ghost...down on practically every cut....since practically every MC who knows...something was itching to get...on this album, those who made the cut...are cream...
Vibe (09/01/1995)
=================================================================
Track listing
1. Start Of Your Ending, The (41st Side)
2. Infamous Prelude, The
3. Survival Of The Fittest
4. Eye For A Eye (Your Beef Is Mines)
5. Just Step Prelude
6. Give Up The Goods (Just Step)
7. Temperature's Rising
8. Up North Trip
9. Trife Life
10. Q.U.-Hectic
11. Right Back At You
12. Grave Prelude, The
13. Cradle To The Grave
14. Drink Away The Pain (Situations)
15. Shook Ones Pt. II
16. Party Over
17. Shook Ones Part I - (original version)
18. Survival Of The Fittest - (remix)
Details
Playing time: 66 min.
Contributing artists: Ghostface Killah, Nas, Q-Tip, Raekwon
Distributor: BMG
Recording type: Studio
Recording mode: Stereo
SPAR Code: n/a
Album notes
Mobb Deep: Havoc, Prodigy (vocals).
Additional personnel: Big Noyd, Crystal Johnson (vocals), Tony Smalios (programming).
Producers: Mobb Deep (tracks 1, 3-4, 8-13, 15-16); The Abstract (tracks 6-7, 14).
Engineers: Louis Alfred III (tracks 1, 7-8, 11, 13, 15-16); Tim Latham (tracks 3-4, 6, 14); Dino Zerros (track 9); Mobb Deep, Tony Smalios (track 10).
All songs written or co-written by A. Johnson and K. Muchita except "Just Step Prelude" (A. Johnson/T. Perry). Samples include "That's Alright With Me" (Ester Phillips), "Where There Is Love" (as performed by Patrice Rushen), "You Are My Starship" (as performed by Norman Connors) and "I Remember I Made You Cry" (as performed by The Headhunters).
Before their Loud/RCA debut THE INFAMOUS, Mobb Deep's Havoc and Prodigy were introduced to the hip-hop nation on 1993's JUVENILE HELL, portraying their own brand of the "Trife Life." Image and hardships aside, a lot has changed since then, particularly their music which has naturally matured as the pair have grown older, bolder and wiser.
THE INFAMOUS is a rugged ride through the truths and terrors of these two Big Apple outlaws, with cuts like "Right Back At You" and "Cradle To The Grave" stinging the minds of its listeners. This time around Mobb Deep play with the background tracks a little more, having self-produced virtually the entire album. The lead-off single, "Shook Ones Pt. II," blew up tremendously, first in the underground and then on the charts; its killer lyrics and hypnotizing beat pounded a warning into the heads of the masses to stay real. "Survival Of The Fittest" and "Up North Trip" both describe the hectic streets of New York as a war zone where the constant struggle is to stay alive. Mobb Deep join forces with two of rap's most intense lyricists, Nas and the Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon, on "Eye For A Eye (Your Beef Is Mine)." Adding to the all-star cast, Q-Tip donates an abstract feel to a few tracks and makes his cameo appearance on "Drink Away The Pain (Situations)," a clever track dedicated to an unlikely first love.
Mobb Deep come correct throughout the album, once again proving that while rap may be just a music, hip-hop is a way of life. Score another point for the crews of Queensbridge, as THE INFAMOUS enters that 'hood's Hall Of Fame right next to Nas' ILLMATIC.
Editorial reviews
...Over mostly self-produced, bare-bones beats, the pair's hard-edged rhymes paint a chilling picture of life on their mean streets....Underground rap-heads--and those who can break away from Jeep beats--will rejoice... - Rating: B+
Entertainment Weekly (05/05/1995)
Bloody Essential - ...the kind of jaw-dropping innovation that makes a good hip hop LP make everything else sound pallid and emasculated by comparison...immaculate backing tracks, phat beats, sliding bass, always with at least one jarring mind-f*** element thrown in to really detonate the soundscape and your head...
Melody Maker (07/01/1995)
9 - Near Perfect - ...state-of-the-art East Coast reportage: drug-selling, police-fleeing, and homie-dying vignettes, all told with vivid detail and a deadpan thousand-yard flow....If only to clock a stunning panoply of mike skills, THE INFAMOUS is indispensible...
Spin (08/01/1995)
3.5 Stars - Good - ...a darkly nihilistic masterpiece. Call it the CLOCKWORK ORANGE of gansta-rap records, in which violent, unsupervised teenagers roam the streets...
Rolling Stone (11/16/1995)
...Despite the fact that the album has more cameos than WHO'S THE MAN, the focus stays on Mobb Deep. While describing their lives with brutal realism and raw imagery, Havoc's love for his hometown hits you in the head like a Mike Tyson comeback punch...
Vibe (06/01/1995)
8 - ...THE INFAMOUS...epitomizes `The Message' line for line with, at times, subliminal solutions to the problem of juvenile and postpuberty life in the projects as a young African male. It's transparently manifested that mainstream, commercial and racist Americans will never grasp the meaning of Mobb Deep's concealed stress...
Rap Pages (08/01/1995)
4.5 Mics - Superior - ...By favoring straightforward, near spoken-word deliveries over stylish vocal gymnastics, Mobb Deep earn credibility, winning the crucial battle between style and substance....reminiscent of a young Erick and Parrish...
The Source (06/01/1995)
8 (out of 10) - ...shuttering nitro beats and scratchy jazz samples cut back to reverberating piano chords and the odd squealing horn break. As rappers they bring the clipped, rolling style of a Rakim or EPMD, adding a chill menace to neighbourhood boasts like `Right Back At You' and `Eye For An Eye'...
NME (07/01/1995)
3.5 Stars - Good - ...a darkly nihilistic masterpiece. Call it the CLOCKWORK ORANGE of gansta-rap records, in which violent, unsupervised teenagers roam the streets...
Rolling Stone (11/16/1995)
...Despite the fact that the album has more cameos than WHO'S THE MAN, the focus stays on Mobb Deep. While describing their lives with brutal realism and raw imagery, Havoc's love for his hometown hits you in the head like a Mike Tyson comeback punch...
Vibe (06/01/1995) |
![[豁達乱拜]❤](static/image/common/logo.png){kind=logo}
变色卡
显身卡