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The Wu Tang Clan, arguably the most creative and commercially viable rap ensemble ever, turned the game upside down nearly two decades ago with “Enter the Wu Tang: 36 Chambers,” a bizarre, volatile mix of blunt-fueled street anthems riding kung-fu movie samples and deep soul cuts sculpted by the RZA. While each of the nine founders approached with a unique style – GZA’s clever wordplay, Method Man’s eponymous ode to forties and shorties, Ghostface’s slick slang and U-God’s machine gun baritone – it was Chef Raekwon who established himself as the brooding messiah of the darker, less playful side of the Clan. His classic turn in “C.R.E.A.M.,” replete with teen drug use, robberies, and bleeding eyes, would mark him as the harbinger of rugged realism in hip hop, more comfortable in smoke filled hallways than the club. In 1995, he dropped the undisputed classic “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx,” gripping the mic with the rapid-fire immediacy of Big Daddy Kane and a mafioso ferocity not seen since the days of Kool G Rap. This partnership with Ghostface Killah was a front to back collection of crack tales, drug sales, and organized malice that might make David Simon blush. Dragging us to hell through “Rainy Dayz,” “Can It Be All So Simple Remix,” and only parting the clouds briefly for a shout out to “backyards bangin’ like a Benzie” on “Ice Cream,” a mile-high bar in the genre was set – now what?

Fourteen years in the making, not even the Chef himself could have anticipated the critically acclaimed behemoth that would be Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Part 2. A sleeping giant awakened in a new era of the internet democracy, where word of an inferior product races up the block before it even gets shipped in bulk, OB4CL2 has proceeded to freeze the noses of indie blog tastemakers and traditional media alike (7th best of 2009 in Time Magazine?!.) Releasing videos on Pitchfork and leading a legion of Twitter followers (87000 and counting, and with everyday update gems like “in tha bck of the tour bus recording while me in @caponeqb in the front watching “schindler’s list” have ya seen that B4!”,) he hasn’t just stepped back into the game but squarely on top of it. I can’t lie, I’ve been buying what he’s been pitching since the early 90’s, recalling the times I’d skip school and head to Bottom Beat Records and cop the albums early (who says you have to wait til Tuesday?) so when given the chance to do this interview, I jumped on it. I also begged a little, using marathon volunteer drives during the Bentzen Ball as collateral. We caught up with Raekwon just a few days out from his December 15th show (TOMORROW!) at DC’s 930 Club (with veterans Capone n Noreaga) and he was ever humble and eager to discuss the new album, the art of storytelling and his penchant for family business – on wax, in the street, and in the office.

RAE: Peace

BYT: Congrats on the new album and tour, thanks for taking the time to talk with us.
RAE: No problem, no problem.

BYT: First, with all of the years that passed, with other solo albums in between, why did you think this year, this particular album and collection of songs, was worthy of bearing the title as the sequel to Cuban Linx Part 1?
RAE: This album, it was just the people, in America, all over the world asking me to give them the sequel that they’ve been waiting for. Me feeling the pressures of everybody calling me everywhere I go,“Cuban Linx 2 Cuban Linx 2!”, it just got to the point where I was like I GOTTA get this record done. It was starting to be an epidemic, so I just had to go in and do what I had to do.

BYT: With all of that pressure it seems like you really went out of your way to get an all star production team outside of just the obvious joints by the RZA, who manned the entire first Cuban Linx record, but you also got Erick Sermon, Dr. Dre, Marley Marl, and the late J Dilla. When you decided you wanted to do this, was it easy to get people to come on board for a product people have been waiting for so long?
RAE: Yea definitely, a lot of them cats is definitely big things but also music fans, you know what I mean? The die-hards. It’s like going to see a movie, and it’s your favorite movie and here they come back with the sequel. It’s like some players change, even the main characters sometimes switch up but they still make the movie what it’s supposed to be so you’re gonna be like “alright, 2 is nice too n’ah mean?” So that’s how we was thinking about this album, we wanted to put a twist on it and really give the fans something to look forward to. For me, I’m a fan as well as an artist so you know when these guys, at this capacity of success they’ve had, come to the table and say they’ve got my card and they have something that I might need, not what I want, I had to take it into consideration. I’ve always been a brother that’s very humble and very respectful of the people that paved before me. I just wanted to make the album a great album and make it where people could be like, yo, it had a little bit of different color in it and that’s what makes “2” 2. I wasn’t here to trace Part 1 to the fullest, I was just here to give you that feeling of Part 1 but still move on with Part 2 as something that’s different.

BYT: While you still have some guest spots and the posse cuts, you also took more solo turns than before. Was that something you were cognizant of, coming back out, to do some more solo tracks?
RAE: Definitely, like you said, that was a key thing to me in this project because you know I still gotta show people that I’m not reaching, actually, to all these different artists to hold my album together. I really still feel like at the end of the day I got a lot of work to do as far as with me, in general, just me getting back in the ring and doin what I gotta do so, yea, I definitely wanted to step it up a little bit more and let people know I still have excelled as an artist as well so that was definitely part of the plan.

BYT: I’m sure you know, everybody holds you in high regard as the pinnacle of storytelling throughout the entire rap game, especially when it comes to the gritty, stark landscapes and tales of drugs and poverty. You don’t so much glamorize that life as describe the cycle of crime and murder and what comes with that, how it can trap you. Looking at your liner notes, you have the pyrex out but you’re also chained up amongst the spoils of the drug dealing lifestyle. What inspires you to tell this story instead of just spitting some clever lines that may or may not have a point, or being boastful just for the sake being boastful?
RAE: It’s just that, on a real note, that life to me is always a part of my growth and development. It was like when RZA came and snatched me, that was all I knew how to do, so, I was still a hip hop fan but I was only a fan of certain albums and certain MCs and some of my favorites, they were so versatile that I had to sit there and put myself back in this situation. Even before I was doin music, there were certain rappers that I would listen to and it felt like something relating to me and everything that I was dealing with. I’m just reciprocating with what has been in my life for the longest and really just tryin to show people that this is my lane, know what I mean?

Everybody has their sport. You got Rae that’s good at what he does as far as telling these kinds of street tales and if you look at my resume, and where I come from, you hear songs like C.R.E.A.M. where I basically describe things as a reality check more than me being a hip-hopper. I kind of know how to combine everything into one and I just love telling these visuals ‘cause I think that that’s what I’m good at. I tell the fans, I’ll tell everybody that I may not make the major hit records, but, when it comes down to makin albums I can paint a picture that will keep your mind on that picture, you know? So I’m just playing a role that I know how to play. It’s like they say, yo: if you good at fixin TVs, then stay fixin TVs, don’t try to be a plumber.

That’s all I do is just stay right where I’m supposed to stay you know what I mean? I just try to just basically stay in my lane with what I know how to do and I think people recognize that’s what I’m good at and that’s what put Cuban Linx 2 in such high demand, because of those kinds of synopsis’ and shit.

BYT: You talk about painting a picture with your rhymes and I was thinking, going back to Cuban Linx 1, you and Ghostface used a lot of new slang unique to you two and your neighborhood. So listening, it’s like when you first look at a painting you don’t get everything about it. So growing up in Newport News, Virginia, I might not have known what you guys were talking about…
RAE: But you’ve been around the life though, so you’ve seen it…

BYT: Sure, but I just go back to the songs, again and again, like a visual work of art. Even with the new album, every time I listen to a new hip-hop record this year I just have to go back and listen to yours to be honest. There’re a lot of sequels right now that feel off brand while this feels like something true, and building upon the original.
RAE: Right, right…

BYT: Bringing that to the people, I guess you know that if you’re not honest with it, people won’t pick it up.
RAE: All you’re saying is, in a nutshell, what I say. It’s one thing to talk about it but you wanna believe the person that’s behind it. I think, for us, a lot of people really understand that we were the kind of individuals who at one point had really been through it. I mean, that’s how I can listen to it. It ain’t cool for me to listen to an artist that’s actin. Like, what you talkin about you’ve never been nowhere near none of that, you know? There’s nothing wrong with it, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that a motherfucka has to go out there and sell keys or all this little dumb shit or whatever at the time, to make that reality their reality, but we’re just more here dealing with our existence growing up. All this shit started from drug sellin’, B, you know what I mean? I’m sure that there’s a couple other dudes that carried the same lifestyle but I know for me that this is based on a true story so when it’s time to go down these lanes, and talk these stories, and go where I go with it, it’s just because I’m still accessible to things like that.

I try to stay humble as hell because I know how easy it is to go backwards, you know? That’s something that we don’t want to see happen. I think I’m just able to release all my pain by telling visual stories and just tryin to stay movin as an artist because it’s something that I’ll never forget. They say if a man don’t know where he came from, a man won’t know where he’s goin so my thing is to paint pictures so when you see me, you see Martin Scorcese on wax, you see the Sergio Leone of rap, you see these kind of cats who basically know if they wanna make a Godfather movie, they know they gotta go back to that environment and go fuck with the real people in order to get what they need.

They can’t go fuck with people that’s made up, they gotta go to the Mafia lands and at least have 1 or 2 or 3 dudes that lived the life who’s gonna tell em the truth. That’s the same with me when I’m sittin down paintin my pictures – I know what I know, I’ve been through what I’ve been through, but at the same time I’m around players that give me great vision on where I need to go as well. Prime example, if you listen to the song “Sonny’s Missin,” one of the first three songs that comes on, one of my homeboys just got killed in the neighborhood and it’s a big story about how a kid that was around had seen it. When you listen to Sonny’s Missin, it’s the same thing going on… somebody’s going to kill somebody and they got me over there watching what’s taking place and really I’m in a situation where I can’t do shit but see how homie handles his business or whatever. I’m not saying it’s identical but these are things that take place in the hood and I think that this is the kind of story people relate to.

BYT: I remember a line from you, “Columbians be on some bullshit, that’s how Poppy got hit” and I remember the RZA talked about that on The Daily Show, on his book tour, and he talked about how your stories are based in reality from then until now so I think your fans really get that, you come from the heart with all of this.
RAE: Yea, definitely.

BYT: With the new album, the audience that you’re reaching now is a lot different than what you could reach in 1995. On the internet and in print, the album probably couldn’t have been reviewed better since its release. I see you’ve been doing some things with Pitchfork, a traditionally indie rock n roll outlet and they don’t do a whole lot with hip hop, some here and there, but when they do it’s for artists that are well respected like yourself. You’re reaching a lot more white dudes in flannels that maybe wouldn’t have picked the record up back then… how did this fit into your overall strategy as far as internet blogs, the Twitter account? Were all of these factors that you knew would take you to a whole new level of appreciation?
RAE: Well, number one the first thing, you know, for me is I love the dedication from my fan base and I have a big white fan base and I love them so much B. It’s like not only have they supported me but they’ve supported Wu Tang in general through 16 to 17 years of my career on top of every other ethnicity and nationalities. We are considered a cult, one of those groups that attacks every generation and every nationality so the kids, I just think they understand real life music. I don’t care where you’re at, people recognize talented music whether they’re white or black.

For me, to be able to know at the end of the day that I’m not your typical MC with a limited fan base… my thing is just to go out there and market myself in a great way that’s cost effective and I’m able to still be in tune with my people. I sit around with my company with different strategies on how to reach my people. It’s me putting my thinking cap on the way I need to and really marketing myself because at the end of the day you can put millions of dollars into marketing but if the artist ain’t willing to jump up and put that initiative into it, it’s not gonna be as great an outcome as it could be. For me, I just wanted to be hands on with this project with the people so that’s what I did. I made sure I understood the power of the internet which is a crazy good thing for me. I understand people be downloading and doin this or doin that but hey that’s a part of the game. It ain’t nothing new under the sun when it comes to people getting what they want from you one way or the other. I used it as a tool, I was very up front with understanding how the fans felt, and I took all that into consideration but at the same time I was able to go out there and deal with these certain social networks.

I just really put myself in a business frame of mind and sat down and really, really worked hard. I give my blood brothers the opportunity to come assist me in my business and they’ve been doing an excellent job. As far as touring is concerned, I got one brother that does that, Kareem, then myy younger brother, Don Perrion, he handles all my internet and social networks, and it’s so ill to run this like a family business. I’m just sitting here being a sponge to everybody’s philosophy on where I need to be, on top of what I know. We just come together and put all the great ideas and all the great strategies into a melting pot and that’s what we do to get to these kids. Like I said, I don’t mind getting up there and listening, and looking at the blogs and laughing at all the comments because sometimes the mothafuckas be right; they can be wrong, but then they can be right. I take all that as good, constructive criticism and just move forward.

BYT: With the label now, Ice H20 Records, and your own in house production team, what kind of acts outside of your own do you wanna put out after finishing up all this work for Cuban Linx 2? Why did you even start the label?
RAE: Great question. I’m just at a level where, you know, I understand… Wu Tang has been a great asset to my life and it’s always gonna be Wu Tang Forever, but, for Raekwon I think I have built a pyramid situation for myself to say, yo, I’m at the point where now it ain’t just about Rae it’s about the company that Rae starts, it’s about Rae being able to make other people successful that’s gonna make him more successful. This was something that I wasn’t able to do at one point in my career because I was playing just rapper, you know? Now I guess because I’m older, and I understand the business more, I’m able to really figure out who’s keepin it real or who’s fake. Now I’m at the point where I wanna help other people. I always wanted to help other people but now I’m just in better shape because it’s about having a team that is taking the business like a career, not just taking it like running with your homeboys. I’ve had my days of runnin with my niggas and wylin out and, you know, smoking blunts doin whatever we do but I kind of surround myself with more foxes now than fuckin with gorillas. Nowadays I don’t need a dude to just sit around and be a gorilla and look over at me and just want bananas. I want a dude that’s gonna be able to go out there and go work at a dream that he feels he can make a career out of and I wanna be a part of helping him because at the end of the day they’re helping me. I’m more strict and firm on how I do business. I think right now, the situation and the space we’re in, being I’m a label myself, I run into talent all the time but now I’m in a situation where I know how to go and go make things happen.

Before, being with the Clan, being a team player with the RZA, basically guys had me in the frame of mind of just being a soldier but now I’ve graduated, I’ve got my medals on my hat now and I just wanna help other people be successful and I think that’s the key thing to becoming an artist. You want people to know what you’re capable of then you build your status high enough to let other people know, “check this out,” this is something that I’m co-signing on. That’s what it’s all about man, I wanna help people. Like I always tell the fans, whether it’s music or dudes that’s great writers or dudes that do graphic designs or people that write scripts or write books or whatever, I think everybody needs the opportunity to utilize these resources that WE had the opportunity to use.

I’m just trying to give back and it feels good to stand in the general’s chair for once because I always had visions that I could do it, but, something was just keeping me away from doing it. Maybe it just had to happen nowadays and not back then. It’s just about, right now, understanding that we’ve built a strong brand. I believe that Ice H20, you know, we were like yo, we wanna go independent and it was a scary situation at first but we knew the ups and downs of it and we went in with our head up, our head high, and we did what we had to do. So now we’re able to know that our confidence is gonna drive us to be a success so now it’s just about bringing talent to the table and walking as our own label. Now I’ve got a distribution connect where they understand my worth and my wealth so I’m just ready to keep it movin, you know, I feel good. It feels like I’m on a major only because my system is working as a major so it just feels good right now and I think there’s a lot of hidden talent still out there that needs to be heard and I’m the type of dude that’ll give a motherfucker a shot. As long as he approaches the table the way he’s supposed to.

BYT: Before we take off, since you’re going to be doing a live show here in DC tomorrow night, in terms of that what do you like to bring to the table when you go out and perform live? How do you see the crowd reacting to the classics and to the new stuff?
RAE: Well number one, what I like to bring to the table is a lotta energy. Anybody’s who’s seen my show, they know I get up there and I put it in. It could be a hundred people in the crowd or it could be ten thousand people in the crowd. I LOVE rap, I LOVE getting up there and performing so, I know the people are gonna get hype because I get hype and the energy is what keeps me going. I love the fact that I make people have fun when they come see me at my show so, you know, you gonna see Rae up there, a couple of drinks in his system, feelin real good. The mics is clear, the mics is clean, and you gonna get a way better show than you may have anticipated.

For me I just don’t like to get up there and run in and run out, I like to really feel out the crowd, feel out the people because I’m blessed, my man, to be here 16 or 17 years later. We can count on our fingers how many people last that long in the business, so, me, when you get a chance to see my show, we’re gonna take you back of course but we gonna bring you up, we’re gonna bring you forward too. It’s gonna be a real exciting show.

I look at myself like a KRS 1 or a Kane when it comes to performing because I know how people spent their money and they wanna come see rappers be like they be on wax and my shit ain’t fabricated, my shit is from the heart. I love to get up there and rhyme so we gonna have a lot of excitement that night and that’s how it’s ALWAYS gonna be.

One time, I remember I was doin a show and I told the crowd, yo, being in this business I never got booed, so, could yall just boo one time just I can know how it feels? They all booed me and shit and I just busted out laughing, like, OK at least I can say I’ve been booed before, know what I mean? It’s like in Raging Bull when motherfuckin DeNiro was tellin Pesci yea, punch me in the face, let me see how hard you can hit. Go ahead! Pow! Smack! Pow! Go ahead! Punch me in the mouth! Blood start comin out POW! Yea do it again! So that’s how I am when it comes to, you know, my aura on stage. You always gonna get the best of Rae ALL the time. This is something I love. If it was a hobby at one point, now, I’ve become the Michael Jordan at this shit so motherfuckers wanna see Jordan on the court. Gotta get busy, B! I gotta show niggas that when I make these records that I can do em in your face with the same energy.

BYT: To that end, it sounds like the show is gonna be fucking crazy.

Want more:
Socialize with Raekwon on myspace and on twitter and tickets are still available for you and your fellow fanboys for tomorrow’s show @ 930 CLUB

BONUS: There is still some time to win tickets to tomorrow

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