Your Favorite White Boy

Now, before everyone gets all upset, let me say that I think Rae is a dope-ass rapper.   One of my favorite Wu members, in fact.  That being said, I think Rae is making a huge mistake by trying to replicate earlier glories by naming his upcoming album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2 (OB4CL2).

I, like many heads, view the original OB4CL as a classic album.  At the time, it set the standard for a solid album from a solo artists.   It also propelled Rae from just another Wu member to one of the premier MCs in the game.  But that was 1995.  This is 14 years later.

Raekwon risks falling into the trap that the rest of the Wu is in – the formula has changed much since they originally came out in the early 1990’s.  There is no question the Wu changed the game when they came into the game.  They changed not only how rap music sounded, but also how contracts were managed.  

But rap has largely moved on.  Raekwon needs to do the same.

There is a an old maxim in business: “underpromise and over perform.”   Its about setting fairly conservative expectations and then going way above them.  I continue to be baffled by why these rap dudes say everything they do is a “classic”, thereby creating massive expectations they likely will not be able to satisfy.

By affiliating his newest joint with OB4CL, he sets listeners up to judge Part 2 against the original.  That puts the pressure on Rae to create a “classic” album versus a “dope” album.   Would you not want people to judge you on how you sound in 2009 rather than compare it to 1995?  Why do you think MJ’s next album won’t be titled Thriller 2?  The Chef also runs the risk of possibly tainting the legacy of his original classic by directly linking it to a possibly average product. Look at what happened with Hova’s Blueprint 2.   Leave a classic alone.

His release of his new joint  Criminology 2 is a step in the wrong direction.  Rapping over a remix of the original beat essentially admits you’re eating off past successes.   Doesn’t bode well for the future.

Maybe this is Rae’s last card to play.  He figures he can score numbers by relying on nostalgia.  And that’s fair enough.  But relevance in hip-hop usually means you have something new to contribute.  We all know the role Rae played in 1995.  My question is: what does he have to show us in 2009?  Raekwon could be one of the greats if he can adapt.

Rae needs to leave OB4CL alone.  As Joell Ortiz says: “Move on”.

Tags: OB4CL2, Raekwon