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Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II
Universal acclaim
Based on 19 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 67 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: EMI
Release Date: 08 September 2009
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Rap
Summary
The Wu-Tang Clan-member releases his fourth solo album featuring such artists as his fellow Wu-Tang Clan members, Jadakiss, Beanie Sigel, Lyfe Jennings, Styles P, Busta Rhymes, and Slick Rick.
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site (Wu-Tang Clan)
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Sputnikmusic
Everything about Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt. II demands worship and solidifies Raekwon as one of history's best with a continuation that exceeds his original debut in every way imaginable.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
Raekwon pays further homage to his late friend’s memory by releasing a tour de force that honors both the legacies of Wu-Tang Clan and Only Built 4 Cuban Linx.
Read Full Review >Tiny Mix Tapes
All hotly (strangely this descriptor seems almost an understatement) anticipated albums should deliver so profoundly.
Read Full Review >Urb
His timing, precision, and craftsmanship in regards to everything having to do with this project has been impeccable. It's not a classic. But it's damn close.
Read Full Review >Slant Magazine
Fundamentally, though, the album is a wistful and occasionally melancholic one that is as consistently captivating in its lyrical content as it is wonderfully dark and eerily melodic in its composition and production.
Read Full Review >No Ripcord
I love it the same way I love looking at signatures in my yearbooks: as distant reminders of past friends and better times. Sure, this album is awesome, but the fact remains that this is a continuation of an old idea in lieu of a new one.
Read Full Review >Prefix Magazine
Only Built for Cuban Linx...Pt. 2 is top-to-bottom brilliant, and it's energy and emotion is too infectious not to inspire a dozen great hip-hop records to come.
Read Full Review >Drowned In Sound
It’s the often perfect synthesis between lyrical content and production on OB4CLII that makes the album simply sublime.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
Like Ghostface's modern classic, this album defies hip-hop's current atmosphere of youthful cockiness and aging complacency: instead, it's driven by the sometimes celebratory, sometimes traumatized sense of stubborn survival and perseverance, a veteran mindset that can no longer picture success without having to defend it.
Read Full Review >Paste Magazine
The album drags at points; with 22 tracks and a 70-minute runtime, some of this material would have been better off on a mixtape. But that’s a minor flaw in an otherwise superbly-executed gangster epic.
Read Full Review >RapReviews.com
One can't fairly make the claim that "Pt. II" picks up right where the original left off, but this is the best Raekwon we've heard lyrically and musically in a long time, and barring a late entry this should be the best Wu-Tang related album of 2009.
Read Full Review >cokemachineglow
Raekwon has not made a valid sequel to that classic--but he has quite validly added a couple hundred new bars to that performance.
Read Full Review >NOW Magazine
Over the years, his raps grew less engrossing and his albums bombed atomically. But he’s back on point with OB4CL2, sounding as fierce and focused as ever.
Read Full Review >Mojo
Indelible, compulsive, flecked with genuine brillance throughout, it's as good as any of the acknowledged clasics from the Clan's '93-96 peak. [Nov 2009, p.95]
The New York Times
It doesn’t reflect a lack of evolution, or even a regression, but rather the completion of a circle--and probably a landing pad, even as the world continues to whiz by.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
This sequel may have little to do with the original, but if the title helps to point out this is the Shaolin poet's best work since 1995's Pt. 1, then so be it.
Read Full Review >Spin
While the songs may lack the original’s wild-eyed narrative, they still contain some of his most rewind-worthy bars in years.
Read Full Review >Dusted Magazine
Working almost like a glorified mixtape, many of the tracks bleed together or start mid-scene with field recordings of corner action. It adds to the feeling that you’ve dropped in on something important.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 67 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Lenny M. gave it a0:
This album is pretty much "more of the same" trash. It's not the best Hip Hop album of 2009. Raekwon just tells somewhat deep stories with okay lyricism. Clipse's Till The Casket Drops and Hell Hath No Fury are MUCH MUCH MUCH better Hip Hop albums. And before you boo me down for saying it's not, how about you ACTUALLY LISTEN to Till The Casket Drops AND Hell Hath No Fury before you come to a final decision. Till The Casket Drops, best Hip Hop album of 2009. Only Built for Cuban Linx Pt. 2, NOWHERE NEAR as deep and inventive as Hell Hath No Fury and Till The Casket Drops.
Alex W. gave it a10:
Easily one of the best albums this year. be sure to cop the Wu-Massacre commin out Feb 9th 2010.
Lex D. gave it a10:
This album is amazing. The production, lyrical imagery, and overall feel of it just had me shook. Best CD of 2009.
Scott H gave it a9:
The flow is sickeningly tight. the beats are classic Wu-Tang style. this album is just loaded. could do without some of the interludes, but beyond that I have no complaints.
Le S gave it a10:
Can't stop listening to this album! "Put all the other LPs back on the shelf" It is great to hear a hip-hop artist take the concept of an album seriously. Not some half ass mixtape album or "Look at me, and my new friends" Jay-Z album. This album is so on point it's scary, you can tell someone put their work in. BUY IT, it's not half ass. Like the rest of Hip-Hop right now including Jay-Z, I don't care how many features his album has, there's no concept to his new album, just a bunch of singles. Anyway enough badmouthing, go smoke one and listen to Raekwon's new masterpiece!
Mycroft W gave it a9:
Deducted one point for the 14-year wait, other than that it's flawless.
Kingfish gave it a9:
Outstanding. He brings hip hop back to the front stage, and uses lyrics and rhyme to teach the suckers how its done.
