Only Built for Cuban Linx... VS. Follow the Leader

Vesuvius - Only Built for Cuban Linx... by Raekwon

Opening Statement:
What do the following albums have in common? Madvillainy, Reasonable Doubt, It Was Written, Life After Death, American Gangster, The Night Took Us In Like Family, A Prince Among Thieves, section.80, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, and even Pure Heroine?

The answer is simple: they’re all heavily influenced by Only Built For Cuban Linx.

In 1995, Cuban Linx became the third Wu Tang solo album. Notionally a Raekwon album, it features all nine members of the Wu Tang, including Ghostface on 12 of the 17 tracks. Blue Raspberry and Cappadonna also get minor roles, as does Nas. RZA handles the production, weaving in samples from gangster films. Combined with the intricate plot and large cast of characters – ten of the rappers involved used aliases – this gave the album a cinematic feel. If others had attempted it, they hadn’t pulled it off nearly as well. This was the platform for album-based rap. The Miseducation may be a million miles from Cuban Linx in topic, but the skits which provide its story and character probably wouldn’t have been there without Raekwon’s own storytelling skits. Kendrick Lamar’s cross-album storytelling has precedent elsewhere in music, but Rae’s fingerprints are all over section.80 in particular

The actual content of the story has also been influential. Mafioso rap was an obscure sub-genre in 1995. AZ was working on a Mafioso album of his own, and Kool G Rap was still plugging away, but it was Cuban Linx that captured the wider public’s imagination. The three rappers now recognised as New York’s greatest – Biggie, Nas, and Jay Z – all switched their styles when they heard (or in Nas’s case, contributed to) Cuban Linx. The self-indulgent hustlers of Reasonable Doubt and Life After Death were inspired by Lex Diamond. Nas’s Escobar persona was born in RZA’s Staten Island studio. Even 2Pac started calling himself “Makaveli” thanks to the Gambino personas. Raekwon’s references to cristal saw it become a shorthand for wealth within hip hop, and even outside of it. Lorde uses cristal to represent the gap between successful musicians and their struggling fans

Most of Cuban Linx’s influence was immediate, but it is still influential today. Kendrick and Lorde are the tip of the iceberg: Rick Ross has essentially built his career off OB4CL. Childish Gambino indirectly takes his rap name from the album. Combine a cinematic style and Mafioso themes, and you get L’Orange and Jeremiah Jae’s The Night Took Us In Like Family, the greatest underground album of 2015. That album is highly reminiscent of MF Doom and Madlib’s Madvillainy. Indeed, Doom’s comic-book personas probably wouldn’t have been as successful if his friend Ghostface hadn’t started calling himself Tony Starks on OB4CL, and nor would his cinematic production have been as widely accepted without RZA’s contribution

Only Built For Cuban Linx was an instant classic. The Mafioso fantasy delivered in a cinematic style is so compelling that it immediately had a huge impact upon hip-hop, which continues today

Rebuttal:

Closing:

Rakim's influence on hip hop is not to be sold short. He was one of the first hip hop artists to rap like Chuck Berry or Bob Dylan. And whilst Follow The Leader might be his best record, it's Paid In Full which is usually acknowledged as his most influential

As influential as Rakim may be, I'd argue that the developments he brought to the table were inevitable. Berry and Dylan already existed. Internal rhyming, complex schemes and multisyllabic rhymes were widespread both in poetry and in pop music. If Rakim hadn't dipped his toes in them, someone else would have. Maybe it would have been Big Daddy Kane, or Lord Finesse. Maybe it would have been a mediocre early 90s rapper. We'd still have got the rhymes. Contrastingly, Cuban Linx had to happen when it did. If the boat had been missed, Mafioso rap would never have taken off, and Jay Z and Nas would have had rather different careers

Is influence alone enough? I would strongly argue it is not. Robert Johnson's influence upon hip-hop is immeasurably bigger than Jay Z's, even though he died nearly 20 years before Clive Campbell was born. There's little doubt, however, that Jay Z's music is better; he stands on the shoulders of several decades' worth of giants

Cuban Linx may be dated and dusty, but I would argue it has stood the test of time rather better than Follow The Leader. Rhymes for their own sake are particularly dated, and they're Rakim's main trick. Rae, Ghost and the RZA provide lyricism that hits hard, and an album that works as a cohesive whole and a piece of art. Sure, it's far from timeless - but there's a lot more artistry on display

TheRealSixGod - Follow the Leader by Eric B &. Rakim

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