Give Up The Goods and 41st side give me chills always. Temperature's Rising is an all time classic. Rza killed it with the grimey soul production. Spot Rusherz is classic storyteller Chef along with Incarcerated Scarfaces. I never forgot how the album felt back then. I remember buying it in Manhattan many years ago and bumping it on the way back to Baltimore. I'll have to give the nod to Cuban Linx just off of the strength of how dominant The Wu was then. Both are two of the best hip hop albums of all time.
With respect to Prodigy and Havoc introducing that eerie sound that got mimicked heavily in one of the most influential hip hop albums NY ever produced, I think that Only Built 4 Cuban Linx is the better overall are in my top 10 favorite hip hop albums. Ice Cream is one of Wu's best singles as well(I love that hook). Criminology was always one of my favorite joints, and Nas' verse on Verbal Intercourse is enough to make my decision a little easier. 2 and Eye For An Eye playing in my head, but I honestly would play OB4CL all the way through with no skips before I did the same for The Infamous(this might be a different story if we were comparing it to Hell on Earth, which is Mobb Deep's best album IMO), but OB4CL is too good. I was almost going to say The Infamous, with Shook Ones Pt. From a critical perspective, I would say OB4CL is the better overall album, so I'll choose it by the slightest of margins.
I'd probably choose either or depending on my mood. Comparing the Mobb's darker sound to Rae and Ghost on the purple tape is almost impossible to me. When push comes to shove, The Infamous just barely holds the bar to a higher Deep's "The Infamous" and Raekwon "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx" are two albums I've probably listened to hundreds of times. Lyrically it is great and sonically it works great for a bit of a longer album and keeps your attention throughout it. Songs like Incarcerated Scarfaces are so visually dense, your heartbeat picks up listening to it. Definitely one of the finer moments of the WU's solo collection. Only Built for Cuban Linx is over the top with soulful samples. This has to be the epitome of gritty hardcore rap no doubt. Some bars are just bone chilling to listen to Prodigy rapping. Sonically, the production is simple but moving. Their flow isn't all that grand but it gets the point across. You feel like you're watching and breaking every scene as you go along. Thematically, Mobb Deep doesn't do anything new here, but lyrically Mobb Deep takes east coast rap to another level with this one. The features on this album are just the icing on this cake. Havoc's beats are so icy and Prodigy bars just feel dirty coming in your ears. If you've ever decided to spit bars, you have a freestyle to the Shook Ones beat.
The genius work of the RZA coupled with the lyricism and capabilities of Raekwon make Only Built 4 Cuban Linx a masterpiece. "Shook Ones Part 2" and "Cradle to the Grave" on The Infamous album. OB4CL gave us "Wu-Gambinos" "Criminology" "Verbal Intercourse" "Can It Be All So Simple" "Rainy Days" "Ice Cream" (I can go on.) vs. This is one of those albums that never requires skipping tracks. I would say the success of this album not only comes from Raekwon being a great artist, but also because 1994-1996 was when the Wu members were releasing solo albums and dominating hip-hop. The track list on OB4CL is close to perfect, the lyrics are brilliant, the Wu members being featured on various songs provides style variation and the snippets of "the killer" and "scarface" are brilliantly integrated. As Rae's solo debut album and a result of RZA's production, this album delivered in every way that a classic hiphop album should. The Infamous album didn't stand a chance. Without further adieu, let's jump right into the is on my top 5 MC's of all time list and Only Built 4 Cuban Linx is on my Top 3 best hip-hop albums of all time, so this one was a no brainer for me. Usually, we compare albums in a legend's catalog, but today, we are comparing two of the most influential hip hop albums from the 90s, Mobb Deep's The Infamous and Raekwon's Only Built For Cuban Linx. This is a little bit different than our usual roundtable.
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