thaFormula.com – I’ve heard you say that the “Cuban Linx II” album will see you bringing it back to the streets, what exactly does that mean when compared to your last two albums?

Raekwon - That means basically that I'm just telling you that I’m gonna go harder, I'm gonna work a little more harder.  At the state that Hip-Hop is right now, its like we’re straying away from what we once admired.  So when I say I’m getting ready to go back there its really going back to the roots of what I have done.  It’s nothing cosmetic about it.

thaFormula.com - So what happened on the last two albums that didn't make you do that?

Raekwon - Listen, promotions and people not really trying to open up to what I got to offer.  One thing about me, I make albums man, I’m a certain kind of Hip-Hop so the single is not your preparation, you can never sit there and say number one the lyrics is wack or number two the beat is garbage.  The shit niggas listen to right now, can't even be compared to whatever I ever made that anybody feel like is a flop.  Your shit is nowhere near it when you really look at it.  When you really look at things for what they are instead of what they appear to be, you will see who is keeping it a hundred.  I keep it a hundred on wax all day.

thaFormula.com - Has there ever been a point where you lost the hunger for this Rae?

Raekwon - That's like almost saying you are getting lazy.  I never lost the hunger.  My whole thing is I’m not a copycat artist.  I’m not somebody that just puts records out and be frontin’ and not really bringing it from where it came from.  To me it’s serious when I make an album.  Come on, I could have made 50 albums right now if my heart wasn’t in it, but it ain’t always visibility with an artist.  Sometimes we go through things, we go through different challenges where yo, sometimes we might not wanna throw an album out right now or we might not be into just giving you anything.  If you listen to my track record of my solo albums, I’m an artist.  I’m showing you many different sides of being an MC.  I’m not just gonna keep talking about the same shit over and over.  That’s what you all know me by, that’s what you all want.  But on another note, I’m versatile so you check them records out and then you see if I lost it right now until today.  So “Cuban Linx” don’t make me.  “Cuban Linx” is just a zone that I’ma go in for you.  Other than that like I said, they way Hip-Hop is right now and you can call it whatever you wanna call it, dead alive or whatever, it's rap its not Hip-Hop.  I’m Hip-Hop, I’m a definition of a real street corner rap nigga man, check my credits!  Don’t get caught up in the media.  You get caught up in the media, you get lost cause you going by what people see and what they are saying.  People don’t really give a lot of my records an opportunity to be heard like that because they dealt with their emotions.  Sometimes people always wanna hear a nigga talk about cocaine instead of trying to tell somebody something positive.  But then when it comes from another artist or whatever and he can say something positive, you accept it.  So its like yo, respect me for being versatile man and I’m always gonna talk real fam.  All my shit is real, but people they deal with emotions like “oh we want the ‘Cuban Linx’ shit, oh we want him talking about cocaine behind his stove.”  Listen that’s a movie, you can get that.  Pay your money for it, and you can get it.  I’ma give it to you the same way I’m giving you this, but at the same time open your mind up man. So I feel like I got caught up in a lot of them situations where people say yo, they want you to grow, then when you grow they don’t want you to grow.  What do you want?  You feel me? I’m an artist!  I could sit here and talk about cocaine and getting pussy and all that killing niggaz all day shit, but what happens when you got a 5 year old kid and you wanna show him something different in a MC that you love?  One thing about me, if you’re a MC that’s well respected in the game, I love you for whatever the fuck you made, as long as you’re being true to yourself.  A lot of muthafuckas is running with other people’s styles and copying the manuscript and making it commercial.  I’m not gonna do that, I’m gonna always give you a rough album.  An album you can sit there and listen to it like “damn I wanna learn every fucking word of this shit, I wanna really catch where Rae is coming from.”  Muthafuckas ain’t into rap like that no more.  Muthafuckas is into beats and the fucking hook, a fucking happy go lucky hook.  That shit don’t work in my book man!.

thaFormula.com - Now a while ago you said you spent the last couple of years trying to figure out where Hip-Hop was at and where it was going, did you find your answer?

Raekwon - It's like I'm always analyzing what’s going on in the industry as well as analyzing what I got to do as a man.  First and foremost when I wasn’t doing records I was chilling.  I’m always chilling, relaxing, touring the world and getting whatever I got to get.  Getting my money and spending time with my family.  Second thing is of course I’m gonna pay attention to what’s going on in Hip-Hop ‘cause its the politics that’s making the art go the way its going.  It’s the muthafuckas with money that you got to deal with that wanna change the whole structure of what you stand for.  It’s about either selling yourself to the devils or being true to what you do.  I choose to always be true.  I’m not gonna just jump in the industry and give somebody something because its based on a dollar.  That’s my piece of work right there, I wanna be able to come and say “yo niggaz just pay attention ‘cause this is a movie right here.”  Deniro and Al Pacino make all different kinds of movies.  I’m a moviemaker man and I lived it so a lot of shit that you are hearing right now, niggaz ain't live it!  But you choose that because you wanna be in that realm because of the politics.  The politics make you say “play that.” Fuck that, that’s too hard for them.  It could never be too hard if your reppin’ real Hip-Hop.  But you know what’s a good thing with me? Is that I got that medal.  I got that medal on my muthafuckin' chest.  That hall of fame legendary shit that we dreamt of doing is right here on my back and it ain’t nothing, I’m not over with.  That’s what makes me laugh because I still rhyme my ass off.  Nobody is threatening me right now, nobody.  Lyrically, as a person really just making good records, I do not feel threatened in any kind of way.  Hip-Hop is fucked up so that when you get me, its gonna be a whole different opposite side of what you hearing.  Now it’s up to you to either say, “do we get caught up in the politics or do we get caught up in real Hip-Hop.”  That's the bottom line!!  My album “Cuban Linx II,” its got so many top class people around it, they know what I need as well as I know what I need, but I don’t think the media is ready for that kind of fire yet dealing with all this political bullshit.

thaFormula.com - Now the day has finally come when the sales have come crumbling down for the majors, it went from Platinum to Gold, to 100,000 copies, to now 80,000 being considered great.  Is this what you and many other hardcore artists have been waiting for and do you think the day has finally come around full circle where it's back to the grind?

Raekwon - It's always back to the grind if you’re a true artist.  Right now as far as that goes, it’s that the computer world, the Internet world did something that shouldn’t have been able to be done the way it’s being dome now, which is downloading. People will get your whole album before it even hits the store.  It’s kind of disrespectful to the artist but at the same time it was a good thing ‘cause it keeps the interest in what we made.  It’s just so tilted right now that really a lot of people and grown-ups ain’t buying albums.  Nobody really goes and gets what they want.  They want to hear it from somebody else like “yo you heard it?” Then he will be like “yeah I heard it and it wasn’t it all that.”  He don’t wanna go get it for himself because he’s taking your word.  You’re taking his word.  You’re not even going to pay attention to see for yourself if you like it and that’s what we all tend to do as people. That’s not really looking at the picture, we look at the frame.  Oh just because a person ain’t on a strong label or he ain’t getting that power push that means he can’t bring a good record to the table?  Is you stupid?  Where is your mind at as a consumer?  So it’s like, it’s just the political shit that made the game go the way it’s going only because it’s about power.  It’s not about art no more.  Its about yo, we been paying your bills for the last 5 years, y’all gonna have to do what the fuck we got to say or y'all gonna go broke.  Which one do you choose and you know, artists get caught up in between that.  Like I heard Lil’ Scrappy say in a interview, he was like “yo when they fuck up, they wanna blame you, when they fucked up.”  You fucked up, you didn’t promote this, you didn’t give this man a good proper run, you didn’t give this man energy but you went over there and tried to be like them niggaz with they shit and not even pay attention to what you dealing with.  Nurture your babies the way they are supposed to be nurtured.  Like I said, I make great albums fam, check my muthafucking albums.  So when it comes to floppiness, that’s not even me.  I’m gonna always rhyme and make you pay attention to what the fuck I’m saying, it makes sense, you just got to listen to it!!  That’s what I tell people that say “yo you changed your style” or whatever.  Just listen, if you know street shit and you know what it is, its gonna be there in your face man.  I'm just bringing a different style to the table man.  Anytime somebody tries to have something I feel that is close to me, I wanna recreate and go to the next level.  I don’t want people to see me like you know what I’m gonna say when I get on the mic.  I want to say something where you will be like “yo rewind that, what the fuck he say?” One thing about me is I like beats, I love beats.  Beats is always my thing, but another thing about me is I like a simple beat too.  Maybe that might got niggaz fucked up?  “Rae fuck with a lot of simple beats,” but my voice sounds good over simple beats.  You’ve got to know what you sound good over.

thaFormula.com - So with you saying that, I got to ask you why do some of the dopest MC's choose the worst beats to rhyme over?  What do you guys hear that the other artists don't?

Raekwon - Number one, you got different kind of ill beats.  You got beats with 48 tracks in it that’s a nice beat and you got simple beats that just got a flow to it.  Every man has his own preference, some dudes is weak behind uh, like for instance with Meth. To us the Clan, we always felt like Meth was a team writer.  When he start doing his other shit, he can’t pick the right beats.  We tell him that to his face and it ain’t no diss, we just tell him “yo, don’t do that, you come in on whatever niggaz give you.”  It’s the same way how a nigga tell me what he got to tell me.  What’s my weak spot, you feel me? You’ve got to slow it down.  You rhymin’ ill but slow it down.  Everybody has a weak spot, but at the end of the day it’s about you still being able to grow as an artist.  You have to grow, you still got to be sharp.  If its weak its weak and if its hot its hot.  People keep dwelling too much on what people did instead of seeing if niggaz is still hanging with these lil’ young whippa snappas right now, because if you wanna put it like that it ain’t really no threat.

thaFormula.com - How has it been in the studio with (Dr) Dre and is there a certain way you need to work when working with Dre that maybe makes you see why Rakim and Dre might have had creative differences?

Raekwon - I feel like number one, Dre is a good dude. I just met him and I’m the type of person that goes off of your first impression. He came off to me like a real brother.  However the situation with me joining forces with him just happened like overnight.  Dre is a dude that's in a great situation and number one for me, he's up my alley, he's the type of nigga that you could put me on.  We can connect.  It’s like me, him and Rza is dangerous when you just look at that.  So we looked at it in the 360 degrees of it and just business.  I can't say nothing bad about Dre.  He has his own technique.  I don’t know what the other people went through with him, but one thing I do know is Dre is a genius. It’s like Rza is a genius too. You look at niggaz for who they are.  The first couple of days me and Dre got in the studio, it was you know, a one-two punch.  It was like yo, hear that, handle that, bam it’s handled.  It's like throwing a football with a professional football player.  You gunnin’ it, gun it at me, I’ma catch it.  So it got to the point to where its like we made a couple of joints together.  It's just chemistry and like I said when its natural it feels way better and that man struck me with nothing but naturalness.  You see I'm so used to these guys work that I don’t even look at it like I’m coming in and working amongst the best.  I’m coming in working with professionals, period.  We all gonna sit down and brainstorm and basically build what we need to build. They already built they bones, I built my bones.  That’s why I said in the game right now you got belts going on.  It’s really belts in this shit.  My shit is a heavyweight belt.  So when you around niggaz with the belts on, we all know what it better be so I don’t have time to go into his ego or go into his.  I just look at what Dre and RZA both got that’s different but its ill.  Now imagine having them together, it's destruction.  And with a nigga that could rhyme though, that’s dangerous.  The ill shit is that my shit is so far away from everybody's shit, its just crazy for me if I throw “Cuban Linx II” out now, like right now I’m being cheap with you all right now. Y’all ain't ready cause there is too much bullshit going on.  Let me just focus more on where I need to be at first and just give it to you all when I feel y’all ready and starving and then I’ma hit you and see where you at.

thaFormula.com - Now there is a track listing with credits and guest appearances that floated around about a month ago for “Cuban Linx II,” can you clear that up and let us know what is the deal with that?

Raekwon - That's not good shit right there.  What I will say is that someone is trying to assassinate me ‘cause some of them songs that we named for the album, was the name of them songs.  But a track listing is a track listing to me you could call it whatever you wanna call it.  Nobody that they said was on it is on it the way they saying that they was on it.  Like Papoose is not on it.  Papoose is my man, but he ain't on it.  All that shit is phony shit, but it's somebody with a little bit of information as far as knowing the names of the songs.  Knowing the names of the songs, they had like 35 percent of that on point.  Everything else wasn’t on point.  So I’m glad your bringing that to light so we can let people know not to get caught up in that track listing shit ‘cause I'll switch every name again and being that you never heard it, it don't matter.  Its like to me, we got so much music right now and so much shit that I’m just sitting on that I ain’t even letting nothing out yet.  Whatever y’all been hearing on the Internet and this and that, these are songs that got made on the spot just to say “pass that out there ‘cause we got to keep your voice out there.”  Y’all didn’t hear my heat yet.  So for the title shit, yeah they came close to the titles, but I don't know who did it because it's like for them to get that close knowing them names, it's somebody in my camp.  Not in my immediate camp but around me that’s saying to themselves “well yo, let me get some hype off of this or whatever.”  I never heard of something like that before like “yo nigga, I got your track listing!”

thaFormula.com - Now as far as the “Cuban Linx II” goes, is this similar to a “Supreme Clientele” situation where RZA got beats from various people and then sat with Ghost and they put it together?

Raekwon - No, that's another good question right there.  No, Rza allowed himself to open his mind with “Cuban Linx II” only because I told him that.  Me and him we made ill novels together, but right now the way the game is going there is a lot of people that is around us that makes “Cuban Linx II” more interesting then what it normally had been.

thaFormula.com - Meaning what?

Raekwon - Meaning like if we saying “yo you having Dr Dre on your album,” when you think of that of being the first “Cuban Linx,” that wasn’t it.  But see this is number two and you could never make something the same as before.  You see how “The Godfather” went in levels, this is how we look at it.  Its like yo, you have to open up and let people that know what we know come to the table as well and we know what they can do to.  It's collaborating, its great minds connecting with great minds.  That’s a serious album and that’s why I would never let it go like that fam.  I’m not gonna let it go, and it don’t got the Clan on it? How it ain’t gonna have Wu-Tang on it? But when you hear Wu-Tang on it, you gonna be like, “that’s that Wu-Tang shit I been looking for!”  I been working like that honestly and its like I’m getting hot because this is what I really feel like.  When I say “your gonna get an album,” your gonna get an album.  Now are you ready for this album? I don’t know yet.

thaFormula.com - Now I wanna talk to you about Biggie, did you and Biggie ever get close to working together or was there a little animosity between you guys during those days?

Raekwon - Nah, alright now let me explain something, first and foremost I want to say rest in peace to one of the most powerful prolific gangsta artists, MC that’s ever worked the pen.  I want to give all praises due to that man first and foremost.  I’m not the type of MC to talk about somebody who is not here and can’t justify as well as I can justify for.  I never had a problem with Big.  Big and Method Man had a relationship which made our both organizations have respect for one another.  We were just tyrants in the business that basically wanted to show people we know how to rhyme.  Whatever happened in the studio that night as far as Ghost saying what he said, Ghost said that naturally.  It wasn't that somebody sat down and plotted biggies assassination on that level.  Its just that we’re MC's and we always wanna be respected for what we do, how we keep whatever we keep real with one another.  It’s like yo, at the end of the day that was something just said on wax for fun and people promoted it like we really didn’t like him.  We loved him.  To this day I feel blessed ‘cause I was able to see him and talk to him in person before he went away and say “yo, that’s not about nothing my man, you are a ill MC.”  So my body could rest with knowing that I gave that man that respect the same way that I’m sure he would have gave it to me.  I seen him at The Source awards.  They told us to walk behind a curtain and I seen Biggie.  We spoke, and he spoke like a gentleman.  Big wasn’t coming across to me in any way like it was a problem.  He just wanted to know why.  When I seen that, it was like “yo that wasn’t about nothing man, you know Meth and that ain’t about nothing” and we left it right there.  It was never “no we never liked him.”  It was just us back then.  So when Ghost said what he said, it was more or less how he felt.  So the skit is playing and we like “yo you know what you just did right?”  He's a man, he knows what he said, but it wasn't intentional or like beef.  People made it seem like it was beef.  It was never beef man, never.  We respect Big.  That’s why niggaz got they voices with Big’s voice because we look up to Big, we always have.  It was just us, Biggie, Nas and Wu-Tang that was really holding down New York.  What made the beef so corny with us and Big was that Meth was his man.  When he did the song with Meth, we was like “yeah do the song with him.”  So whatever Ghost said in the studio at that time, it was just something that he felt like “yo niggaz is using niggaz album covers.”  I mean that’s how he felt and he wanted to keep it on there.  It wasn’t like “yo fuck Biggie, we can’t stand Biggie, we can’t stand Puff.”  Puff helped us with the Method Man and Mary (J. Blige) song.  So whatever it was it was just egos just flying man and I got caught up in it because it was on my record.  Me I never even seen Big more then like 3 or 4 times in the whole industry so how could I have beef with a man like that?

thaFormula.com - What made everybody finally get on the same page and decide that it was time for another Wu-Tang album?

Raekwon - I mean I’m not even supposed to comment on nothing pertaining Wu-Tang yet because from what the officials are saying, we are gonna talk about it as a whole.

thaFormula.com - So you guys haven't actually sat down like that?

Raekwon - I mean we don’t have to sit down like that because we brothers.  We already know when its time to do something and to put your heart into it and do it.  Its not really no campaign like we all different people, because once you treat each other like different people then it becomes phony and faulty.  The Wu-Tang album is scheduled to come, its gonna come and when it do come it's gonna come with a great feeling behind it.  It ain’t gonna come for money or none of that because everybody is comfortable in their own zone and doing what  they do anyway.  We doing it for the fans baby, we doing it for Ol’ Dirty to.  I'm doing it for Ol’ Dirty first, then the fans.  Everybody is a grown man, everybody is caught up in they own zone and world to where we look at each other like a distant cousin man, and when it comes time to get together and we unite, we gonna make history.  I think its time for that flag to sit back in the game and bring a different you know, whatever it may be.  Another different kind of art again, whatever.  Its time for that, so for all the fans who looked at us for doing it like that, we’re gonna do it, we gotta do it, and when its time to talk, we gonna talk as a whole.

thaFormula.com - Lastly, is “Cuban Linx II” gonna be just you, RZA and Dre?

Raekwon - No not at all.  Its multi-talented producers.  Put it like this, I got J Dilla on it man.  I got Dilla on it man.  J Dilla is a powerful dude that’s like a RZA, like a Dre.  Its like these are dudes that we sat down and studied and said “yo, we want a piece of that,” that slight touch of that. I mean its holy water and its gonna be crazy.  You know what’s so crazy too? There is a beat out there flying around that I got the whole Clan on.  It's a J Dilla beat, but I guess J Dilla, he must have been shopping the beat before I snatched it.  The beat is out there though.  I m seeing people playing and listening to it and I’m laughing because they don’t even know that I put the whole Clan on that beat and the shit sounds crazy.  So it’s like right now it’s about who can fit that shoe and that shit is called “House of Flying Daggers.” But that's just a piece of what we got.  All I want people to know is that I will not give you this “Cuban Linx II” album until I feel everything is right with me and my business, me introducing it to you all the way it needs to be introduced.  I’m not giving it out like that, so whenever it comes, that’s when you will get it.

thaFormula.com - So is the album actually complete?

Raekwon - It's been complete.  It's so complete that it's not even in my reach to being around it.  I act like it's not there and I continue to create more because I been away for so long.  Like I already got two more albums that I’m gonna do and fuck niggaz up on some other shit because you been waiting for so long.  But everything has a course dealing with this business.  I’m not no sucker, I’m a veteran, I got that medal, you got to deal with me like a man on this one, a real man.  I feel so good right now as to where I went with the music. Everything happens for a reason.  I’m not the everyday star MC.  I’m one of them classic shits.  When you see me you see classics.  When you all finish this interview, I want you all to go get all my albums and sit down and learn it and tell me “well did he lose?  Did he lose what he got now?”  You won’t even be able to tell.  I been in the business for 12 years my nigga, the rhymes? This is easy.  It’s just about gathering up more heat, more production, more heat.  You got so many different muthafuckas that’s gonna bring some shit that your gonna be like “Rza made it” and I’ma be like “nah this other nigga made it,” ‘cause its a science project man.  It’s for real with us baby.

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