As part of the legendary rap outfit Wu-Tang Clan, the mystique of Raekwon has only ever grown. One of the foremost rap groups of their generation, Raekwon, RZA, Ghostface Killah and ODB changed pop culture as we know it with their abrasive and abusive hip hop style.
It has made the members of Wu-Tang Clan untouchable in almost every realm of hip hop.
Walking the earth as such a bastion of creative genius for the culture has given Raekwon a hefty opinion. It also means that whenever someone like Raekwon speaks, the hip hop world collectively listens. When that opinion is shared on the greatest hip hop albums of all time, then the whole world pays attention. Below, we’ve got Raekwon’s favourite hip hop LPs of all time.
Known to his fans as ‘The Chef’, owing to just how fervently he cooks up rhymes, Raekwon is still serving heaving doses of steaming brilliance. One of the pioneers of the mafioso rap genre, his style and performance have only increased over the years. Speaking with Consequence of Sound, Raekwon had an interesting take on his growth: “Now, I’m able to paint pictures and give you exactly what I want to give you now, along with a great visual. It’s just about the timing sometimes.”
During the conversation, Raekwon also shared his thoughts on how to dominate the hip hop world: “When I came into the business, I didn’t have a big rap book. One thing I knew was that this music business was a part of my life, and it raised me, so I knew that the passion was always there. But I didn’t see it being as far as it is, to take it as serious as I took it. At the same time, it went from becoming a hobby to becoming a job to becoming a career.
“It’s a good feeling when you know you can reach those pinnacles of life and get appreciated to the maximum,” he continues. “That’s kind of like my food that I gotta keep eating to keep being creative.” Asked to pick a selection of his favourite albums of the hip hop world, Rae generally stays within these ideals.
He pays homage to his Wu-Tang Clan bandmate Ghostface Killah, picking his album Supreme Clientele, about which Rae said: “Some records you know when you hear it finally together, you kind of already know what you’re doing. One thing about [Ghostface Killah and me], we’re music architects, and we only want to make the best every time.”
Naturally, Rae also picked his own album Only Built for Cuban Linx, from 1995, which Rae called “a movie made [into an] album. It describes my life. If there was any way I knew how to describe it, it would be that album. That album right there was my walk into understanding what it is to express yourself musically. It felt good to make that.”
Find the full list of Raekwon’s favourite hip hop albums ever.
Raekwon’s 10 favourite hip hop albums of all time:
- Slick Rick – The Great Adventures of Slick Rick
- Ghostface Killah – Supreme Clientele
- Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…
- Snoop Doggy Dogg – Doggystyle
- Big Daddy Kane – Long Live The Kane
- The Notorious BIG – Life After Death
- Nas – Illmatic
- Mobb Deep – Hell on Earth
- Mary J. Blige – My Life
- Eric B & Rakim – Follow The Leader
