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The Documentary:
Ten years ago, some men with rhymes changed the face of hip-hop music. In the shadow of
fellow Wu-Tan Clan stars Method Man and Ol' Dirty Bastard, Raekwon and his lyrical
accomplice, Ghostface Killah created Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... a criminology rap classic
that hustlers worldwide relate to.
BUILDERS:
Raekwon the Chef a/k/a Lex Diamonds
RZA a/k/a Bobby Steels
Ghostface Killah a/k/a Tony Starks
Method Man a/k/a Johnny Blaze
Inspectah Deck a/k/a Rollie Fingers
Masta Killa a/k/a Noodles
GZA a/k/a Genius a/k/a Maximilian
U-God a/k/a Golden Arms a/k/a Lucky Hands
Cappadonna a/k/a Cappachino
Blue Raspberry, guest vocalist
Nas, guest rapper
02: Knuckleheadz
RAEKWON: That's a track where we runnin' around. We doing what we do, getting paper.
We smackin' niggas up. The beat just had us feeling like, Who the knucklehead wanting
respect?! That was just one of them tracks where we felt like we just got finished robbing a
bank and we got hohme and broke that money up. See this knucklehead nigga try to get slick
with that paper; "One for you, two for me". It's like "What are you stupid? Tom-and-Jerryin'
me, nigga?"
RZA: My idea was besides them rapping the verses, afte they talking all this brotherhood
shiht, they splitting the money up and he cheating them. The idea is that U-God gets killed in
"Knuckleheadz." It's like a movie. One dies, two others go on. To me, the album is a movie
and shit. You get to hear U-God come in. After that song, I had to give Rae a few back-to-
back solo joints.
U-GOD: I was like two days out of prison. I just came out the penitentiary. Id' just come home
on Wu-Tang's debut album Enter the Wu-Tang, 36 Chambers, too. I did two years in prison. I
came home on paorle - work release right before the first album was done. That's why I'm
only on two songs on the first album. Then I got violated. Knucklehead cats out in the world,
you know how we d o. So I got violated for another eight more months. Then I came back
home and got on Rae and Ghost's album. When I did my verse for Knuckleheadz, it was a
come up time, everybody trying to come up and get into the game. I ain't get a chance to do
my vocals over. When I did that, I got locked up again.
04: Criminology
RZA: That was me trying to produce like a DJ, produce a breakbeat. Ghost actually asked me
to make one of those beats. You listen to old DJ tapes. That's how I made that song, and he
wanted hihs shit to sound like a breakbeat. He had a rhyme that he knew was going to change
the game - that was the verse that got him recognized. Cypess Hill's DJ Muggs called up and
was like "Yo, he killed that shit. He ripped that shit" Form that point on, he's the co-star. He
wins Best Supporting Actor. Rae got nominated, maybe won or didn't - but Ghost definetly
wins.
GHOSTFACE KILLAH: I wrote that verse in San Francisco. We used to carry the beat
machine around a lot. We was out there a good two weeks, so RZA was making beats all day.
I heard that beat and I loved that track. The year was '95. Hip hop was still hip hop, and we
was going in. I don't know if I was drunk when I wrote that, but I know when I went in the
booth, I had a battery in my back, fucking with the Ballantine Ale. I recorded a lot of my shit
on Ballantine.
16: Wu-Gambinos
RAEKWON: The Wu-Gambinos aliases come from how I used t o like that movie Once Upon
a Time in America, with Robert De Niro and James Woods. I liked how these young little
niggas grew up, from the ground up, not having nothing to start, but still was confused about
how they treated each other. Andt he names came. You knonw, "Tony Starks" came from Iron
Man. "Lou Diamond" came from me being infatuated with the diamond world. Back then I
was wearing a lot of ice, was calling shit ice. But then I started giving some of my niggas in
the crew names. Being that it's my album, I wanted niggas to know, You gotta have a certain
a.k.a. when you're on this track. This is a Gambino track. Wu-Gambinos. I would call Masta
Killa "Noodles" call GZA "Maximillian". Inside the movie, Noodles and Max was partners. I
felt like GZA was like "Maximillian" because he was like the brains of the crew. He would
say something real intellectual and smart, ,and I looked at him like a "Max". I called Deck
"Rollie Fingers" cause of the way he roll blunts. So names just started fitting niggas. "Golden
Arms", U-God. Then niggas just start making they own names up. "Bobby Steels" - RZA was
on some real Black Panther, DJ, ill producer shit.
RZA: Now that these guys pulled they sting off, they got one more big sting. They gotta call
the heavy hitters in on this one. It's Rae getting the rest of the team to make this thing official.
Actually, that was the first one where everybody took on another name t o go along with the
concept of the album. That was done intentionally. We was probably 11 songs into the album.
"Everybody come with your Gambino name." My name was Bobby Steels when I was 12, 13,
so I brought that back out. It was me and Ghost the last to lay our verses. Ghost goes last;
everybody was up in the cut. True Master had to be the engineer to record me. I let niggas
know I'm part of the sting. I'm coming forr that money, too. For me it was a chance to show
niggas, because I hadn't been heard for a minute.
MASTA KILLA: That was all done in the same place. And it was a beautiful thing to see. Wu-
Gambinos: You see Meth come in; he lays his verse. You see Deck come in; he lays his verse.
RZA is there; he lays his verse. It's inspiring to just see other MCs come through. And not just
MCs. This is your brother. This is your family. It's like the Jackson 5 and shit. They all in one
room. It's going to be magical. RZA was the Beethoven of the whole shit. I think he
orchestrated the whole shit. A lot of times brothers came and it was llike you came in and you
rhymed; you could have left and you went wherever. When your album was completed, you
came in to listen to what he stayed up putting his magic touches on things.
METHOD MAN: We were high, hanging out. It was always a relaxed atmosphere because we
were so used to being there, sleeping on the floors and all that. So it was like being home,
writing rhymes in your own house. You went from the floor to the booth. It took thhrere hours
tops, just to put vocals on it. That was the first time we ever used our aliases, The Wu-
Gambinos names. We were sitting there like, "My name gonna be this" and "My name gonna
be that." People really thought my fuckin' name was Johnny Blaze. Raekwon started that. Rae
always had that mobster mentality, always liked to watch gangster movies and read mob
books and stuff like that, you know? So he pretty much knew the names of the cats and what
they was about. He polished his whole style like that. Plus Staten Island is known for
mobsters - that's where the Italians live. Not saying all Italians are mobsters, but you know,
we ain't blind and shit.