Low and behold we now have the first official video off Raekown’s upcoming album, Only Built For Cuban Links II. In the piece Rae invites a few of his longtime Wu Tang affiliates to rock alongside him on House Of Flying Daggers. Hopefully this is the best of the thirty-eight versions of the damn song that we’ve heard up until this point.

Apparently the Joe Budden and Method Man beef is over but I have to say that I’m a little skeptical about how this is going to work out. First of all he says that a bunch of people who aren’t a part of the situation had shit to say. In other words he’s shittin on the blogs (me), well buddy we’ll just shit on you back. Check your last album sales my dude. Next he goes on to say that it’s over but he basically dry threatens the entire Wu. Somewhere in New York I’m thinking that Raekwon isn’t taking too lightly to this apology. Stay tuned for this one!

Very rarely can an artist, or a group of artist, wait an entire decade between releases and still expect a large cult like following. This statement does not apply for the dynamic duo Method Man and Redman. Since their 1999 collaborative effort Blackout the two have embarked on enough movies, TV shows, and well rounded solo projects to keep their fans patiently waiting at the edge of their seats for the follow up effort. Almost ten years to the day the duo is finally here with the well over due Blackout 2. As we can see from early indications things don’t look to be much different.

After a short but satisfying intro on “BO2” Meff and Red get down to straight business on the eagerly Havoc produced “I’m Dope Nigga” where Red proclaims to make his profits from weed and shows. You won’t be able to keep from nodding your head against the wall as the duo go tit for tat on the Pete Rock produced “A-Yo.” The album goes through a little mediocre slump but “Dangerous MCees,” “Errbody Scream,” and “Hey Zulu” still feature a few high points that will satisfy at least somebody. Producer Nasty Kutt does an impeccable job of meshing sounds from New York, New Jersey, and H-Town on the Bun B assisted and Pimp C sampled “City Lights.” The album’s highlight comes when Meff and Red turn in lengthy flows on the Ty Fyffe engineered “Father’s Day.”

The duo prove they’re still pros at doing what they do best with the hazy kush inspired 4/20 anthem “Dis Iz 4 All My Smokers.” Meff makes sure it’s a Wu Tang thang on the Raekwon and Ghostface Killah assisted “Four Minutes To Lockdown” as he lets it be known that RZA is the number one Killa Bee. Erick Sermon shows how clutch he is as he turns in one of the album’s coldest laced beats towards the end of the affair with “Neva Herd Dis B4.” It’s lines like “you can reach me at 1-800 eat a dick” on the closing “A Lil Bit” that keeps Redman a constant in the hip-hop stratosphere.

Method Man and Redman win with Blackout 2 because unlike most aging rappers they don’t attempt to keep up with the times. Instead they opted to ride with what has worked for the both of them for nearly two decades. Fans will be happy to know that the reason(s) they’ve come to love Red and Meff will be the same reasons that they will continue to love them. Hopefully the duo won’t pull a Dr. Dre move and make fans and critics wait another decade for the third installment.

VERDICT – 15 / 20
LYRICS: 3
PRODUCTION: 4
DELIVERY: 4
CONSISTENCY: 4

Things are starting to look really good for the Wu these days. With heaters like this coming left and right as of recent it seems that the Shaolin collection might just be back at the top of their game again. Hopefully the Wu can keep up the streak and actually deliver a decent group album. Worst come worst at least we can expect a couple of decent to dope solo albums in the near future. First thing’s first, Only Built For Cuban Links 2 is first on deck!

The other day I posted a video of Joe Budden actin like a little bitch on the internet, as he does ever so often these days. Basically Budden was complaining about how fucked up Vibe’s little MC tournament seeding was. I actually have to agree with him that the seeding is really fucked up. Unfortunately things get real sticky when Budden grows enough hair on his balls to say that he’s better than half or 60% of all the rappers in the tournament. First things first, Budden has like one song that wasn’t even hot. As a matter of fact I still can’t come to understand how that “Pump It Up” bullshit even made it to radio and much less MTV or BET. As a matter of fact in my opinion they should have saved that shit for the end of BET Uncut. You remember the show that came on at like three in the morning and went off at 5!

Anyways, somewhere in the conversation Budden slipped up and said that he was better than Method Man. Method Man? Yes Method Man from the Wu Tang Clan, Method Man who has released three of four commendable solo albums, and the Method Man who has appeared in 16 movies. I just though of the fact that Joe Budden dropped his first album on Def Jam then Def Jam dropped him because of how bad it sucked. As far as I can remember Method Man has managed to stay on Def Jam throughout the better part of his entire career.

Quite frankly I’m getting real sick and tired of these newcomer ass artist and fuck-boys posing as artist who haven’t proven a single lick of worthiness going at pioneers. I’m sure that right about now it seems like I’m just hating on Joe Budden because I think his music really sucks. And in actuality I do think his music really really sucks and that’s why I don’t understand how he feels that he is better than Method Man and 50% of the other artist on that list. He even had the audacity to make a gesture like he was above Project Pat and Juvenile. Yes, Project Pat is the best worst rapper of all time but he’s still killin Buddens on a bad day. We don’t even have to discuss Juve.

Here’s my overall point, last week or the week before Lebron James won this years NBA MVP award. In a post interview someone from ESPN asked Lebron if he were better than Jordan and you know what he did, he tipped his hat to the legend. What I don’t understand is how rappers just can’t seem to find any respect for the ones who did it before them. If I ever really fucked with Buddens in the first place I’d probably have to fuck with him a little less now. I’m not sure what rap is to you but to me its overall good music! Sometimes that means mediocre lyrics and cold beats that make a cold song. Other times its cold lyrics and mediocre beats that make a cold ass song. From my calculations Joe Budden has a whole bunch of short falls in a whole lot of categories. Maybe if he’d spend more time focused on making good music as opposed to actin like a little bitch on the internet then bloggers such as myself wouldn’t write shit like this!

Joe Budden… stay up!