Raekwon Dons ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ On New Album

Staten Island-bred rapper Raekwon has been a looming figure in hip-hop since the Wu-Tang Clan’s debut in the early ’90s. In 1995, the “Ice Cream” rapper showed he can easily stand alone with his platinum-selling debut solo album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… In the decades since then, Raekwon has continued to release music as a soloist and alongside his Wu-Tang Clan groupmates, though it’s been a decade since the last Wu-Tang album and nearly just as long since Raekwon’s previous solo effort.

Now, eight years after his last album The Wild, Raekwon is back with his eighth solo LP, The Emperor’s New Clothes. While the hit-making MC takes center stage on the project, he does so while being joined by other all-star rappers like Nas and fellow Wu-Tang members Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, and Method Man. He balances the old with the new, as rappers who have debuted in the past decade Westside Gunn, Conway the Machine, and Benny the Butcher also hop in on the party on “Wild Corsicans.” To bring the project to life, he recruited top-tier producers like Swizz Beatz and J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League.

The album’s release comes the same day as the Wu-Tang Clan performs their final show together in Philadelphia. That follows the group’s last-ever joint hometown performance at Madison Square Garden on July 16. Though it might be Wu-Tang’s last tour, Raekwon isn’t opposed to doing another album together down the road.

“I mean, we tryna get it together, you know? Everybody’s spread out. Everybody’s doing something great in their life, so when it’s time for everybody to get in the room, it just seems like it’s the hardest s**t in the world,” he said on social media last year. “But it ain’t like we don’t want to. And then you got so many minds. You throw a beat out and a n***a be like, ‘I like that, I don’t like that.’ It’s hard. It’s real hard, but don’t count us out. Don’t never count us out.”

Wu-Tang Clan takes the stage together one final time in Philadelphia on July 18.