The Emperor's New Clothes

Album ∙ Rap ∙ 2025

Raekwon

There’s aging like fine wine, and then there’s Raekwon. The Wu-Tang Clan legend’s solo debut, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…, is rightfully revered as one of the greatest rap albums of all time, a benchmark release for the mafioso rap that so many other MCs would attempt to emulate in the decades that followed. But aside from that, his albums from the late 2000s forward unlocked a sharper curatorial ear and are largely more consistent than his works that preceded them. Early Wu-Tang music had an indispensable feeling, and the rapper known as The Chef has found ways to recreate it without allowing it to feel stale.

The Emperor’s New Clothes finds Raekwon delivering more of the lucid street raps that make him great: crystal clear portraiture of characters down to the details of their clothing or the amount of money in their pockets, fluid storytelling, and popping shit while depicting a life of luxury. He’s strongest here while flexing his skills alongside other elite MCs: He highlights multiple Wu-Tang Clan members, a change from his previous album The Wild. Along with strong verses by Inspectah Deck and Method Man, longtime comrade Ghostface Killah has three features, with their chemistry at its best on the luxurious album closer, “Mac & Lobster.”

Raekwon and Nas (whose label, Mass Appeal, houses the release) both shine on “The Omerta,” and he welcomes coke-rap torchbearers Westside Gunn, Benny the Butcher, and Conway the Machine on “Wild Corsicans.” Rae also takes time for a couple moments of introspection. On “1 Life,” he employs a lush J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League soundbed while reflecting on his own experiences and offering a young’n advice about how to navigate a lack of integrity in the streets and the music industry: “This culture made me a man.”