Dr. Dre has a history of releasing artists from his Aftermath Entertainment company more often than releasing albums. Hittman. Last Emperor. Rakim. Truth Hurts. Any number of artists on the soundtrack to The Wash. One can only wonder if current Aftermath artists like Stat Quo and Bishop Lamont break out into cold sweats at night, wondering if that fateful day will come when the “good doctor” stops returning their phone calls.
Regardless, Dre’s impeccable career achievements and countless classics have always kept his reputation relatively clean, despite these many failed relationships in music. Part of that is because, well, you can’t rush the creative process (unless your name is Eminem — then you can shit in a jewel case, call it Encore, and go 4x platinum). If Dre really wants to take so long to drop an album (i.e. Detox, with its scheduled release date of 2000-keep-waiting), then we can only assume that he simply wants to make it the best album it can possibly be. And if an Aftermath album never does see the light of day, maybe it’s really all for the best — as hard as it may be to imagine, perhaps a Rakim album with Dre beats just wouldn’t be as good as we’d all hope for.
Dre can, and likely will, continue to get a pass for all of this, but if Raekwon’s highly-anticipated Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II ends up meeting this same fate, then I, and probably many others like me, will be holding a grudge for a long time as a result. Tha Formula recently hooked up interviews with both Raekwon and The RZA, shedding light on the recording process to the sequel to one of the greatest hip hop albums ever. Judging by the confidence in both Rae and RZA’s words, it leads me to believe that if, somehow, Cuban Linx II does end up locked in a vault somewhere rather than on record store shelves, then it’ll only be because it didn’t live up to Dre’s standards — and if that’s the case, then maybe Dre’s standards are just too damn high for his own good (and for everyone not named Eminem or 50 Cent).
Outside of actually getting some sort of vague update on how Cuban Linx II is progressing, the most intriguing bit of info amongst all of this came from Rae’s interview:
You know what’s so crazy too? There is a beat out there flying around that I got the whole Clan on. It’s a J Dilla beat, but I guess J Dilla, he must have been shopping the beat before I snatched it. The beat is out there though. I’m seeing people playing and listening to it and I’m laughing because they don’t even know that I put the whole Clan on that beat and the shit sounds crazy… that shit is called “House Of Flying Daggers.”
Sounds to me like Rae is referring to something off of Dilla’s Donuts LP, his 31-track, instrumental, “beat tape” style album that came out just days before his untimely passing. Some of Dilla’s work on Donuts has since been used by various rappers, so it wouldn’t surprise me if one ended up on Cuban Linx II as well. Until we actually get to hear it, though, one can only guess as to which of the 31 beats on Donuts will become “House of Flying Daggers.”
Below are my three picks as to which “donut” I’d like to hear the whole Clan rhyme over, and to all y’all Dilla dogs out there, feel free to mention your choices in the “Comments” section. Of course, we won’t know which donut Rae’s been blessed with until Cuban Linx II is released/leaks, so we don’t have any prizes to give away if someone guesses correctly. But, if you do guess correctly, you may have some sort of psychic power, and, honestly, that sounds like a pretty sweet prize right there.
Download: J Dilla – “Mash”
Download: J Dilla – “One-Eleven”
Download: J Dilla – “Gobstopper”
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That’s what Eminem did… and to Michael Jackson, no less. [Pause for the customary “no homo”]
