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Mere hours before the first decade of this new millenium came to an end, Raekwon managed to drop a new mixtape just before the deadline in a successful bid to lay claim to the titles of both Best Album and Best Mixtape of 2009. There's not a whole lot that needs to be said about Coke Up In Da Dollar Bill, Rae's semi-official followup to Only Built For Cuban Linx II. It's hosted by DJ Whoo Kid, with all of the annoying drops and sound effects that have long been a prerequisite of any Whoo Kid mixtape. The songs themselves aren't entirely "new," merely a collection of freestyles and guest verses that The Chef has cooked up and released over the course of the previous year, though much of the tracklisting likely will be unfamiliar to any but the most diehard of Wu and rap blog fans.
Aside from those minor quibbles, however, fans of Raekwon's mafioso style rap should find everything else about this tape to be as pure as the gleaming pile of coke that sits on the cover of the tape. Virtually every cut on here is dope, most notably Rae's brief verse over Grand Master Flash's O.G. ode to cocaine, White Lines. Much like OB4CL2, the selection of sample-heavy beats and throwback lyricism of Coke Up... stands in stark contrast to that of the 21st Century edition of cocaine rap, the "New Coke" formula if you will, that's been championed by the Clipse with the help of the Neptunes' futuristic approach to production. Which is the better of the two is a matter of taste, I suppose - uncut raw vs. a more refined product, Don Vito vs. Michael - though with the Clipse currently busy discussing clothing lines and apartment hunting with New York Magazine editors in tow, it would seem that, if nothing else, Rae has at least stayed truer to the game for the last nine innings than most of these new jacks.
Raekwon - Coke Up In Da Dollar Bill
Raekwon - The Setup
D/L Link for Raekwon's Coke Up In Da Dollar Bill mixtape
1/13/2010 8:30:51 PM posted by Fresh