This week's "THROWBACK CLASSIC" is Raekwon's "Incarcerated Scarfaces." It was the Chef's second single from his classic debut album "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..." and it landed number 5 on the U.S. Rap Billboard charts and 37 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Incarcerated Scarfaces was released in 1995 and was one of only three tracks from Cuban Linx that did not feature Ghostface Killah. I don't have to explain why this song is classic. With gritty production from the RZA in his prime and Raekwon's smooth flow, Incarcerated Scarfaces is one of those timeless tracks that comes on in a club while a crowd is waiting for a concert to begin and ignites a flame of energy that sets the tone for the remainder of the event. Even in 2009 when I stand patiently in a crowd waiting for the performers to hit the stage and that unmistakable snare and high-hat drops, I immediately bare witness to an entire group of Hiphoppas bobbin' their heads in unison echoing lines like: "I move rhymes like retail, make sure shit sell, from where we at to my man's cell" or "I do this for barber shop niggaz in the plaza, catchin' asthma, Rae is stickin' gun flashers."
This track was created in an era where emcees didn't give a fuck. They hit the lab and spit exactly what the fuck they felt to the beat. Radio, MTV, and BET would play tracks like this on heavy rotation. It didn't have to have Drake or T-Pain in the chorus to sell. Auto-tune was a studio taboo because drunk and high rappers would get freaked the fuck out if they heard that shit. Raekwon and the RZA created a definitive track and album that sparked an era in the mid-nineties. Incarcerated Scarfaces was a song that truly pioneered the mafioso, drug dealer, crime glorifying Hip Hop genre.
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