There’s something grimly appropriate about Raekwon titling his eighth studio album The Emperor’s New Clothes. Not because the album is some grand misstep, but because it drapes itself in legacy—ornate, heavy, and familiar—and feels more invested in preserving a myth than reimagining it. It’s the work of a rapper taking great pains to show he still has “it,” while quietly admitting that he’s not quite sure what “it” even means anymore.
The Emperor’s New Clothes feels plush, with the kind of ornamental detail—like Swizz Beatz’s epic orchestral flourishes on the “600 School”—that you might expect from a late-career legend with something to prove. But the album is rather conservative in its refusal to deviate from the safest possible version of the rapper’s established aesthetic. Every proper song here could’ve comfortably dropped in from 2005.
The album’s sequencing, aside from four laborious skits, is clean, and Raekwon’s voice still carries that grainy, ageless gravity that few of his peers can summon. But after an eight-year gap and endless teasing of Cuban Linx III, this feels less like a statement than a finely pressed placeholder. While not exactly phoned in, The Emperor’s New Clothes displays a persistent thinness—a lack of urgency or much in the way of surprises. Across 40 mostly passable minutes, Raekwon doesn’t so much expand his catalog as he does curate a legacy in real time.
Ghostface Killah shows up multiple times and effortlessly steals the show with his deranged, Joe Pesci–in-a-Scorsese-film energy, while Nas, whose Mass Appeal Records released the album, delivers a stately verse on “The Omerta.” But none of these guest appearances pushes Raekwon beyond the call of duty. In fact, they feel like a familiar cast assembled to remind us that this is Important Rap from Serious Rappers.
Even the beats—mostly boom bap with light soul flourishes—do their job without ever risking alienating anyone who still believes the best hip-hop was made roughly three decades ago. “Bear Hill” glides on a loungey loop; “1 Life,” which starts off gesturing at industry critique before condemning “the devil’s in the back by the screens,” drowns under producer J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League’s smothering gloss; and “The Guy That Plans It” flips a Marvin Gaye sample into something majestic but bloodless.
Raekwon, to his credit, is never off his pen game, but he’s locked into one gear and one only. On “Wild Corsicans,” a gritty mafioso throwback with some muddily mixed drums, the Chef drops eight bars that mirror Conway the Machine and Benny the Butcher’s verses almost beat for beat, both in style and substance. Even Westside Gunn, who appears for an even briefer spot than his Griselda partners, stays within the same lane. Again, there are no curveballs to speak of, just midtempo muscle memory dressed up in velour.
Of course, fans of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx know that Raekwon was never about musical stunts—he’s more about coded slang and smoky nostalgia—but that opus had gravity and narrative momentum. It was even a little bit chaotic. The Emperor’s New Clothes is solid enough, and it’ll certainly look great next to your purple tape boxset. But as the title implies, it’s hard not to feel like everyone involved in the album’s making was too polite to admit that a seasoned statesman just wanted to stitch together old duds and hoped that they would still flatter.
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Don’t know how old the writer is but if you don’t have any gray hairs anywhere on you, the album wasn’t for you. Rae don’t make music to attract young new listeners so he doesn’t have to reinvent himself. That would be disingenuous and cheap. The album has been positively received from his core base and that’s all that matters.
Agreed. Also the best rap was made almost 3 decades ago. Still played today anywhere you go. Don’t think rapped has progressed much since, probably the opposite.
100% agree. Rae being Rae is a good thing and his ever changing slang is part of who he is and what he does. MCs from the 90s are proving they still have a sharp pen and just because it sounds like Rae isn’t a negative at all.
Yeah. This album is hip hop. I don’t want to hear Raekwon dropping pop rap garbage. Just give me the grimy classic shit
This is an accurate review.. I concur with everything said. Not enough juice..Shaolin vs Wutang and Cuban Linx 2 were the last best of Raekwon,in my subjective opinion..Still a legend though.
I agree with the review. A very unremarkable album that tells you it’s some royal offering, but it feels generic. The beats are stiff. It’s lacking any kind of fun or flexibility. It feels grouchy and complacent. Lacking the story telling and ambitious energy that made his other projects special.
So, Raekwon’s pen game is on point and the production is excellent (definitely more polish and more grit than Shaolin vs Wu-Tang despite the contradiction) but he’s not pushing the envelope? How is the boombap beat a critique? He’s 55, sounds timeless, still rapping at a VERY high level while still being very much himself. I remember when Eminem’s Recovery dropped, everyone was complaining that Eminem sounded like he was just rapping about how good he was and that there wasn’t any other substance and he was trying to convince us that he was still the best. And years later people regard that album as debatably his best in his later years. This article’s critique on The Emperor’s New Clothes sounds the same and despite Eminem being my favorite rapper, that critique was a little bit more deserving for Recovery than this album. critics also found so much to complain about Nas’ Kings Disease 1, 2, and 3 which has some of Nas’ best songs. It’s always hard for greatness to compete with masterpiece. At some point, no matter how good you are, a great product of yours might end up falling in 5th or 6th or 7th place in your catalog. It doesn’t make it a dud.
I totally disagree. When OB4CL came out we literally played that tape non-stop for 1 whole year. This album is really good. For a release 30 years later it did not disappoint. I grew up in the early 80s and early 90s hip hop. Me and my friends used to walk up and down the street singing the lyrics to The Message by Melle Mel. I was here for graffiti, pumas, fat laces and breakdancing on card board boxes. I know what I am talking about.
Personally, I enjoyed the album. Good energy and no watered down tracks. If you were expecting something from 1995, sorry.
The review here is full of contradictions. It’s saying this was good that was bad but that was good and this was bad. The music should be judged based on how the people and the fans receive it which has been rated A1 by both. Honestly I enjoyed 90% of what the album had to offer. And that’s all I’ve been hearing from the listeners. Hip hop should be rated and critiques by genuine Hip Hop listeners. These new magazines critics and outside spectators really don’t have a clue what Hip Hop is abt. It’s not about cadence punchlines savvy and all these college university articles giving these contradictory reviews. It’s about whether it sounds good or not. And this album sounds good. 4 mics out of 5 easy.
For an album we weren’t expecting too much, it’s fantastic how it ended up being.
Bunch of quality songs, Hip Hop fans do like this great effort by The Chef.
Nonetheless, there are wack music critics like the one you just did making a point on what Nas said back in 2006 when he said that Hip Hop was Dead, was because of the media pushing wack artists and records and downing great efforts by indie artists and legends in the game.
The album is an easy 4/5.
This writer also gave The Clipse album a 2.5 so……………
I think if your bold enough to make grand statements like these we need to know your age. I think the reviewer missed the whole point
Raekwon is the curator of the purple tape. After that everything is 2nd place. I’m still listening to the album, just like nas, chef is putting out work for the 50-plus crowd that will roc with it. I’m just glad it’s here, I can’t listen to anything that called rap these days.
This review tries too hard. Rae is being Rae, that’s the only critique and you give it 2 1/2 stars? Would it have scored higher if he mumbled?
Very lazy journalism. It’s stinks of “well if it’s not Travis Scott, I don’t want to hear it” Rae will never be Travis Scott and Travis Scott will never deserve the same respect that Rae deserves .
Who are you again. this was a far reach and a weak one at that.
I’m not listening to some Harvard dude telling me about real rap.
Who is Slant magazine? Where do you get the balls and credibility to speak on a God MC? For argument sake even if it was garbage which it wasn’t you don’t have the right to put your dog in that fight . If it wasn’t for Wu-Tang and The Chef a lot of rappers wouldn’t even exist. Next time just some things are better left unsaid than said . With all this said I still wish your magazine all the best .