How Raekwon’s ‘Only Built 4 Cuban Linx’ Helped Me Appreciate Clarks Wallabees

Everyone knows how Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx is one of, if not the, most important mafioso rap albums in history. How Rae and Ghostface Killah’s union on the 1995 classic paved the way for nearly every rap duo to pick up a mic ever since. And how this album was crucial in solidifying the method of giving each individual Wu-Tang Clan member their own platform with which to spread their beloved Tao. So while relistening to Cuban Linx in honor of its 30th anniversary—which will be celebrated at a free show in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park this Saturday—I was drawn to one of its less heralded legacies: This album is a love letter to Clarks Wallabees. 

They’re only mentioned a handful of times in Cuban Linx’s 73 minutes, but there’s no denying the impact the shoes had on Rae and Ghost, and hip-hop culture at large. The legacy British footwear brand started making Wallabees in the late ’60s, and Jamaican immigrants in New York began wearing the suede-coated, crepe-soled sneaker-moccasion hybrid to upgrade their style the following decade. In the ’80s, early rap icons from Slick Rick to KRS-One were avowed fans, and that affection soon spread to most of Wu-Tang.

Cuban Linx features the earliest mentions of Wallabees on any Wu record, and each one suggests these shoes are the last word in style and class, something to aspire to, to freak and make your own. Take the first mention, in “Incarcerated Scarfaces.” In his second verse, Rae waxes about a successful rap battle where he and his crew rob the loser for all their loot: “Here’s the policy/Slide off the ring, plus the Wallabees,” he says, admiring each as tokens of a well-earned victory. He then follows it with the most luxe imagery he can muster: “Check the status, soon to see me at Caesar’s Palace eating salads.” The Wallabees are as integral to that scene as the jewelry, the location, and the leafy green meal of choice.

That sly slice of storytelling is one thing, but the spotlight on the kicks gleams intensely six tracks later. On the skit that opens “Glaciers of Ice,” Rae plots on his own pair and asks Ghost to put him on. Ghost does the homie one better by breaking down the best technique to dye them—cream and navy blue is his pick, but whatever color suits your fancy. “Just imagine,” Ghost says over and over, with all the giddy enthusiasm of a child drooling over a Labubu Dubai chocolate bar. “Just imagine that color, you got it dripping like marble cake.” The rest of the song is about Rae and Ghost’s characters reflecting on being made men in the middle of various shootouts, but it’s impossible to hear the story and not think about the boots they’re strapped in as they take all their enemies down.

In just a few mentions, Wallabees make their presence felt across Cuban Linx. They’d have an even greater impact later on, with Ghost showing them off on the cover of his 1996 solo debut Ironman, and with name drops on several more Wu-Tang songs. Growing up, it was hard to separate artists like Rae, Ghost, and fellow Wallabees disciple MF Doom, three of my favorite rappers ever, from the shoes they coveted so much, especially when Wu-Tang and Doom did their own respective collabs with the brand. I’d see these exclusive colorways pop up on occasion and wish I could scoop a pair, but was lacking either the resources or the keen sense of timing to do so. But last year around Black Friday, I finally made it happen. I was walking around the mall with my sister, and we stumbled across a Clarks store that was having a sale. Of course, neither the Wu-Tang nor the Doom joints were available, but I found a pair to call my own—a medium shade of blue, almost navy but not quite, the cork sole a comforting shade of beige. “These shoes were first popularized by British police,” one of the clerks felt the need to tell me, a far cry from the faux-criminals and hip-hop renegades that had originally planted them in my head. Either way, I left the store with my own Wallabees under my arm, having checked something else off my rap lifer bucket list.

This Saturday, August 9, Raekwon will perform Only Built 4 Cuban Linx in full as part of BRIC's Celebrate Brooklyn summer concert series at Prospect Park. Even better, the show is free! RSVP here. Hearing Things is a Celebrate Brooklyn media partner, and we’ll be there spreading the gospel of music journalism and counting every pair of suede-and-leather shoes we see walking, jumping, and bobbing to the beats.