Raekwon released the 1995 debut solo album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx....
The album was released by Loud Records on August 1, 1995, and was produced largely by RZA. It was Raekwon’s first solo studio album after the Wu-Tang Clan’s 1993 debut, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), and it featured extensive appearances by Ghostface Killah, who was presented as Raekwon’s close partner in the album’s cinematic crime narrative.
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... is often called “The Purple Tape,” referring to the original purple cassette packaging. Its skits, slang, mafioso imagery, and tightly connected production helped define a major strand of mid-1990s East Coast hardcore rap.
A common mix-up is to credit Ghostface Killah because he appears so prominently and later released his own classic solo album, Ironman. Raekwon is the primary artist and the album’s central narrator.