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  1. Tracks
  2. Raekwon
  3. Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…
  4. Verbal Intercourse

TRACK

Raekwon

Verbal Intercourse

Release date: 1st August 1995

From Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…
Spotify
More on Raekwon

About This Track

A showcase for three voices at the height of their powers, 'Verbal Intercourse' brought Nas to Raekwon's debut solo album for what was then a rare guest appearance. The Queensbridge rapper was basking in post-Illmatic glory, and this marked only his second feature since that 1994 landmark. Over RZA's production, Nas opens with a verse that unfolds like a scroll, the roving camera eye already familiar from his debut now trained on cycles of incarceration and survival. Raekwon and Ghostface Killah follow, trading images of crack sales bubbling in project stairwells and fiends lurking in baggage. The Chef sketches Pyrex pots and disintegrating kilos; Ghostface conjures hundred-pound snakes and bodies found in lakes. It's the signature track from 'Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…', a carousel of New York street testimony that pitted Nas against the Wu-Tang tag team and marked the album's sole external guest appearance.

"Verbal Intercourse" is a track by Raekwon, from the album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…, released 1st August 1995. Full lyrics are available below.

About the Artist

Raekwon

Raekwon

Lyrics

Verbal Intercourse

[Produced by RZA]

[Intro: Raekwon, Nas & Ghostface Killah]

No tricks, no tricks, baby

Yeah, ayy, yo, Rae, check me out, y'all

It's the science (Fly wonderful, yeah, y'all)

Tony Starks and, umm, Lex Diamonds (Tony Starks)

My nigga Nas

Word up

Stay wise

All types of shit, yo, son

Hit these kids mad, couldn't know our story, right?

Show those crabs how to rhyme (Yeah, baby)

Shake a nigga with a few of them joints

It's only like five percent out of a hundred

Do it to 'em, baby

[Verse 1: Nas]

Through the lights, cameras, and action, glamour, glitters, and gold

I unfold the scroll, plant seeds to stampede the globe

When I'm deceased, by then the beast arise like yeast

To conquer peace, leaving savages to roam in the streets

Live on the run, police paying me to give in my gun

Trick my wisdom with the system that imprisoned my son

Smoke a gold leaf, I hold heat nonchalantly

I'm raunchy, but things I do is real, it never haunts me, while

Funny style niggas roll in the pile

Rooster-heads profile on the bus to Rikers Isle

Holding weed inside they pussy with they minds on the pretty things in life

Props is a true thug's wife

It's like a cycle, niggas come home, some'll go in

Do a bullet, come back, do the same shit again

From the womb to the tomb, presume the unpredictable

Guns salute life rapidly, that's the ritual

[Verse 2: Raekwon]

Perhaps bullets bust, niggas discuss mad money

True lies and white guys, we can see it through the eyes

Catch the most on tape, kilos disintegrate

Pyrex pots, we break, fiends licking plates

In the building, niggas building, like little children, staring

Them older niggas ain't caring

Sirens circling, fiends are lurking in your baggage

Oh, one's gone now, what? Smack him in his cabbage

In the woodwork

Crack sales bubble like Woolworths in the projects

Richest niggas rocking all the real worth

Police questioning, rooftop cats invested in

Trading in they Lexuses, GSs, sending messages

Two and two makes four, Cristals crazily pour

Gun wars, my crew feel 'em like swords

[Verse 3: Ghostface Killah]

With the green leathers, hundred-pound snakes and cakes

Fiends found in lakes, jealously jakes we shake

What I strive for is what I live for

Infatuated by material things in this wild life of war

Like somewhere over the rainbow, I see a big pot of gold

Future stacks, so I hold

Thousands of cracks bagged up inside the shoebox

Don't keep jack in my lab, don't wanna see 2Pac

Got two spots on New Lots flooded with rocks

Shootouts making me hot, crooked cops, bag Tony and the ball drop

In denial, I'm banging niggas for slot time

Hurry up, duke, I'm next on line

And what the fuck is you looking at?

By the way young blood hit me off with that Green Bay hat

Watch your back inside the hall, new niggas slide through

Like doors, yo, you're staring in the mess hall

Your adrenaline runs, cigarette niggas be swindling

New jacks surrendering, come home not remembering

Made bail with different size kicks on, a white dress shirt

Looking gay in the yard and you got hurt

Flashbacks of the day room, mop wringer style

Your faggot ass got bashed trying to turn the dial

You told your boo you was wildin'

Once you heard Wu, out of the blue, your family's from Shaolin

High class cooks, throw on vests out of phone books

Infirmary niggas are screaming, "I got juxed"

Sharpened toothbrushes, one-ninety mixed with baby oil and shit

Your man's in the kitchen stashing ice picks

Well I'ma end this with a big red cherry on top

Me, Nas, and Rae got the best product on the block

[Outro: Raekwon & Ghostface Killah]

Cream, my whole team is eatin' off of this good shit (Word up, throw your hands up)

Good shit, nigga, next time, don't overlook shit (Cock back the MAC if, say whatever your Hawaiian style)

Keep your eyes open and your wallet in your front pocket (Exoticness, fly shit)

RZA, Ghost, and Chef, and Nas, niggas in the profit (Floatin' on a nine-five in the wind)

Lyrics provided by LRCLIB

View full lyrics page →

Track details

From Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…

1995
Listen
Album
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…
Raekwon
Release year
1995
  1. —Spot Rusherz
  2. —Wu-Gambinos
  3. —Criminology
  4. —Ice Cream
  5. —Verbal Intercourse
  6. —Guillotine (Swordz)
  7. —Glaciers of Ice
  8. —Knuckleheadz
  9. —Knowledge God
  10. —Ice Water
  11. —Shark Niggas (Biters)
  12. —Can It Be All So Simple (Remix)
  13. —North Star (Jewels)
  14. —Striving for Perfection
  15. —Wisdom Body

More from Raekwon

Albums & EPs

Polluted Water
2007
Immobilarity
Immobilarity
1999
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...
1995
Cocainism Vol. 2
Cocainism Vol. 2
Chef Cocaine Cooked (Mixtape)
Chef Cocaine Cooked (Mixtape)
The Emperor's New Clothes
The Emperor's New Clothes

Explore

More tracks by Raekwon

  1. 1 LifeThe Emperor's New Clothes
  2. 600 School
  3. Barber Shop Bullies (SKIT)The Emperor's New Clothes
  4. Bear HillThe Emperor's New Clothes
  5. Da HeaviesThe Emperor's New Clothes
  6. Debra Night WineThe Emperor's New Clothes
  7. Get Outta Here
  8. IntroThe Emperor's New Clothes
  9. Mac & Lobster
  10. Mandingo

Showing 10 of 20

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Credits

Production & Engineering

Writer
Ghostface Killah, Nas, Raekwon, RZA
Producer
RZA
Arranger
RZA
Assistant Engineer
4th Disciple, Islord
Mastering Engineer
Tom Coyne
Mixing Engineer
RZA
Recording Engineer
RZA
Vocal Samples
The Emotions