Once you hit your peak, the only place to go is down. Such is the case with Raekwon’s second solo LP Immobilarity, the follow up to his 5 @ classic Only Built For Cuban Links. With Cuban Links, Raekwon and the Wu-Tang Clan changed the sound of that old New York rap. That album set so many industry trends, such as introducing the East Coast gangster, the Wu-gambino name, giving to birth Nas Escobar, and most importantly, the solidifying of the Wu-Tang Clan as hip-pop icons and marketing geniuses. Not to mention that the album featured beautiful wall to wall RZA production, seamlessly binding the whole thing together.

Welcome to 1999, hip-hop’s end of days. Major labels are trying the No Limit marketing plan of rushing the artist to shit out their albums as quickly as possible, and not putting as much emphasis on quality. Enter Raekwon’s Immobilarity. This is not only perhaps the most disappointing album of the year, but also the last straw for longtime Wu-Tang fans who’ve been unhappy with the half assed product they’ve put out over the past two years.

The album begins with an intro that sets you up to believe that this is a follow-up to Cuban Links, complete with background music sampled from The Killer. The album’s first track, “Yae Yo”, pitting Raekwon against the drug lords, giving you the feeling that this album will be a worthy follow-up, with the more powerful New York sound of 1999. Things begin to take a turn with the next two tracks, “Casablanca” and “100 Rounds”. Both of them try to recreate the orchestrated, cinematic score of previous favorites, such as “Rainy Days”, but fail miserably. Not only are these two tracks indistinguishable from each other, but they also lack the edgy RZA drums of before, and are replaced with some uncreative drum loops from a cheap ass drum machine. Many of the other beats suffer this same fate of bland drumbeats, with sleepy pianos, or unimaginative samples.

Raekwon’s road to destruction doesn’t stop there either, it only gets worse. “All That I Got Is You Part 2″, is a thoughtful dedication to his mother, but lacks the magnetism of Ghostface’s original. This recycled idea is waaaaaay over the top, with ridiculous R&B vocals from Big Bub, and a track that sounds like it belongs on adult contemporary radio. Then come the jiggy joints. Both “Raw” and “Heart To Heart” are foolish and downright embarrassing, that sound like some Bad Boy rejects that wouldn’t even have worked when Puffy was king. Can’t forget the essential wanna be Swizz Beatz on the aptly titled “Pop Shit”.

While it does have a few tolarable joints, this album still lacks every element that made Cuban Links a classic, and even more, it so far removed of what a Wu-Tang album is (was). Raekwon, the emcee, isn’t slipping, but these RZA-less beats are completely awful, and there is hardly any participation from the rest of the Clan.

Whereas Cuban Links set trends for the entire hip-hop industry, Rae’s sophmore release doesn’t attempt to break any new ground, but instead lazily follows trends set by Swizz, Puffy, and whoever else. For someone who had almost FIVE YEARS to record a second album, this one fails miserably. “Immobiliarity” is about as artificial as the word itself.