{"id":1754,"date":"2025-08-10T03:28:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T03:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/verifiedviral.com\/?p=1754"},"modified":"2025-08-10T03:28:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T03:28:28","slug":"raekwon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/verifiedviral.com\/?p=1754","title":{"rendered":"Raekwon:\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>The Emperor\u2019s New Clothes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Raekwon Departed Wu\u2011Tang, but The Emperor\u2019s New Clothes Proves the Chef Still Cooks<br>Raekwon returns with The Emperor\u2019s New Clothes, his first solo album since 2017. Featuring Nas, Griselda, and Wu-Tang legends, the LP blends reverence and grit\u2014but critics say it leans on nostalgia over innovation.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After an eight-year hiatus, Raekwon the Chef dishes out his eighth solo album, The Emperor\u2019s New Clothes, dropping July 18, 2025 via Ice H2O and Mass Appeal. It marks his first solo release since The Wild in 2017&nbsp; .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As part of Mass Appeal\u2019s \u201cLegend Has It\u201d album series, the project headlines a roster featuring Nas, De La Soul, Ghostface Killah, Mobb Deep, and more&nbsp; . On this album, Raekwon shares the mic with Hip-Hop royalty\u2014Wu-Tang brethren like Method Man, Ghostface Killah, and Inspectah Deck\u2014and gritty collaborators from Griselda including Conway the Machine, Benny the Butcher and Westside Gunn, while Nas joins him on the production-heavy \u201cThe Omerta\u201d&nbsp; .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While fans have praised The Emperor\u2019s New Clothes for reminding them of Rae\u2019s storytelling and resilience, some critics argue the album leans on legacy and lacks the bold risk-taking of his classics&nbsp; . Still, with its lean 40-minute runtime and that classic Raekwon grit, it\u2019s earned respect for its tight execution and reverent lyricism&nbsp; .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Emperor\u2019s New Clothes stands as proof: decades into the game, Raekwon can still deliver raw rap with heart and heritage. Assign that to your \u201cViral Music\u201d spotlight and cue the applause.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Emperor\u2019s New Clothes Raekwon Departed Wu\u2011Tang, but The Emperor\u2019s New Clothes Proves the Chef Still CooksRaekwon returns with The Emperor\u2019s New Clothes, his first solo album since 2017. Featuring Nas, Griselda, and Wu-Tang legends, the LP blends reverence and grit\u2014but critics say it leans on nostalgia over innovation. After an eight-year hiatus, Raekwon the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[284,283,285,281,280,282],"class_list":["post-1754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-viral-music","tag-emperors-new-clothes","tag-griselda","tag-nas","tag-new-album-2025","tag-raekwon","tag-wu-tang"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/verifiedviral.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/verifiedviral.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/verifiedviral.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/verifiedviral.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/verifiedviral.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/verifiedviral.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1756,"href":"https:\/\/verifiedviral.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1754\/revisions\/1756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/verifiedviral.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/verifiedviral.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/verifiedviral.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/verifiedviral.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}