Raekwon Explains Dr. Dre Fallout, “I Knew It Was Going To Be A Problem”

Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon recently spoke on his unsigned deal alongside Dr. Dre and Aftermath Records and why the rap legends could not work out an album arrangement.

Promising there was no bad blood between the two, the “Chef” reflected on their timing issues.

“The Aftermath thing was definitely something that people wanted to go down, I wanted to go down as well,” Raekwon explained in an interview. “We never inked the situation and we was going back and forth. From what I knew is that Dre’s time wasn’t really going to be there for me to really get what I needed to get out of him. So right then and there I knew that it was going to be a problem and being that he had so much to do and then you know the terms of agreement wasn’t coming together as far as from his side. It wasn’t actually him that was really making that call. It was people above him that was really telling him like, ‘Yo you got to do this first.'” (XXLMag)

In past interviews, Raekwon defended the Doc’s work ethic and said it tended to outweigh his artists’ needs.

“I think it’s the fact that he probably got a lot of things on his plate at the time [these projects were coming together],” Rae explained in an interview. “When you dealing with certain dudes, you gotta understand that you know, everybody want the time that they can get from [the] man, and if they can’t get it it’s kinda like it ain’t fair. My thing was, if you’re not gonna be on top of this project the way I’ma be on top of it, then what good is trying to be a [business] partner to you? If anything I’d rather come in and just get a heatrock from you and keep it moving. I think that’s probably the problem [others had]. It ain’t nothing to sh*t on Dre about, but a lot of dudes have said that he’s been very difficult to catch because he got so much work. And when you think of a 300-400 million dollar n*gga, you gotta respect that that’s how it be sometimes. It’s all good. Maybe the time [wasn’t] right for that. It may happen in the future.” (Hip Hop DX)

Former Aftermath rapper Eve previously spoke about her unreleased debut on the label.

“The decision was to have Dre start off the album, but Dre is kinda busy,” she said in a 2007 interview. “Swizz [Beatz] is my brother. He knows how to work with me. What was supposed to happen…We decided he might as well be one of the executive producers…Dre likes when projects are done when you come to him. He’d rather it that way, so it’s cool.” (MTV)

Raekwon previously spoke with SOHH about joining forces with Dre around 2006.

“It is a privilege to be signed to a label such as Aftermath,” the Chef said. “I am honored to be working with Dr Dre. I look forward to releasing my album, Only Built for Cuban Linx 2 in 2007, which will feature production from Dr. Dre, The RZA and other legendary producers. Get ready for the New York takeover!” (SOHH)

Raekwon’s Only Built For Cuban Linx 2 album is set to drop August 20th via EMI.