Loud records 25th anniversary concert 3
Loud records 25th anniversary concert 3
Photo Credit: Johnny Nunez/WireImage

Would You Rock These Raekwon 'Cuban Linx' Diadoras?

Raekwon, Packer and Diadora teamed up to honor two separate classics.

On Wednesday, Diadora, Packer, and Raekwon teamed up to release an all-new version of a classic sneaker. The N.9000 "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx" hit the Packer webstore on Wednesday morning, the fruits of a collaborative effort honoring the album's 25th anniversary and the 30th anniversary of the shoe's retail debut.

Back in 2015, the three entities released a model based on the album's iconic purple cassette tape. This time around, the shoe brings the album's cover art to life. The shoe's insoles even feature the album tracklist. Raekwon wore a sample pair of the shoes during a performance at SOB's for the album's 20th anniversary. Rae recalled how he decided on the album's packaging in an interview with Packer.

"It was something that the label didn’t even expect," he said. "This is something that came organically from my way of thinking. After making an album that I truly believed was a classic, now I had to finish it with one more thing — the packaging. Separate it from everything that’s out there."

If not for limited color selection, the tape could've turned out to be green.

"I chose the purple, because purple represents royalty," Rae explained. "It didn’t come off on some girly-style purple. It came off on official fly lavender purple! You know what I mean? Colors that everybody ain’t expecting to be regular. I looked at it and looked it, and then I took it back to Ghost the next day, and he was like, “Do what you do! You know what to do!” That’s his thing with me."

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