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Cuban Link | |
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 Cuban Link in 2010 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Felix Delgado[1] |
| Also known as |
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| Born | (1974-12-18)December 18, 1974 (age 50) Havana, Cuba |
| Origin | The Bronx,New York City, U.S. |
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| Years active | 1995–present |
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| Formerly of | Terror Squad |
Felix Delgado (born December 18, 1974), better known by his stage nameCuban Link, is a Cuban-American rapper. Emerging from theunderground hip hop scene inthe Bronx, he came to prominence upon discovery by fellow Bronx rapperFat Joe and mentorship from his close friendBig Pun, and thereafter guest appeared on Pun's 1998 albumCapital Punishment. He is also known for being a member of the Bronx-based rap groupTerror Squad.
In 1997, Cuban Link made his first on-record performance on the single "Off the Books" byThe Beatnuts.
Delgado was born inHavana, Cuba, in 1974. He and his family emigrated to the United States in 1980 during theMariel boatlift, settling in theSouth Bronx in New York City in 1984 when he was nine years old.[2]
When Delgado was growing up,hip hop music was rising in popularity in his neighborhood. Delgado took on the stage name Cuban Link and associated with fellow rappersBig Pun, Triple Seis and Prospect in a group under the name Full-A-Clips. He originally went by the moniker Lyrical Assassin but eventually changed his stage name to Cuban Link.[3]
During the late 1980s, Cuban began writing rap lyrics and formed the underground rap group Full-A-Clips withBig Pun, Triple Seis and Prospect. Cuban made a number of recordings with the group in the 1990s, which are currently unreleased. At this point, Cuban was performing under the alias Lyrical Assassin. After changing his stage name to Cuban Link, he met fellow Latino rapperFat Joe in 1995, which helped the crew get discovered and made his commercial debut in 1997 on the song "Off the Books" byThe Beatnuts. He also appeared in theBig Pun song "Glamour Life" from Pun's debut studio albumCapital Punishment.
AfterFat Joe discovered Full-A-Clips, signed toAtlantic Records and launchedTerror Squad Productions in 1997, he signed Big Pun, which led to the formation of the Bronx-based rap groupTerror Squad, which consisted of Fat Joe, Big Pun, Cuban Link, Triple Seis, Prospect and Armageddon. Following this, Cuban Link was signed to Atlantic and Terror Squad and contributed guest appearance vocals to Fat Joe's September 1998 albumDon Cartagena on the songs "Bet Ya Man Can't (Triz)", "The Hidden Hand", and "Terror Squadians".
On September 21, 1999, Link and the Terror Squad released theirself-titled debut album which reached number 20 on theBillboard 200. Cuban contributed vocals on seven tracks, some of them being "In For Life", "Pass the Glock", "As the World Turns", and "Tell Me What U Want". After signing to Atlantic and Terror Squad, Cuban Link continued recording for his debut LP24K which he originally started working on in 1997.
In 1997, Cuban began recording songs for his debut album 24K. One of the first songs he recorded was "Toe to Toe" with Big Pun. He recorded songs with Pun,Angie Martinez, SunKiss,Ja Rule, Triple Seis,Kool G Rap and many other artists. During the process, Big Pun passed away on February 7, 2000, due to a heart attack caused by weight issues. This led to Cuban writing and releasing "Flowers For The Dead" in Pun's honor. Three singles were released from the album: "Flowers For The Dead", "Still Telling Lies", and "Why Me?". The songs "Play How You Want" and "Toe to Toe" were released as promotional singles byAtlantic Records. In addition, "Why Me?" was featured in the 2000 action-comedy filmBait and another song from the album, "Project Party" was featured in the 2000 sports drama filmGirlfight. The album was scheduled to be released in the summer of 2000 but changed to January of 2001. However, without Pun's mediation, personal tension between Fat Joe and Cuban Link, problems with Atlantic and bootlegging prevented the release of24K. 24K is now available for digital download on Amazon Music, but has not been released physically. Cuban Link's feud with Fat Joe led to him beingblacklisted from the music industry and forced to go underground.
After being sliced in the face three times at an Angie Martinez release party and performance for a song called: "Live At Jimmy's" featuring Cuban Link on Angie Martinez's album, Cuban alongside his DJ Dren Starr and executive Roy P. Perez this led Cuban Link to sign with Universal/MOB for $2 Million for one album making it the largest independent deal at the time.[4]
After his career derailed, Link was still recording music despite the 24K album being shelved by Joe and Atlantic Records. In addition, Cuban guest appeared on Triple Seis' debut studio albumOnly Time'll Tell, which was released on July 20, 2004 through Madd Records. Cuban featured on the tracks "Drinks Up", "Hustler" and "Be About It".
In 2004, a few years after leaving Terror Squad, Cuban joined independent label Men of Business and releasedChain Reaction on August 16, 2005. It included singles "Sugar Daddy" (featuringMýa) and "Scandalous" (featuringDon Omar) with influence fromreggaeton. It was the largest independent deal ($2MM) for a single album and an unsigned act at the time and a joint venture with Universal. Cuban linked up with several producers and artists such asEliel,Swizz Beatz,Mr. Porter andSyleena Johnson. In addition, Cuban released two promotional singles: "Shakedown" and "Talk About It" featuringJadakiss.[5]
After the Chain Reaction album, Cuban continued to release music independently, releasing several mixtapes and stayed in New York's underground hip-hop scene. In addition, Cuban had a point in his music career when he started embracing his Latin roots even more by rapping in Spanish. In 2008, he released the posse cut "Nos Tienen Miedo" which was a diss towards rapperPitbull and Cuban's former protégé Don Dinero. It was followed by "Nos Tienen Miedo 2" which was released in 2010. Cuban Link released several hip-hop songs in Spanish and collaborated with many Latin artists such asDon Omar,Zion,Nengo Flow,Temperamento and many others. Around that time, he had beef withPitbull for unknown reasons. It is unknown what caused this beef but it is presumably because of Pitbull's diss track towards Cuban which was released in 2003 so Cuban responded with some diss tracks and allegedly assaulted Pitbull by punching him in the face. Their beef eventually ended in an unknown period of time as both rappers moved on.
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