Cuban Link

Felix Delgado (born December 18, 1974), better known by his stage name Cuban Link, is a Cuban-American rapper. Emerging from the underground hip hop scene in the Bronx, he came to prominence upon discovery by fellow Bronx rapper Fat Joe and mentorship from his close friend Big Pun, and thereafter guest appeared on Pun's 1998 album Capital Punishment. He is also known for being a member of the Bronx-based rap group Terror Squad.

In 1997, Cuban Link made his first on-record performance on the single " Off the Books" by The Beatnuts.

Early life

Delgado was born in Havana, on December 18, 1974. He and his family emigrated to the United States in 1980 during the Mariel boatlift, settling in the South Bronx in New York City in 1984 when he was nine years old. At the end of the Boatlift, he originally arrived in Miami, Florida and also settled in Puerto Rico for a unspecified amount of time, until he permanently settled in The Bronx.

While on the Mariel Boatlift, Cuban and his family sailed from Cuba to Miami, Florida for six months from April 15 to October 31, 1980. When Cuban arrived, he was in a concentration camp on 95 North where they had all the other Cubans. Cuban lived in Miami for six months before settling in Puerto Rico for three years and then moving to the South Bronx, settling in the Morrisania neighborhood.

Career

When Delgado was growing up, he lived around primarily Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and African-Americans. At the same time, Hip hop music was rising in popularity in his neighborhood.

In 1986, at age 12, Cuban started writing rhymes after being drawn into hip-hop culture, which led him to being influenced by Juice Crew, Big Daddy Kane, Kool G Rap, KRS-One and Nas.

At age 15, in 1989, Delgado started rapping under the moniker Lyrical Assassin, which led him to meet his future partners-in-rhyme Christopher Rios and Samuel Garcia, who at the time were known as Big Moon Dawg and Joker Jamz. This led them to form the underground rap group Full-A-Clips. Throughout the early 90s, Full-A-Clips became a well-known group throughout the Bronx, earning them radio freestyles and live performances. Their fourth member, Toom, joined the group in 1994.

In 1995, Delgado and Rios were hanging out at a bodega in The Bronx while Pun was rapping, when Fat Joe stops by the bodega to buy some groceries. Pun spots Joe and recognizes him and goes up to him to spit a verse for him. When Pun spit his verse, he left Joe so impressed that he offered Pun a ride in his limousine. After meeting Pun, he met Delgado and Garcia as well.

The Terror Squad formation

After Fat Joe discovered Full-A-Clips, signed to Atlantic Records and launched Terror Squad Productions in 1997, he signed Big Pun, which led to the formation of the Bronx-based rap group Terror 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 album Don Cartagena on the songs "Bet Ya Man Can't (Triz)", "The Hidden Hand", and "Terror Squadians".

The Terror Squad collaboration album

On September 21, 1999, Link and the Terror Squad released their self-titled debut album which reached number 20 on the Billboard 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 LP ''24K'' which he originally started working on in 1997.

1997–2001: Signing with Atlantic, 24K album, feud with Fat Joe

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 died 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 by Atlantic Records. In addition, "Why Me?" was featured in the 2000 action-comedy film Bait and another song from the album, "Project Party" was featured in the 2000 sports drama film Girlfight. 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 of ''24K''. 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 being blacklisted from the music industry and forced to go underground.

2001–2004: Released Broken Chains series with his DJ Dren Starr & Roy P. Perez

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.

2004–2005: Signing with M.O.B. Records, Chain Reaction

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 album ''Only 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 released ''Chain Reaction'' on August 16, 2005. It included singles "Sugar Daddy" (featuring Mýa) and "Scandalous" (featuring Don Omar) with influence from reggaeton. 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 as Eliel, Swizz Beatz, Mr. Porter and Syleena Johnson. In addition, Cuban released two promotional singles: "Shakedown" and "Talk About It" featuring Jadakiss.

2006 - present: Mixtapes, Spanish singles, beef with Pitbull, Bang Bang Boogie

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 rapper Pitbull 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 as Don Omar, Zion, Nengo Flow, Temperamento and many others. Around that time, he had beef with Pitbull 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.

In 2007, Cuban formed the Bronx-bred rapngroup Bang Bang Boogie, which consisted of him, Mysonne, Lord Tariq, S-One and Hocus 45th. The group was created to bring awareness to the Bronx neighborhoods. They issued the mixtapes Bang Bang Boogie: The Machine Vol. 1 in 2007 and X-Files: No Mercy for the Weak in 2008. The group disbanded shortly after its formation and each member went back to work on their solo careers. In 2011, Cuban released Chain Gang Bully and released various solo singles underground. As of 2025, Cuban is active on social media and releasing standalone singles.

Discography

;Studio albums
* ''24K'' (2000) (unreleased)
* ''Chain Reaction'' (2005)

;Collaboration albums
* '' Terror Squad: The Album'' with Terror Squad (1999)

References

External links

Official Instagram

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cuban Link
1974 births
Living people
American entertainers of Cuban descent
Atlantic Records artists
Cuban emigrants to the United States
Cuban rappers
Hispanic and Latino American rappers
Musicians from Havana
Rappers from the Bronx
Cuban reggaeton musicians
Terror Squad (group) members
East Coast hip-hop musicians
21st-century American rappers
People from Morrisania, Bronx