Kiam Holley and Victor Santiago Jr. meet in Greenhaven Prison, New York. Almost peers, both from Queens, both with a criminal background, both hip-hop fans, decide to start their own group. Holley chooses that of the American mafia and gangster Al Capone as his moniker, while Santiago chooses that of the Panamanian dictator and drug trafficker Manuel Noriega. The Capone-N-Noreaga duo, C-N-N, is born, destined to write new pages in the history of New York rap, and beyond. Backed by Queens veteran Juice Crew member Tragedy Khadafi and up-and-coming Queens artist and Mobb Deep member Havoc, the two record a demo and end up in The Source magazine's "Unsigned Hype" column in the fall of 95. From here, they manage to get a contract with Penalty Recordings. The following year their first official single is released, produced by Havoc and Tragedy Khadafi, which gets a good response from the public and allows the two to continue working on the construction of the debut studio album.
In 1996, during the course of the recording, Capone violates probation and is forced to return to prison, leaving Noreaga the full weight of the project. The album is completed with the help of Tragedy Khadafi and Havoc and is released in the summer of 1997. The production boasts professionals from different hip-hop scenes: Tragedy Khadafi and Marley Marl from the Juice Crew, EZ Elpee, Nashiem Myrick, Carlos "6 July" Broady for Puff Daddy's The Hitmen, Buckwild & Lord Finesse of DITC, as well as Havoc, Charlemagne, Naughty Shorts, G-Money and DJ Clark Kent. Guests are Tragedy Khadafi, Mobb Deep, Iman Thug, Castro, Musolini, Mendosa, Troy Outlaw and rnb singer Nneka Morton: in particular, Tragedy Khadafi covers most of the time Capone should have been employed, participating in half an album with ten appearances, sometimes incorrectly credited.
The intro gives you good vibes. Charlemagne's rhythm touches perfection: the drum is downtempo, slow, dry, hard, resembling Havoc's. Charlemagne was a member of Natural Elements, and it's the only name other than Havoc's that you can find in the production credits on Big Noyd's debut, so I think he might be an affiliate or close to. In any case, he does a very good job. Those strings are ill, suspicious, gloomy, mafia. It's not just that. The intro opens as best it could, it's Nas who says "Capone & Noreaga" at the beginning, it's an excerpt from the outro of one of his tracks, in this intro the boys pay homage to two songs of him from best album of the year 1996, along with Royal Flush's "Worldwide", which is a gem in its own right.
"Bloody Money" is the first cut and it's excellent: elegant, dark, melancholy, sick piano, taken from one of the songs that Bill Conti made for the "Rocky" (1976) soundtrack. The hook is effective, Noreaga's attack is good, his energetic delivery adapts to the beat, there's a good rusty, tight, sticky, dirty drum machine, great work from EZ Elpee, who's part of the hottest production team of the moment, The Hitmen. Noreaga is flawless, this is one of his best solo moments ever. "Driver's Seat" again features some Hitmen guys behind the keyboards and the sound carpet is dirtier than before: drum downtempo, dry, hard and metallic, melodic sample by Willie Hutch, slow hardcore delivery by Imam Thug, rapper from Queens and first guest of the album, who delivers bars together with Noreaga. There's Busta Rhymes uncredited at the end.
"Stick You" features Noreaga and Tragedy Khadafi arguing over the poor quality coke that was sold to them, on a sickly and dark piano scale drawn directly from Mingus. Deceived by the pusher, the first rapper wants to take revenge, but the latter convinces him to make a plan. Here comes the drum, dry, very hard, heavy, lethal, midtempo, Tragedy Khadafi kills the cut with a hardcore style, smooth, crisp, clean, fantastic. After more than ten minutes into the LP, Capone's first verse arrives, hardcore, regular, delivered back n forth with Tragedy. Noreaga closes on the third verse, hardcore, honest, decent. Track number five is the first produced by Havoc: sample chipmunk soul chopped and looped, drum midtempo, tight, dry, hard, bright, Havoc's hook, Noreaga's regular hardcore rap, Tragedy Khadafi rips the beat with the second verse.
"Iraq (See the World)" is the album's first posse track: tight heavy dry drum, twisted and dark sample, minimal rhythm by EZ Elpee that clouds your brain and tries to hypnotize you, while the verses of Castro, Musolini, Mendosa, Troy Outlaw and Noreaga arrive. Nobody, not even the main rapper seems to stand out, Musolini goes close, who's always comfortable with this kind of dark and melancholy rhythms. The seventh choice is provided by Naughty Shorts: drum downtempo, dry, gloomy melancholy splendid sample from "Who's Gonna Take the Blame" by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, regular calm delivery by Noreaga, in a track dedicated to imprisoned Capone. "Neva Die Alone" is a rare cut featuring full stanzas by Noreaga, Capone and Tragedy Khadafi: boom bap, midtempo skeletal dry drum, haunting enveloping dark sample, few piano keys, Buckwild brings out a sick beat. Noreaga delivers hardcore, Capone boasts a most elegant, regular, calm style, while Tragedy Khadafi closes killing even this choice with raw, rough, tight flow.
"T.O.N.Y. (Top of New York)" is signed by Myrick & Broady for the Hitmen: samples by Walter Jackson that you may not even be able to hear, because it's hidden in the background, to make way for the slow dry drum and the regular hardcore rap of Noreaga, Capone and Tragedy Khadafi. The executives demand a hook and Nore makes up those four words on the cross almost casually, it's not even done right, but somehow it works. You may not have noticed, but in a year where there are still some of the best performers in New York rap history and many more are to come in the next couple of years, these half-unknown dudes from a couple of remote Long Island blocks are proclaiming themselves King of the City. This album tells us that the most legitimate person on this record after Havoc is Tragedy Khadafi, but I don't want to go too far. The song is chosen as the third single and makes the best performance in the rnb chart.
"Channel 10" boasts Lord Finesse behind the keyboards: heavy drum, midtempo, lashing like a belt, sample from a Roy Budd cinematic track, intro, then there's a spoken delivery by Capone, Tragedy on the hook, and Noreaga. An interlude of Capone recorded from the prison follows. "Thug Paradise" is a curious song under different aspects. Originally, it's a song by Tragedy Khadafi feat Capone. At the time, the veteran rapper had released two albums under the Intelligent Hoodlum moniker, and had no plans to release a new LP, while people were asking for more material while Capone was in prison and couldn't record, and this album was about to come out. The piece is included in subsequent editions of this album, replacing the "Stay Tuned" interlude. The production is credited to Charlemagne and is a pretty nasty beat in comparison to all the others: the rhythm is crude, cheap, simplistic, club-like, with elements that don't favor the remarkable verse of Tragedy and the rap of Capone-N-Noreaga.
"Capone Bone" is a rare Capone solo on a brilliant beat by Marley Marl, which evidently wasn't finished after 1990: boom bap, fresh lively drum, melodic sample from Roy Ayers and vocal from the female choir of a piece by D'Angelo. Good delivery of Capone in a song dedicated to girls. "Halfway Thugs" is an evident reference to the Mobb Deep, a clear inspiration of CNN throughout this journey, you might think it's a tribute to the other duo, instead, taking a closer look, the piece turns out to be more sinuous and meandering than it could be. Charlemagne's beat picks up "Shook Ones Pt. II", the soundscape of this choice gives you those vibes: the drum is dry, harsh, midtempo, skeletal, there's a melodic sample by Roger Hodgson and a haunting chopped and looped by Aretha Franklin. Intro, then Noreaga's unique verse, regular, flowing, raw, rough, hardcore. The song is a dissing against Prodigy, and it's quite curious and unexpected, as most of the fans associate and very often compare this record to the best LPs of Mobb Deep.
"L.A., L.A. (Kuwait Mix)" is opened by Prodigy, paradoxically. It's curious that they're inserted one after the other in the tracklist. Now, what surrounds this song isn't as clear as crystal. In the fall of 1995, Dogg Pound released "New York, New York", which is a dissing to the city and the hip-hop artists of the Big Apple and is above all a popular tune that easily gets radio and television airplay. It represents the West Coast in a war that is not even known how it really began and that doesn't seem to want to end anytime soon. Dissing arrives, very powerful, even in the five districts and everyone sees it. The idea of the answer is credited to Tragedy Khadafi, Capone and Noreaga, who recorded it together with friends Mobb Deep. On a minimal beat by Marley Marl, skinny drum, samples from Al Green, Noreaga, Havoc, Capone and Tragedy Khadafi deliver a verse each. Tragedy Khadafi pays homage to Inspectah Deck from "C.R.E.A.M." and kills the cut.
The roll is missing Prodigy, who executes the hook without offering any verse, a stanza that originally had to be there: according to the rapper of Mobb Deep, he takes away his own verse to insert it in Nas' "Live Nigga Rap", which would give him more visibility, according to Noreaga, on the other hand, the Mobb Deep label Loud Records would have demanded the removal of the Prodigy verse from the song, following the brutal dissing against the whole East Coast released in summer '96 by 2Pac, "Hit 'Em Up", rightly considered one of the most violent dissing ever, and for many the best. Initially, Biggie Smalls advises CNN not to respond to the provocation of Dogg Pound by releasing the song which could lead to an uncontrolled escalation, but the duo ignores him and releases the song anyway. The rest is in the history of rap.
An interlude takes the listener to the last three tracks of the disc. "Illegal Life" is the first song released by Capone-N-Noreaga: female soul sample chopped and looped, uncompromising drum, skinny, tough, heavy, midtempo, the rhythm credited to Tragedy Khadafi & Havoc is incredible. Havoc's hook, Noreaga's hardcore delivery, Capone and again Noreaga closing the track. The piece becomes the first single on the album and finds its way into the charts. "Black Gangstas" is the latest song produced by D.I.T.C., Buckwild returns to provide the beat: stammering hi-hats in the background, melodic sample plus haunting vocal loop, harsh, hard, dry, mechanical, midtempo drum machine, Tragedy Khadafi hook, Noreaga and Capone hardcore delivery. "Closer" is a remix by Sam Sneed that replaces the original version in a similar way to how "Thug Paradise" replaces "Stay Tuned": glossy rhythm, minimal drum, light samples, hook sung by Nneka Morton, hardcore rap by Noreaga. It closes a Capone outro from the prison.
Music, lyrics and performance are all derived from the time that the East Coast hip-hop scene has gone through over the past five years, that after having lived bright, sunny and positive seasons made of jazz rap and alt rap, went through a dark, cold, evil period of gangster rap imported directly from Los Angeles. In New York it's worked and refined in new material that takes the name of mafia rap, it's no longer so dark, so cold, so evil, even if in a way it still is. It's not so true anymore. From narrating increasingly plausible stories, hip-hop performers move to narrating more elaborate and fascinating stories that are often distant from their own experience, losing street credibility in the eyes of purists. When this period ends, starched by Puffy's clothes, the gangsta continues to hold firmly in favor of the charts and it's in this context that the C-N-N manage to fit in.
The debut of Capone & Noreaga helps to appease the mafia subgenre, giving new life to gangsta rap through two other generations, street rap and thug rap. The two MCs from Queens particularly reflect the lifestyle they grew up with and are trying to leave through music, like many others before and many others after them: the two focus a lot on street credibility, which is fundamental for them, hence the dissing to Prodigy, who grew up in his own neighborhood in LeFrak. For some reason, Don P is practically never featured on this CD except for a few moments in a hook, while Havoc, from Queens, is one of the main guests and is credited among the proponents of the album.
It's quite clear that Noreaga doesn't want Prodigy in this project, and that Prodigy doesn't want to appear on Noreaga's album, that he publicly deems not important enough to live up to his name, and it seems that the disagreements between the two derive from some vicissitudes they went through in previous years. The disagreements between Prodigy and Noreaga stem from the early nineties, when there appear to have been several moments of tension between Noreaga, his affiliates and the members of Mobb Deep, their affiliates and entourage, which include fights, thefts and even a shooting.
This album represents Queens. If you look at the tracklist, the guests are rappers from Queens. It should represent the best of the neighborhood right now: Nas is one of the designated guests, however, his song comes out of the tracklist at the last moment because the guys weren't able to clean up the Bette Midler sample from "Superstar" on the "Calm Down" track in time. The song is wonderful, sees the presence of Tragedy Khadafi and that of the best Esco of the nineties on a brilliant rhythm by EZ Elpee. The album is revised, reassembled and rearranged several times, some tracks are cleaned up and revisited and even the weed anthem "Married to Marijuana" comes off the final tracklist.
This record is complicated. Describing it isn't easy. There are many implications, subplots, stories you can't know and others you can't ignore. The production, despite being made by different guys, is cohesive, coherent, solid and effective, moreover, it reflects the typical sound of the New York scene of the mid and late nineties: the rhythms are minimal, hard, raw and dark, making no concessions most of the time, allowing only one track for the club and only one crossover. When you read of comparisons and similarities with Mobb Deep and other acts released in the same period of that importance, it's often the merit of the production. Because lyricism isn't up there, with the best. You can't ask Nore that much. He brought this album almost by himself. Lyrically, you can't expect the top of New York, to use the duo's own words. That said, the concept is definitely thought of, and although it may seem simplistic or banal in words, it's not the simplest.
The cover reaffirms the concept around which the whole project revolves: Capone and Noreaga are wearing camouflage clothing, behind them are hundreds of their clones in support and two high-rise buildings, flown over by a couple of fighters, in the middle of a slightly orange and a little black sunset sky. A yellow pineapple grenade in the upper left ("This whole raid was as useless as that yellow, lemon-shaped rock over there. Wait a minute..." cit.), the names of the authors in the top center, the title in white on a blue box in the middle of the high-rise buildings, which have always been a symbol of the ghetto. The lyrics deal with topics typical of street life, drugs, violence, crime, thugging, representing, braggadocio. The narratives of these two boys are comparable to war reports directly from war zones, with the two interpreters comparing their neighborhoods to Middle Eastern countries: Capone's Queensbridge becomes Kuwait and Noreaga's Lefrak becomes Iraq.
This isn't your typical hardcore rap album. Technically, the boys are amateurs, it's strange to be some of the main representatives of a scene that in the recent past has made technique its main pride. They haven't studied and it's not important, because both are working hard and are at their best. If you try hard, you can notice how Tragedy Khadafi is technically better than both of them every single time it appears on the wax. Capone and Noreaga make up for flaws with fun bars and an energy that takes away even some of the most ignorant texts. The performance of the rappers is often hardcore, they sound hardcore, without giving up a more regular, sweet, soft and velvety style, who's the illegitimate child of that scene carried out by performers such as Kool G Rap, AZ, Nas, Jay-Z, Raekwon and Ghostface Killah, from which not only they're trying to distance themselves and condemn, but they're also managing to finish, despite the moniker of one of the two references one of the most famous mafioso of all time. Sometimes there are times when they loosen their grip and when they do, every single time the third unofficial member of the Tragedy Khadafi group gets to put the track back on a hardcore track, and to remember that this is one of the best street rap albums of the year (whatever that means).
Published by Penalty Recordings and Tragedy Khadafi's 25 to Life, it's distributed by Tommy Boy under the Warner Bros. umbrella: despite having deeply underground roots, the album soars in the charts reaching the top 25 in the pop chart and fourth place among the rap releases, becoming one of the best-selling albums of the season. Consisting of 20 songs (4 skits), and over 70 minutes of material, it features some solo songs by Noreaga and one by Capone, most of the LP boast the presence of at least one guest. It's certainly one of the best products ever to come out of Queens and one of the tightest rap albums of the year, essential for East Coast fans, there are several raw pearls and some of the best moments ever from Nore. If you wonder why he's so highly regarded in the game, so many answers lie between the Tigris and the Euphrates.
Highlights: "Bloody Money", "Live on Live Long", "T.O.N.Y.", "Channel 10", "Halfway Thugs", "L.A, L.A. (Kuwait Mix)", "Illegal Life", "Black Gangstas".
Rating: 7.8/10.
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