Capone-N-Noreaga: Still Reporting (NEW interview about new CNN records)

[Elano]

Almost a decade ago CNN prophesized that a “Change Is Gonna Come.” Not to be confused with the media outlet home to Larry King, the hood’s CNN comprised of Capone and Noreaga have gone through much tribulation and are back with, Channel 10, their first album since 2000’s The Reunion.

Since then, the duo has gone through more than a few formidable changes and experiences. They’ve survived a well documented street beef with Junior Mafia, weathered through a friendship that’s been perceived more as a marriage, and have grown artistically and as men.

Reporting live from one of downtown Manhattan’s finest Italian eateries, the newly converted vegan N.O.R.E. broke his beliefs for a plate eggplant parmesean and Capone introduced some Italian chefs to his “spicy ketchup,” all while speaking with unfiltered honesty on the latest news related to the Queens natives.

Though, now residing in different states the evidence was all too real that Capone and Noreaga are back with just cause to build on the CNN legacy.


AllHipHop.com:  How’s does it feel to not have dropped an album since 2000 with Reunion and know that Hip-Hop is still hungry for the new CNN album?
Capone: It’s the best feeling in the world because in reality fans will cut you off in a heartbeat. For us to be around for over a decade, and still have fans fiendin’ for another album is incredible.

Noreaga: The new album is titled Channel 10 which used to be the channel for CNN News in Queens and we’ve been incorporating the name since the War Report days. The original title was going to be Report the War, but we wanted a fresh name and we wanted to venture out and not do all War Report  type things. And the more we recorded, the more we realized this isn’t Report the War. So Channel 10 really just took on it’s own identity. Report The War will be our next album.

AllHipHop.com: CNN’s been in the game since 96’, yall have been through several labels, beefs, bids in jail, almost everything. What have you learned about the music business and what label is Channel 10 being released on?
Noreaga: I got to see the whole business clear this time around by me being away from people, not drinking anymore, and not having a record on radio. Certain people that I thought were my friends stopped calling. But now that I’m back, the same people are calling again and it made me realize that saying is true, “You are only as good as your last hit.” I lived through it, some of your closet people will turn your back on you. I think sometimes we forget this our job, even though it may be the best job.

Capone:  The label is SMC, and they’re doing a great job on our project, we’ve been through several deals. Honestly, Tommy Boy was the best situation we’ve ever been in. At the time they were a major label and they had the capitol to really push us to our best potential and be the most productive. It ain’t about the label though, it’s about the people.

Nore: We not from the ringtone era! We ain’t here to sell ringtones

Capone:  We just got to continue to make the records and continue to be who we are.  No, matter how hot you are or how big you are, you can’t conform and give up who you are. That’s what we do and continue to stay as individuals and not follow trends.  With a label like SMC everybody there is hands on.

AllHipHop.com: Did y’all feel pressure to keep the music and formula the same and just make that classic Champion hoody and Timbs music. Or maybe change things for a bit more of a universal sound to appeal to younger fans?
Nore: I got on a Champion hoody and Timbs right now…

Capone: Ain’t no change for us, we didn’t come out making music like Jay, Nas, Mobb Deep or whoever. Fans respect us for being different. The Channel 10 album has music for everybody.

AllHipHop.com: What about autotune, should it die in ‘09 or continue to live?
Nore:  It’s living, I think everybody got their own way of using it. The reason why I like Ron Browz using autotune is because he’s using it in a New York way. Ron Browz is making it sound almost like Harlem, you just hear it coming out. I think it’s going to stick around. It’s been in reggaeton, but I don’t sound to good in autotune, so I’m careful with it.

AllHipHop.com: What were some of the biggest challenges in recording this album together after all this time?
Nore:  I think that we’re different people, but we’ll never change certain things about us. Sometimes he does things I just don’t understand and vice versa, but we still brothers ‘til the end.

Capone: It really wasn’t anything too challenging. We had arguments, but then we make records about it. From the day we agreed to do the album, we put our focus together to our advantage.  After all this time, we know what we don’t like about each other, and we still don’t like it but we are able to deal with it because our bond is there.

AllHipHop.com: Nore, you recently called out Vlad TV for stirring up the Ransom vs. Joe Budden Beef. Do you feel like these media outlets influence so called “Hip-Hop Beefs” and should held responsible if some kind of violence occurs?
Nore: Vlad is my dude and y’all seen me throw him under the bus. I still respect him, but I was serious when I said he instigated this beef again. And I agree that he is a journalist. I told him off camera that we just don’t need this right now. I’m so sick of seeing people on YouTube bustin’ guns and talking tough. I’m from an era where we didn’t do none of that. With us you heard about our beefs like with Junior Mafia , it’s in the actual news, there’s newspaper clippings, you can Google it. Yet there isn’t one diss record from us against them. Not one!

Capone: I ain’t the most computer savy dude, and I ain’t all over the blogs, but I ain’t with putting all that negative s**t on there with the fake beefs.  I’m not on there to start controversy. You talk about me and it’s real beef. To tell you the truth, most of these dudes ain’t got felonies, records, and ain’t been through what I been through.

AllHipHop.com: This CNN album comes at a crucial time for New York Hip-Hop. I’d hate to say NY went somewhere, but NY’s definitely in need to get back to its roots, which CNN is a big part of. Is there pressure…
Capone: The only reason there’s some pressure is because we ain’t dropped a group album since 2000. But we still work like new artists, and we still wanted by the fans like new artists. We don’t have to drop a new album every year, other groups do.

Nore: I don’t want people to get confused with the first single “Rotate” because it sounds more radio ready. But with the first two CNN albums, I don’t think we’ve ever had big radio records. And “Rotate” is getting 500,000 spins. And people killed us for the record with the Shawty Lo. But I was fiendin’ for us have a party rocker together. I just love to perform and get people hype. And “Rotate” that was the last record added to the album for that reason. The whole rest of the album is champion hoodie music and all that s**t.

AllHipHop.com: A lot of New York crews have crumbled. How important is CNN to the New York rap scene and what do you think keeps fans drawn to you?
Capone: We didn’t team up with any big names. We one of the few left who ain’t got a Jay-Z, or a 50 Cent backing them. It’s still just Capone and Noreaga, we still here off our own merit. Even when we were first coming into the game it was just us two. There’s only about five rap artists selling platinum. So I don’t care about record sales. I wouldn’t want to be in a predicament where I owe somebody. We are  our own bosses.

Nore: One of the most powerful things in life is something called belief. Our fans really believe in us. I remember a fan sent me some footage of a guy and his crew was called thugged out too and this dude got married to my music. He and his wife walked out to “what what what what.” And now I’m so embarrased by it because this dude believed in me so much that he thought I would get married to my own music too. Wrong! I got married to slow jams! And I hate slow jams! (laughs)

AllHipHop.com: Nore, you gave AllHipHop your Top 5 Dead or Alive late last year, but Capone who are your top 5?
Capone: Raekwon, Rakim, Slick Rick, I might get shot for this right here. Can I get six? I need six man. Biggie and Pac…and Kanye West. I might get shot for that, man. But I like the dude.

Nore: And in my new top five I’m still including Lil Wayne and I’m adding Tim Dogg, that’s for all you f**kin’ bloggers!

AllHipHop.com: We recently spoke to Alchemist, and he mentioned how you were all in the studio together when you recorded “Bang Bang” with Foxy Brown. Was that a co-sign on the beef on CNN’s end?
Capone: Fox wrote her verse in the bathroom I remember…

Nore: The funny thing is we didn’t really know she was going to go at Kim… nah that would be lying. I knew she was going to say something about Kim, but she said worse s**t about her, like she went in before. But the version we used was the less disrespectful version. I knew the record was going to be a problem because “Quiet Storm” had just come out and this was like her rebuttal to Kim’s verse. Mobb Deep didn’t take no disrespect to it and we didn’t take no disrespect to it. We all thought that Kim was going at Charlie Baltimore. And to this day there isn’t a video to “Bang Bang.”  So we’ll leave it at that.

AllHipHop.com: Y’all are two guys that actually knew BIggie when he was alive, and certainly repped with B.I.G. when  LA and New York were at odds. With the Notorious movie about to drop, can y’all share any of your earliest Biggie memories?
Nore: I remember right after we recorded “LA LA,” I told B.I.G., “Yo, we just went at them n****s, we went at them hard!. And he told me, “No!” It was like the exact opposite of what he wanted. It was like if you were in school saying I did all my homework, and the teacher says, “You should of just did half!” When Big said that s**t, it f**ked me up.  We were always the ones cheering and screaming “East coast!” And as a fan I was tired of the disrespect that New York was getting and that B.IG. was getting because he always held us down. So when I told him we went at them, he was like, “Nah don’t do it.” “LA LA” was just a mixtape record, it had no intentions of being a leaked record. It was for Stretch Armstrong, a Bad Boy mixtape. And not only Did Stretch Armstrong tell Puff, “Nah I don’t want to use that record,” but DJ’s weren’t playing it.  Next thing I know 2Pac did an interview where he dissed Funkmaster Flex, and he said f**k it I’m breaking the record. I used to see B.I.G. all the time in The Tunnel and “Juicy” was my favorite song at the time, so every time I would see him you gotta spit a verse for me like a groupie. (laughs)

Capone: We was in North Carolina and Nas, Mobb Deep, Biggie and Keith Murray had a show, before I even got a deal and before anyone knew that I rapped. This was the same show that sparked the Mobb Deep vs. Murray Beef. So we all at the hotel chilling in one room, and we look out outside across te balcony. On his balcony B.I.G. was in his boxers dancing, rocking out. He was just a big funny dude, a real prankster. B.I.G. just had so much charisma. And we got kicked out the hotel that night.

AllHipHop.com: Capone, he actually wanted to sign you back than right?
Capone: I waited for B.I.G. outside Hot 97 one night, and he came out I ran up to him like, “Yo Big, Yo Big. You gotta hear me spit.” His mans was reaching and all of that. But I was just like all I want to do is spit for you, so I did and he went absolutely crazy, just wiling out

Nore: Tragedy was hatin!

Capone: (laughs) Trag was hatin, I remember he was with Cease and D-Roc, and D-Roc was standing there in goon mode. And I’m thinking he bulls**tting and I ain’t never going to see B.I.G. again. But he took my number down and everything. At that same show in North Carolina, we are were all chilling and B.I.G. goes to Nas like, “You know this dude from Queensbridge, Capone?, he could rhyme.” Nas was like, “Nah I only know one Capone from Queensbridge and he bust his gun and all that.” Than Biggie turns around like, “Oh s**t, it’s you,” and started going crazy. This was before everything.

AllHipHop.com: Is there a CNN & Biggie track somewhere in the vault?
Nore: Biggie was supposed to be on “T.O.N.Y.’s” remix. I remembered B.I.G. called me one day, and he had “T.O.N.Y.” playing in the background and I was like, “How the f**k you get the record.” And he was like, “Son I’m going to body this verse, body it.” I didn’t even care about the verse at that moment, but I wanted to know how he got the record. But the same producer [Nashiem Myrick] who did “Who Shot Ya?” did “TONY.” Unfortunately though, he didn’t live long enough to record his verse.

[UKnowWhatItIs: welcome to my traps....game over]

Great interview, good looking.