Spittin with NOREAGA

[Crenshaw_blvd]

from www.allhiphop.com
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The only lyricist who could make “whut whut” a phrase to be reckoned with, Noreaga is up to his old tricks--talking smack and re-inventing the English language along the way. By the way, it’s not Thugged Out Entertainment anymore, it’s Thugged Out Militainment.

For all of you taking notes at home, Noreaga’s partnership with Capone began at Collins Correctional Facility where Noreaga says they bonded the first moment they met. Capone-N-Noreaga’s debut album The War Report garnered a fair amount of fanfare (including Vibe casting it the “underground album of the year”) for its lyrical grit when it dropped in 1997. Before the album even dropped though Capone took a trip down memory lane, i.e. back to prison for parole violations. Meanwhile Noreaga kept it moving with his solo debut N.O.R.E. in ’98 and followed it up with Melvin Flynt - Da Hustler in ’99 which debuted at Billboard’s #9.

After Capone’s sentence, CNN stepped up with The Reunion, their last Tommy Boy effort. A couple of shootings later and some label hopping and Noreaga is freshened up with Grimey – God’s Favorite and has his grabbers fiending for that platinum plaque. (Meanwhile Capone is working on his solo debut due out next year which luckily hasn’t been hampered by his two recent arrests including last month’s drug charges.)

The man sometimes called Jésus because of his metaphorical wordsmithing, shot the shit over the phone and dot commed the fuck out of Allhiphop. Yeah, figure that one out.

Allhiphop: How’s everything?

Noreaga: Everything’s cool man. We’re excited, we’re hyped. We’re very relaxed about our new label [Def Jam].

I know you haven’t been happy with [former label] Tommy Boy.

No, Tommy Boy sucks.

Well, then I’m glad you’re on Def Jam now.

Yeah I’m glad that you’re glad I’m on Def Jam.

I know that you’ve said that Melvin Flynt was sort of a half-assed album, on the The Reunion you say that, why do you think it’s lacking?

A lot of people come up to me and they give me a lot of problems [about that statement] because in particularly that’s their favorite album. But I’m saying I wasn’t in the right frame of mind for that. And I can nowadays put it on and listen to it and laugh, but at the time I was making it it was real rough. Like when you hear this one [Grimey - God’s Favorite], you can hear that I fully got back to my creativity. Will you hold on just one second, I just wanna finish rolling my blunt?

Sure.

(Background laughter) I figured I’d tell the truth, you know? I’m not gonna say “Hold on I’m gonna blow my nose.” That’s not me.

(Laughter). I respect the honesty. Like I’m gonna be honest with you and tell you I was dancing in my livingroom just now to Melvin Flynt.

You go girl! That makes me smile.

I know you use, “off the yerzabulb” and other phrases that you’ve brought into usage-

Oh, we’re gonna be coming out with the “Nore Dictionary,” the “Nore-nary”.

Oh, great. When?

The Nore-a-nary, it’s gonna be a dictionary we’re gonna put on the website. Na sa mean ya heard? or beeyerzabulb, or keep the jump off jumped off, in the jump off around the corner from the jump off, you underdig what I underdug? (To someone in background) You done with this patty? No I don’t eat beef, I just want the ashtray.

Are you a vegetarian?

Nah, I’m not a vegetarian, I’m a chicken-arian.

Ok.

I just , me in particularly, when I eat beef I tend to feel stressed out so I don’t eat red meat.

Are you really in touch with how things affect you, like in your environment and everything?

Yeah of course, I’m into that. A great friend of mine died the other day. And we came off tour and went straight to the hospital to see him and then went to his funeral. I gave a little speech, got the whole hood drunk. I’m not proud of his death, but I’m proud of my hood in particular, Lefrak City Queens, everybody got together and settled they little--people that be bickering and quarreling over the littlest minute situations--stood together as one, as one community. And I was real proud of that day.

That must be pretty hard for you right now.

Yeah, it’s real hard. And they wanted me to get up and talk and I’m used to getting up and performing in front of people [that] I don’t know, but this wasn’t a performance, I just got up and talked. I was kind of nervous but I just did what I do onstage, I was myself.

What kind of spiritual beliefs do you have?

First and foremost, I believe in a higher power. I don’t know what to call it or what, but I believe in a higher power. But other than that I just really believe in myself.

I’ve heard that you’re a bit of a ball player, is that true?

Yeah, I love to play ball. I actually bust a lot of my friend’s asses playing ball. A lot of people really can’t fuck with me. The only rapper who has ever busted my ass in ball, I’ll give it up to him is probably Cam’ron. Cam’ron is real good, but I’m gonna get him this summer.

Who can you take out?

There’s a lot of people who can’t fuck with me. Dame Dash, Ja Rule. But Ja Rule be on my team, let me take him away, he’s usually on my team. Capone he can’t fuck with me at all.

I’m not gonna name any particular artist’s name, but I was playing ball with him one time and he SUCKS! And his friends was like “Good play” and “Yeah good shot” and he sucks and to me they’re not your friends. When I play ping pong and I play spades and I play fucking basketball, my friends treat me like a fucking regular person, they don’t sit there and say “Well let him get this hand”! If you’re gonna play ball man, make sure you play with somebody who fucking cares about you! ‘Cause a person who doesn’t care about you and tells you you’re a good ball player and you go to MTV jock jams and you look like fucking SHIT out there, you need to blame your fucking friends and shit, you know what I’m saying? You wanna enter a tournament because you’re a fucking platinum artist, but you fucking suck!

Man, I wanna get high with you, you’re fucking funny.

I’m getting high right now, man, it’s funny you would say that.

Has bootlegging affected this or any of your albums?

No, but I do hear some DJ has my next single and is gonna put it on a mixtape. He’s gonna be dot commed.

Dot commed?

This doesn’t happen with no other music. Like have you ever heard of a Luther Vandross album on bootleg? You know, a Freddie Jackson bootleg, a Marvin Gaye bootleg?

I mean, in a way hip hop’s always been about the first person to have something, so like it’s got high stakes because of that.

Yeah. You talk about your family a lot. I know your father passed away, and you’ve talked about your mother in the past, are you pretty close with your family?

I’m real close to my mother, my mother is definitely a friend of mine. I’ve got a song on the album called “Love your moms,” and um, it was funny ‘cause I never told my mother I made this song. I made it to let the world know that I love [her] you know, but I didn’t do it to get any more individual props from my mother. But I was driving my mother to the mall the other day and the song came on and she just burst out crying. It was joy tears but you know, things that I’ve been saying to her on a one on one basis I am saying to the world. And she was real proud about that. It’s a 100% true song.

What don’t people understand about you?

There’s a lot of bad press surrounding CNN [Capone-N-Noreaga]. One rumor I would like to straighten up it’s that CNN will never break up and that Capone is definitely not a troublemaker. A lot of entertainers period are victims of media. The same tool that is used to build us is the same tool that is used to destroy us.

What’s your daily contact like with Capone?

Me and Capone is like brothers. We bonded from the minute we met each other. We’re the type of people, we don’t have to be together everyday, and at the same time, we’re two different people. We just recently went on a small promo tour and we bonded again like how we used to and it’s just beautiful because you think you can’t learn anything else about [someone] but you can constantly learn about them. And that keeps us together. We’re more than friends and business partners. My 2 kids are literally from Capone’s first cousin. We are what we claim to be: we’re family

[HNIC]

nore is just too cool