Fresh off their European tour, Queens rap duo Capone-N-Noreaga [click to read] spoke to HipHopDX late Thursday (February 26) to discuss their forthcoming junior effort, Channel 10 (due March 17), the disc’s classic CNN sound, soon-to-follow solo albums, and why Fatburger loves Nore.
While speaking with DX, Nore revealed that his arrest last week for an alleged assault on a fellow patron inside a Fatburger in Miami [click to read] was merely a misunderstanding, and that the fast food chain is not angry at the rapper for the incident he allegedly participated in on their premises and the subsequent nationwide media coverage regarding it.
“I just got the call from Fatburger,” Noreaga noted. “And they’re actually thinking about naming their veggie burger ‘The N.O.R.E. Burger,’ ‘cause I’ve given ‘em so much publicity.”
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“After they watched the cameras, they really see that I didn’t do nothing,” he continued. “A couple of people that was with me did something, but I can’t be guilty by association for trying to eat… It’s a blessing that I know the owners. And the owners called me up and they said they saw the footage, they with me. They can’t understand what this guy is saying, but they understood that he was chastising me ‘cause of his mannerisms. Woo! Did I just use a big word?”
While Nore insisted he is innocent of any wrongdoing, he is still facing the legal consequences for the two misdemeanor charges (including one for battery) that have been filed against him.
“Man listen, I caught attempt murder charges, I’ve caught all types of charges,” Nore’s partner-in-rhyme Capone replied when asked for his thoughts on his friend’s arrest. “Nore catching a battery charge, it’s nothing! I been to [jail in 2001 in]
Dade County, I know what Nore’s seeing, [and] it’s nothing! You gotta wear a gas mask in Dade County, dog, ‘cause it’s that foul. Like, the C.O.’s got TB. They don’t even test the inmates, they test the C.O.’s for TB. It’s that real in Dade County, so I know what he went through. But at the end of the day, we both been locked up for real shit. So this is good for us because it shows we’re still human, man. We still make mistakes. We still correct our mistakes, and we learn from ‘em. So, Nore did what he did – allegedly – but at the end of the day we learn from it and we move on.”
Currently, CNN are turning their attention away from (alleged) fights in Fatburger and towards promoting their long-awaited new group album.
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“It’s a grimey, gutta, hood classic,” declared Nore of Channel 10. “Let’s be clear, ‘Rotate’ [click to watch] is a banger guaranteed, but that doesn’t define [this album],” added ‘Pone of the disc’s Auto-Tune accentuated lead single. “We did that because CNN never had a big club record.”
Featuring standout street bangers “United We Stand,” “You See Me!!!,” “Bring It Here,” and the Alchemist produced “Follow The Dollar” [click to listen], CNN’s latest full-length broadcast is indeed a live-from-the-street report similar to the duo’s last, 2000’s The Reunion.
And upon first listen, the most newsworthy moment from Channel 10 for longtime listeners of the hood journalists’ reporting comes courtesy of the DJ Premier produced “Grand Royal” [click to listen].
“Primo and CNN is like a marriage,” said ‘Pone. “If they woulda asked us in the beginning of our career who we wanted to work with, we woulda said Premier! And then when we finally worked with Premier, we made history with him. So working with him again, it’s like rewriting history. Barack Obama’s the new black president, it’s like CNN working with Primo: It’s history, man!”
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The title “Grand Royal” was chosen for the track by Primo, inspired by a Nore line from his last CNN production, “Invincible.” And also paying homage to Nore’s past work is Nore himself via the title of his next solo project, S.O.R.E.(Still On the Run Eating), a follow-up of sorts to his 1998 solo debut, N.O.R.E. Having first announced the album here at HipHopDX in December [click to read], Nore revealed to DX on Thursday that the album should see a summer release, and will as previously promised boast cameos from a wide range of collaborators, including Kid Cudi, will.i.am, Swizz Beatz, Ron Browz, and a planned reunion with the man responsible for some of his biggest solo songs, Pharrell.
Not to be outdone by his p-n-c, Capone is working on his third solo effort, the follow-up to 2005’s Pain, Time & Glory and 2006’s Menace 2 Society.
“It’s called ‘R.I.P. (Revenge Is a Promise)’,”‘Pone revealed of his next project. “Like I told the people, I was gonna get right back. It’s been a minute, but revenge is a promise, you kill one of mine, I kill two of yours. And I don’t mean it in a bad way, I mean…I’m coming back baby for revenge. And I’m gonna attack the muthafuckin’ airwaves like I wanna kill something.”
Both Nore and Capone’s next solos should be distributed by the same label that is releasing their new group outing, as the Queens duo have followed in the footsteps of Killer Mike, Rakim and many other established artists and partnered with Bay Area-based label SMC Recordings, which Noreaga noted to DX, “Gave us the opportunity to own our own masters.”
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And following their respective solo projects, expect the guys to get right back to recording as a unit.
“We wanna go back in and make another album immediately,” said Nore. “We going in to record…where we don’t give a fuck about radio, we don’t give a fuck about nothing, we just going in to do ‘The War Report Pt. 2.’ It’s called ‘Report The War.’”
Capone-N-Noreaga have clearly put any past differences between the two, as detailed in “The Argument” [click to watch], aside and are firmly focused on the future of their partnership. as ‘Pone explained, “Nore got a solo album, but he don’t give a fuck about it. I got a solo album, [but] I don’t give a fuck about it. Right now we [on our] CNN grind… This is the foundation.”
Channel 10 is due in stores March 17 from SMC Recordings.
