I had been waiting in the lobby of the W hotel with one of our unpaid interns for half an hour when Capone-N-Noreaga walked out an elevator and sat down by the bar. They had with them a strange bottle of a drink they called Tiger Bone. Before the interview could start, Capone asked a waiter for two more shot glasses so that we could take shots. Not being much of a drinker, I declined. Capone insisted.
Curious, I looked at the bottle’s label, which did not put me at ease. There were no nutrition facts; rather, it was mostly in Chinese and read, “A traditional Chinese herbal formula used in the orient for thousands of years. Recommended usage: take 2 teaspoons (approx. 10 ML) twice daily.” The label also cautioned that Tiger Bone is 130 proof and that “it should not be used by pregnant women.”
Seeing no way out, I reluctantly took a shot. I slammed down the glass halfway through coughing and pounding my chest. When I could breathe again, all I could bring myself to say was, “What the fuck is Tiger Bone?” Capone answered, “It’s real.”
And that’s the best way to describe CNN. For better or worse, they’re “real.”
ML: What’s poppin in Queens in 2009?
Capone: Everything.
Nore: Same thing that was poppin in Queens in ’96.
ML: Who’s hot?
Capone: Everything in Queens is still the same. You still got the same beefs, still got the same whores, still got the same crackheads. But you got Capone and Nore back together so that’s the only thing different. But a new album.
ML: Channel 10 has been called your comeback album. What would you say is your goal with the album?
Nore: Just for people to listen to it high volume and love it.
ML: Just to put CNN in the streets again, right.
Capone: Yeah, we’re not really giving a fuck about radio and video right now. We are, but at the end of the day, we want to give the people that made us back. And that’s the street. And right now they holdin’ us down. They held us down for ten years. So at the end of the day you gotta appreciate that we giving back to them. ‘Cause they didn’t play CNN videos. You never seen mad CNN videos, or CNN all over the radio. So we’re not geared toward commercial records. We’re geared toward getting back to our core.
ML: I’m gonna call you out on the commercial thing.
Capone: OK, go ahead, call me out baby. You gotta take a shot though when you call me out so we play fair.
ML: The Ron Browz record — isn’t that a commercial record?
Capone: Music today — they censor music so much that you have to make the thuggest record commercial to some extent. To get your albums in certain stores, your shit gotta be squeaky clean, because that’s just where music is at right now. If you look at Ron Browz, he’s not on nobody’s record that’s not a gangsta. It’s not like he’s on a Ne-Yo record, it’s not like he’s on a Chris Brown record and we’re doing a record with him. He’s on fuckin’ Jim Jones’ record, he’s on Busta Rhymes’ record, he’s on CNN record, Fat Joe. So you look at all these people who record he on-
Nore: Nobody soft.
Capone: That shit is hard
Nore: Nobody wears bowties there. Read the rest of this entry »
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