Capone-N-Noreaga: The Reunion : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

When Capone-N-Noreaga dropped their 1997 debut, The War Report, they upped the ante on New York-centric thugcore hip-hop. But before the album's release, Capone was sentenced to a jail bid for violating parole, leaving Noreaga to hold down the fort as a solo artist with the well-received N.O.R.E., in 1998. Then, as he puts it, last year Noreaga "fucked up and made a half-ass album" -- the disappointing Melvin Flynt -- Da Hustler. If hip-hop's orthodoxy has chateaubriand-with-bearnaise aspirations, Capone-N-Noreaga's The Reunion is the four-wings-with-hot-sauce reality. "My soul is cuffed to the corner/Every gate, every card table, every 'Welcome to the Hood' sign," raps Capone on the bluesy "Queens," a nihilistic feast where such lyrics are matched by the jarring R&B refrain: "We keep guns on our sides/You know how them thugs do/'Cause I'll be there with my thugs/I'll be right here waiting on you." As MCs, CNN's greatest gift may be the ability to bring star performances out of their collaborators. On the riotous "Bang Bang" -- an interesting counterpoint to Mobb Deep's famously dark 1999 remix of "Quiet Storm" -- the hound is brought out of Foxy Brown, who throws a few choice words at Lil' Kim; Nas proves vengefully still-illmatic over the two-step bump of "B EZ." Left to their own devices, as they are on the DJ Premier-produced "Invincible," Nore can slip into non sequiturs like "bada-boom, bada-bing" while Capone's nasal threats can infringe too closely on Jay-Z's territory. But what CNN lack in structure and rhyme they make up in flow and personality; what is lost in insight is made up in veracity and verve. "I rob niggas like Crips at the Source Awards," raps Noreaga, "And everything that went down was cool with me/As long as I came back with my jewelry." Sometimes you don't need the most skills to be a classic MC. (RS 855)

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