Plus: Capone-N-Noreaga tune in to Channel 10; Raekwon is 'back on my grizzly.'
Artist: Capone-N-Noreaga
Representing: LeFrak and Queensbridge
Independent Album: Channel 10
411: No more saloons for Capone and Noreaga — the veteran rap duo spend their free time in NYC at the Fruits of Life juice bar. That's right, a juice bar. Nore is down 100 pounds from last summer, and he credits a bulk of his success to drinking healthy concoctions from the Harlem establishment.
"Harlem probably has the most history of our five boroughs," N.O.R.E. said. "If you trying to have fun and be healthy, Harlem has them all beat.
"Everybody is here for health reasons," Nore added about the juice bar, surrounded by friends such as the LOX's Styles P, who also frequents the spot. "There's nothing that's gonna make you gain weight in this spot. It's important for us obese black people that live in the 'hood to get out the 'hood to get ourselves together. At least if you take two hours out your day, you can come and get juiced up."
"You can get juiced up and eat something vegetarian here," 'Pone added. "They have the best supplements to get your body right."
Capone and Nore release their fourth LP, Channel 10, on Tuesday. The title was inspired by their cable dial: Channel 10 is CNN on Time Warner Cable in Queens.
"We got the War Report name from 'The World Report' on CNN," Nore explained of their classic debut. "But at the time, LeFrak [projects] and Queensbridge [projects] was at war. ... So we said, We'll name it The War Report."
"At that time, we was basically reporting the war," Capone said. "America was at war too. Desert Storm was then too. We had the Army fatigues and all that. We reported our war."
"Rotate." " 'Rotate' was the last record added on to the album because of the fact that it was leaked," Nore explained. "We was like, 'Instead of letting the record die' — because if I have a solo song out or 'Pone has a solo song out and the focus is C-N-N, the song will die — 'let's leave it for the C-N-N album.'
"Beyond performing it, we went to [clubs like] Susie Wong's, we went to Promenade, and they threw [the song] on," N.O. added. "People didn't know we was in the building, and they was going crazy. I was like, 'Damn.' It's very important for me to have a hit in my hometown. I've done hits in Puerto Rico, hits in Miami, I've done hits everywhere else, but it's important for C-N-N, for Nore, to have a hit in New York."
» "Wobble Wobble" (featuring Mobb Deep). "The title sometimes throws people off," Capone said. "But once they press play on their CD, they're gone. It's not no shaky joint. We're not wobbling; it's hard. We got Prodigy at his best, Havoc at his best. And we got Hav on production. Mobb Deep are real workers. Hav may have 150 beats in the archive. You just go and say, 'I need that, I need this.' ... Just like when I was locked up and Nore would do songs with people and have one of my unreleased verses, Hav had a verse P didn't use yet."
"It's the first time C-N-N ever did a record with just C-N-N and Mobb Deep," Nore added. "It's always been Tragedy on the record or Rapper Noyd or Final Chapter. I just thought it was time we did the record with just us four."
» "Talk to Me Big Time." "Nore came up with that concept," Capone said. "What's dope about it, is when you hollering at your dude and he's saying something good, you say, 'Talk to me.' And your guy says, 'Big time!' "
"I love to incorporate any type of slang in our music," Nore said. "For the record, I hate the phrase 'What it do?' No disrespect to whoever made it. But if you really think about it, you're like, 'What does it mean?' That never stuck with me. But if you hear somebody saying something good, you're like, 'Talk to me.' That's what my peoples in New York say."
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