CORMEGA INTERVIEW
What brought you into hip-hop?
I think it was everything that drew everything to us. It’s magnetic. At the time when I was really getting into it, hip hop was at its pinnacle, you have guys like Rakim, Eric B, some of the dopest production, you have KRS One, Slick Rick, Big Daddy Kane, so I was magnetized to it. I was into everything that was hip hop; the entire culture. I was into things that surrounded hip-hop, that aren’t necessarily hip-hop, like graffiti, all that shit just attracted me.
Do you follow hip hop?
I love hip hop and I love the people that set the standards and pave the way for artists like myself. I respect the women of hip hop because they are under appreciated and don’t get the credit they deserve. There were so many of them, whether it’s Roxanne Shante, Latifah, Monnie Love, Salt and Pepa, Antoinette. Although they don’t get the love, there were a lot of them that put it out there for us.
Where did you mainly grown up?
I lived in Co-op city in the Bronx, in Far Rockaway, Queens, Brooklyn and then Queensbridge, I used to visit Queensbridge even when I didn’t live there, so I was able to absorb some of that Queensbridge mysticism or whatever is out there.
Do you believe there is a certain legacy you have to live up to having spent your formative years in Queensbridge?
I actually don’t feel any pressure, I don’t feel nothing. As far as music, I just feel the pressure to live to my own standards and to live up to my fans.
What are your standards for each release?
Just excellence. I just want people to feel it. I don’t try to go for sales because I am an independent artist. If I sell ten thousand or two hundred thousand records, I did good. I just want people to like my albums.
A lot of people associate you with Nas’s song One Love, him writing a letter to you. You actually blew up before then. Before then, can you tell us your steps to getting into the music industry?
Before One Love came out, before I went to jail, I was making an album with Marley Marl, and at that time, making an album with Marley Marl was a big deal, but I blew trial so I didn’t get the chance to finish that. He had Lords of the Underground and he had a deal for me so as soon as I came home, people heard “One Love”, but nobody really knew Cormega was a rapper, I was just another character in the song. I came home and started getting into mad mixtapes like Puff Daddy’s Bad Boy mixtapes.
So you go your deal with Violator and Def Jam and they let you sit for 5 years. Do you know why they let you sit for five years without releasing anything?
Man, if I knew the answer, I mean, I know just as much as you, one could say maybe that when The Firm album came out, I wasn’t on that, they didn’t know how to market me after that, or one could say, that somebody was just trying to punish me, because I see no sense in just having me sitting on the shelf.
The Testament, Def Jam slept on it, when you released it in 2005 did you worry about it sounding dated?
The Testament is a hard record. It’s not like True Meaning I was reaching. This album is a retro album; this is me in retrospect when I was younger. If you look at it, certain songs on that album are 10 years old. That album was really done a long time ago so it reflects how I was thinking then. There are no songs Martin Luther King will probably be on my back about (laughs). To me this is me at my rawest. Basically the album is raw. Dead Man Walking is on there, which is banned from Bible belt states in America. I never knew what a Bible belt state was until the label explained it to me like “you are banned in these states” they will not play this record because it’s too graphic. Dead Man Walking was the most graphic record that came out in the last ten years. I am talking about how I straight murder somebody, the whole song is about death and murder and it’s specific and graphic.
You then decide to go the independent route. At the time you were going that route, independents weren’t as big as they are now. Do you feel, there was a misconception towards independence, since not a lot of big artists go the independent route?
I heard one artist say that independent artists are those who can’t get a deal. That’s one misconception. A lot of other artists just don’t know how to hustle, it’s a lot of work for an independent artist, This isn’t your glamour life, so a lot of people aren’t willing to put the effort and a lot of people on the east coast have never been successful with indie stuff, that’s more a West coast thing and a South thing, so when I did that, I opened the door for a lot of dudes, I was the first artist in NY period in street rap doing indie, but now everybody is doing that.
How do you find the balance between the music and the business portion?
I am two different people because as far as the music goes, I love what I do and try to associate myself with the fans. With the business, I have to be more to the point cause its all work for me. Everyday, 24/7, I have to do these interviews, I have to make sure that all my music sounds good, cause I don’t want to put my trust in no A/R, I put my studio time, I allocate money, I ok everything, I wear a lot of shoes and a lot of hats.
Your current label is the Legal Hustle, what other artist do you have signed to that?
Currently, the female rapper Dona is on the Legal Hustle album. I signed her because she is dope. I mean, I am not running around looking for artists, it’s not like I am some big corporation or I am not company that’s looking for a lot of artists. If somebody approaches me and it’s the right situation then I will do it, but at the same time, I don’t want any of my artists to be neglected, have a lot of attention, the attention they deserve.
What’s your song writing process, do you already have a beat in your mind, or do you just write to the beat?
It’s different. Sometimes I write to the beat, but it really depends, I have a lot of different processes. I used to just write when I was in the mood, wake up at like 1 or 3 in the morning and just start writing with no beat, or have a beat in my head. There is no method to what I do; it’s like exercise.
What about production, is that something you have thought about getting into?
I am not trying to be Primo or anything, but I produce here and there. Certain times, there is just a particular sound that I am looking for and I know exactly how I want it. Nowadays, you have a lot of lazy producers, all they doing is looping, samples, and shit like that, so my philosophy is why should I pay you to loop a sample when I could do that my damn self. Now that I am doing that myself, a lot of producers have to come right to the table, cause if you aren’t doing anything right, then I am not fucking with you, cause simplistic production I could do that myself.
Now to someone who doesn’t know who Cormega is, what track would you tell them to listen to that best illustrates who you are as an MC?
I think a Beautiful Mind is a good song that illustrates what I am capable of as an artist, but I can’t really say what song I would tell them to listen to that would define me because there are different songs that capture me for different reasons. You got some people that love Fallen Soldiers, you got a lot of people that love that song cause they relate to it cause they lost a loved one, you got some girls that like All I Need Is You, and then you have your hip hop enthusiasts that like songs like American Beauty, and then you have people who just like me for when I was just kicking ghetto rock.
Do you have a favorite song?
Therapy is one of my favorite songs that I have ever done. I like the way it feels. I can listen to that song 10 times in a row, actually 4 times in a row right now. It’s just so dope. The melody, the way I was laying on it, everything.
Looking at yourself as an MC, have you seen growth as MC from when you started to now?
It’s funny, I don’t know if I see growth in myself as an MC, I see growth as an artist, because back in the day when I was mad young, battling niggas, I was very very ferocious. In Queensbridge my name is going down regardless, because there was a time when nobody wanted to battle me and you could quote me on that. I mean nobody! There were people that battled me but they got executed badly. I never lost a battle. I don’t know if the old Cormega can battle the new Cormega in a straight out battle. I can still do it, but I don’t know if I can do it as good as I used to. I know I can write songs better then I used to right now. Right now, my songs got depth so in that realm I am growing, and I am not one-dimensional. I see the world different, I am not on that NY shit. NY has a swag of arrogance about itself, like NY is better than everybody else, that’s why NY ain’t shining as far as rap, the other states are like fuck y’all niggas, now you got the South coming up, the West making noise, you got Chicago making noise. I am not the type of person, you can’t judge an artist based on how you would judge a NY artist, being like oh he’s wack. You can’t compare everybody. For example, Nelly gets a lot of heat but around where he lives, they love him, so he gives a reflection of St.Louis, so you can’t really look at a NY nigga and say Nelly is wack because you don’t reflect where he is representing, so that’s what I learned about the world. What I appreciate about myself now is that I am cultured as opposed to being one-dimensional. 
Do you know where your legacy is or do you know how you want to be remembered?
I don’t know. It’s like an athlete. Everybody wants to make it to the Hall of Fame so right now I am just trying to put up good numbers. Hopefully I will get there.
I know you collect a lot of shoes. Do you wear a majority of your shoes or do you just collect them for the sake of collecting?
I would wear all of them if I had the chance but I don’t get the chance to do that because I have too many.
Besides having all the Jordan’s, what are you looking for in shoes? Do you just want them to be different?
Sometimes, I will buy a shoe for its historical value, like shell toe Adidas, you have to have Suede Puma’s, Air Force One’s, Air Max ‘95, even though I like the original Air Max which I believe came out in ‘87. I also buy Converse, the Doctor J’s. I never liked them when I was a kid, but I like them now because they have historical value. I got all kind of sneakers.
What’s your favorite sneaker?
Suede Puma’s might be one of my favorites’ of all time.
What’s your favorite basketball team right now?
That’s hard. I like the Spurs, the Heat, Phoenix Suns, but I am a Knicks fan.
Anything we should look out for?
Look out for me.
EL FIN
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