The True Meaning picks up where Cormega's stellar debut, The Realness (2001), left off, showcasing earnest, heartfelt, and sometimes sharp-edged rhymes over gritty street-level beats. "Love in Love Out" -- where Cormega answers Nas' "Destroy & Rebuild" over a crackling sample of the beat from Isaac Hayes' "Your Love Is So Doggone Good" -- is sure to garner a lot of attention, but there's plenty more to The True Meaning than that one song. The streetwise title track is an obvious highlight, graced with a soulful Diana Ross sample for its hook. Other standouts include "The Come Up," a Large Professor production that includes a verse from the Main Source legend (the only guest rap on the entire album); "The Legacy," a stunning Alchemist production with a backward-looking lyric; and "Built for This," a tough rap with a great beat by J. Waxx Garfield, who is credited with three songs overall.Cormega stands tall as a fearless, confident rapper over the course of The True Meaning, calling himself "Queensbridge's most respected rapper" on "Ain't Gone Change," a show-stopping a cappella that sets up the title track perfectly. The True Meaning is an impressive album on many counts and is sure to please hip-hop purists as well as anyone who enjoys well-crafted, intelligent New York rap.
Cormega - The Testament (Feb 22, 2005)
Cormega's long-unreleased debut album, The Testament, finally got an official release in 2005 after nearly a decade of bootlegging. It's not quite the masterpiece it's been rumored to have been, but it's a great album nonetheless, especially for a debut -- a fascinating relic of the mid-'90s East Coast gangsta scene that spawned a number of classic debut albums, among them those of the Notorious B.I.G., Nas, Jay-Z, Mobb Deep, and Raekwon. The back-story goes like this: Cormega burst on the scene in 1996, when he guested on "Affirmative Action," a high-profile posse cut from Nas' sophomore album, It Was Written. He was fresh from prison, in a gangsta state of mind, and lyrically gifted. Def Jam brought him aboard quickly, and The Testament was the result, except it never saw the light of day, shelved for years until Cormega obtained the rights to the tapes and finally released the album on his own Legal Hustle label in 2005. Clocking in at a dozen songs in 40 minutes, the releasedTestament is unchanged from its original version. Cormega wanted it released as it had been intended, and the result is a raw, emotional work by a young man with a lot on his mind and blessed with the means of rapping it eloquently. The production is handled by an array of beatmakers, among them Nasheim Myrick, Sha Money, and Havoc, and the pervading aural mood is somber and foreboding, very much in step with the mid-'90s East Coast gangsta style, especially that of Mobb Deep. Though there aren't any particularly standout tracks here (perhaps why Def Jam balked), there isn't any filler either. Every track here is part of the bigger picture, exploring a different mood and telling a different tale, and guests are few and far between. Again, though The Testament isn't quite up there alongside the half-dozen or so masterpieces of its era, like Ready to Die or The Infamous, it's definitely up there -- one of the best mid-'90s gangsta albums, no doubt. Too bad it took so long to get the album released -- too bad for Cormega above all, for one senses that The Testament would have made a strong impression during its time, even if it wouldn't have been a big commercial hit (it lacks a pop edge -- again, not unlike Mobb Deep in particular). Heads would have loved it, for sure, as would have the streets, and thankfullyThe Testament can now get its due, albeit belatedly.
Cormega - Who Am I? (Oct 23, 2007)
Queensbridge representative Cormega presents WHO AM I?, the soundtrack to the documentary of the same name, which chronicles five years of the underground MC's career. WHO AM I? sees Mega Montana laying down more introspective street vignettes over expansive East Coast tracks. Mega recruits a slew of unlikely guest MCs, including Keak Da Sneak, Jacka, Yukmouth, Dwele, and Little Brother as well as New York affiliates such as Lil Fame of M.O.P., Styles P, Hell Rell, Agallah, and Tragedy Khadafi, among others. Replete with that mob-flick gangsta rap that Cormega does best, WHO AM I? is one of the tightest albums to come out of NY in 2007.
Cormega - Born and Raised (2009)
Born And Raised is the fourth studio album by the hip hop artist Cormega. It was released on October 20, 2009, after being pushed back several times; the album was originally to be titled Urban Legend but was changed to Born And Raised after rapper T.I. used the original title for his 2004 release. The album has been met with mostly positive reviews from both fans and critics so far.
The song "Fresh", featuring Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One, Grand Puba, PMD and DJ Red Alert was leaked onto the internet in the middle of 2008. This caused Cormega to replace the original version, produced by Emile, with a remix by Buckwild re-titled as "Mega Fresh X" for the retail album.
Compilations
Cormega - Hustler/Rapper (Feb 26, 2002)
Shortly after the release of Cormega's long-awaited debut album, The Realness, Body Shop Records issued this mixtape of previously released recordings by the Queensbridge rapper. If you don't mind wading through the hodgepodge of brief snippets and freestyle rhymes, there's some good stuff here, especially for fans.
Cormega - Legal Hustle (May 25, 2004)
Ever since Cormega made his debut splash in 1996 on "Affirmative Action" alongside his Queensbridge colleagues Nas, AZ, and Foxy Brown, the well-spoken rapper went through a lot of ups and downs. Legal Hustle, his third solo album, is certainly one of his high points. It dropped in the wake of two critically well-received albums -- The Realness (2001) andThe True Meaning (2002) -- and represents a step forward for Cormega. The increasingly enterprising rapper ropes in some backup help after handling his first two albums largely solo. Most notably, he introduces Doña, a Foxy Brown-without-the-bling MC who graces four tracks here, and he collaborates with a number of other rappers: M.O.P. ("Let It Go"), Tony Touch ("Hoody"), Ghostface ("Tony/Montana"), Kurupt and Jayo Felony ("Deep Blue Sea"), AZ("Redemption"), Large Professor ("Sugar Ray and Hearns"), and more. It's an impressive guest list and makes Legal Hustle largely a group effort. In fact, not counting the intro, there are only two solo tracks here -- very much contrary to past albums. And those two solo tracks happen to be standouts: "Beautiful Mind" kicks off the album with a touching self-production that wonderfully appropriates the piano riff from Marley Marl's classic "Make the Music With Your Mouth, Biz," while "Bring It Back" is a heartfelt hip-hop homage à la "American Beauty" from The Realness. These tracks, along with "Let It Go," "The Bond," and "Monster's Ball," are among Cormega's best to date. These standouts and the numerous guest appearances aside, Legal Hustle isn't nearly as solid as Cormega's past two albums. It feels thrown together at times because of the collaborative emphasis.
Yes Sir! Rapaholic™ is back! Its been a while that we didnt get in touched, so here we are! Coming with all new/old discogs. 2011 year opening with Cormega (Full discogs) - studio albums, compilations, collabirations* and mixtapes*.
*coming soon
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