Capone-N-Noreaga Channel 10

Posted on 03.17.2009

Capone -N-Noreaga
Album : Channel 10
Release Date : March 17, 2009

review :
Capone-N-Noreaga led the way for New York’s resurgence in the mid-’90s. After two classic Gold albums, the duo reunites to finish what they started. With production by DJ Premier, Alchemist, Ron Browz, Havoc of Mobb Deep and others, CNN couldn’t sound any better.

The creators of legendary anthems like ‘Illegal Life’, ‘Bloody Money’ and ‘T.O.N.Y’ finally get the chance to make a whole record together. Without mentor Tragedy on deck, will this be more like The Reunion than The War Report ?

‘Intro’

Here we get to remember all the classic shit they did in the 90s. Prepare for it all to go downhill from here. It’s gotta be tough for dudes like CNN and Raekwon to forever live in the shadow of near-perfect debuts.

‘United We Stand’

Solid opening. Good beat (with the exception of that annoying ’swooosh !’ shit). Capone delivers as usual.

‘Rotate’ feat. Busta Rhymes & Ron Browz

The beat on this is pretty hard - Ron Browz on the AutoTune does his best to undo his good work with a horrible hook. Still a great ignorant club record though.

‘Talk To Me Big Time’

‘Epic’-style synth music is annoying. If you like ‘Hate Me Now’ you’ll…skip.

‘Bring It Here’

Is that a sample from The Warriors ? Prolly not.

‘Grand Royal’

DJ Premier track = good times. Shit is fire. But you know that already, right ?

‘The Argument’

Like I said last time, this is along the same lines of ‘Phone Time’ from the second LP, but this time ‘Pone is back in that free world. Entertaining.

‘Mirror’

CNN making a retrospective track ? Something’s wrong here.

‘Wobble’ feat. Mobb Deep

This comes off as well as you’d expect a song called ‘Wobble’ to be. Actually, it’s pretty good, especially when NORE says, “Her pussy is tighter than Kanye’s shirt”.

‘Channel 10’

*blank stare*

‘Beef’

Beat is a product of the 80’s. This isn’t as ignorant as I’d hoped.

‘My Life’

NORE sez : “You want surfboard/I want a jetski”. Piano-laced track for another ‘clash of the personalities’ style concept. Works for me.

‘Stick Up’

This is quality work. Great evil video-game/phone tone beat and superior crime-time topic.

‘My Hood’ feat. The Clipse, The Dogg Pound, Maino and Uncle Murda

Who the fuck wants to hear Daz and Kurrupt in 2009 ?

‘Follow The Dollar’

Alchemist on some demented shit. Why doesn’t the rest of the album sound like this ?

‘You See Me !!!!’

Remember when NORE used to make good/amusing hooks ? Yeah me too.

‘Addicted’

Good idea over an unoffensive piano track.

Conclusion : This is tough. On one hand, Capone and Noreaga are great on the mic on this album. On the other, the music is almost unbearably bad in some spots, but I didn’t find myself skipping anything the first go round on the strength of the raps. NORE is as bugged as ever, and Capone stay winning, so with a few remixes we could be onto a winner. Come to think of it, if this record had the Sid Roams beats that HNIC2 had, it would be effin’ classic. As it stands, it’s still worth a spin for ‘Stick Up’, ‘Grand Royal’, ‘My Life’ and ‘Follow The Dollar’.

Track listing

1. Intro
2. United We Stand
3. Rotate - Ron Browz, Busta Rhymes,
4. Talk to Me Big Time
5. Bring It Here
6. Grand Royal
7. Argument
8. Mirror
9. Wobble - Mobb Deep
10. Channel 10
11. Beef
12. My Life
13. Stick Up
14. My Hood - Clipse, , , Uncle Murda
15. Follow the Dollar
16. You See Me !!!!
17. Addicted