TSS Presents Smoking Session with Cormega (Part II)

"Smoking Sessions With..."    By Drew Ricketts on September 14, 2007 at 12:28 pm

Continuing from Part I, the conversation between Drew Ricketts & QB legend Cormega moves forward…

Part II

TSS: Your role as the underdog has been motivating you for some time. Now that the rap game has changed and people are scrambling for sales and it’s not the “glass half-full” anymore…do you feel you’re at an advantage because you’ve been selling independently for so long?

Mega: I don’t know. I think I’m at an advantage but right now it’s like – if I gotta be realistic with myself – I have to make a superior dope album. I have to make a dope, no-excuses album right now because, honestly, I didn’t put out a solo album in [around] five years. I mean, in between that time, I put out the Legal Hustle compilation album and I put out The Testament again, which was old so my fans didn’t grab it like it was a new album, and I did the album with Lake which was a Lake album. So as far as me, I have to really come out with a hardbody album, with no excuses. If I do everything the way I’m supposed to do it, I think I can have a successful project. Right now, I do feel like I’m at a slight advantage because I’ve been in the indie game for a while and I know the ups and downs of it. All it did was make me wiser. Right now I’m so sharp with the indie shit that I’m gonna have the best promotion and the best usage of marketing at my disposal because I know the game better and I have more a team behind me.

TSS: What kind of distribution offers have you been getting? Have the other labels jumped in and tried to help with your distribution efforts?

Mega: A lot of label hollered at me but at the end of the day — a lot of labels, I respect them but I would be a middle man. I been in the game for too long to be a middle man. The way I see it, I respect these labels. I spoke to the ABBs and um…put it like this, any independent label you could name, I could’ve done a deal with. It’s a numbers game. In the independent game, it’s numbers and it’s a talent thing. They respect my numbers and they respect my talent so why wouldn’t they wanna do business with me?

But the thing that makes me hesitant is if I come to do a deal with you, it’s going to be my company (Legal Hustle) slash your company slash the distributor. Because no record company in existence is a distribution company. You feel me? Right now, I’m not really trying to deal with — I’m good right now. I have my own situation. So when my material comes out, it’s Legal Hustle Music Group. I’m finally in the position where I don’t have to deal with no middle man. I don’t have to worry about nobody giving me my money. I don’t have to worry about the promotion et cetera et cetera, marketing et cetera. Everything is the way I need it to be. So anything I could do to help myself…all my power is in my hand right now. Like I said, I can’t have no excuses. All I can do is come with good product. I got the DVD coming out in October and I got the solo album coming after that. All I can do is come hard and hope for the best.

TSS: You were always one to make that comparison between the rap game and the hustle game, the crack game. A lot of rappers do it but you obviously have the credentials to back it up. What are some of the lessons you learned from that industry upon moving into the so-called “legitimate” industry?

Mega: The thing I learned from that industry is just the drive, man. I see people that hustle on the block. When the cops come, you don’t stop hustling…you fall back until they leave. Or you find new ways to get money because it’s hot out. That’s what I be telling people that rap, it’s a hustle. They’ll depend on another rapper to put them on and if somebody else don’t put them on, it’s like they give up. It’s like ‘where’s your drive? where’s your hustle?’ Hustle is a self-describing verb. Hustle’s an action word. Like if you a hustler, you can’t just say you’re a hustler. You have to show you a hustler. If you hustle, make moves. I look at the rap game like, yo b, you have people from the labels fronting on me. You have people that had problems with me blackballing me, black-listing me or whatever. I find other ways to get money. Y’all control the radio. You could tell the radio n*gga don’t play my music and you can tell this artist don’t fuck with me. But you can’t tell this n*gga in the street, don’t listen to Mega. You can’t tell this college student that just wants to hear pure hip-hop, don’t listen to Mega. You can’t tell this kid that’s into straight Queensbridge music and straight b-boy shit, don’t listen to Mega if I’m giving ‘em something that they want. That’s the way I do it, know what I’m saying? Supply and demand. Supply and demand.

That’s the thing I bring from the street to this. I go hard with this shit. Just like right now as I’m speaking to you, we’re editing the DVD in the final stages. When I was going in the street, we used to do sometimes what we’d call “breaking day” which would [mean] I might come outside around 10 in the morning. Here it is, it’s 2:51 on Thursday. I got on the same clothes I had on at 2:51 on Wednesday. I didn’t take a shower or nothing yet. All I did was brush my teeth and wash my face. I got on the same clothes [because] I’ve been in front of the editing screen all night. I’m not gonna front like I’m super…I fell asleep, woke back up and was back on it. All I’m doing is editing, editing, editing. It’s a grind. All I’m doing is grinding right now. I haven’t seen my family. I haven’t seen none of my friends. I don’t got a haircut. I’m grinding right now and that’s the same thing I used to do in the street. That’s the hustle mentality. If you’re the type of dude that depends on somebody to do something for you, you’re not a hustler, you’re a worker. There’s a difference.

TSS: What do you want people to see about you on this DVD? Because your career retrospective has to include a lot of that hustle and doing it on your own and finding ways to do it. Do you want people to see that work ethic? What else is included?

Mega: I mean, honestly, when people see the DVD I just want them to understand it and enjoy it. Whatever lesson you get from it, or whatever jewel you get from it, you’re gonna get from it. But my whole thing about the DVD was to show people the true me. Hearing people speak about me is flattering. Some of the stuff people say about me, it caught me off-guard. It humbled me because I’m never there. When people talk about me, I’m never there [in the interviews]. So when people talk about me, they can say what they want. When people say some thing about me, and it’s in a good light, that says a lot about me. In one of the quotes from my publicist, she was saying something about how I did a Great Adventures trip years ago and I did it for free and I took the whole community. And she was saying how I didn’t — she’s one of the best publicists in the game, period — and she was saying that I didn’t go to her to publicize it. I didn’t tell her about it. I didn’t have no camera crew. If you look at the DVD, everything it documented from 2001 to 2005, but when I did the Great Adventures trip, there’s no cameras there. There’s no documentation of that because I did that from the heart. I didn’t do that for the kudos. I didn’t do that for the publicity…I just did it from the heart.

So one of the things my publicist was saying was ‘these are the things you need to know about Cormega.’ Because people are always saying things about whatever verse or when I had differences with Nas; they always focus on that. But they never talk about how Cormega gives back to the community. So on the DVD you’ll see me going to the hospital to visit people that’s paralyzed. In New York City, there’s places like the Goldwater Foundation, which is one of the top places in America for rehabilitating people in wheelchairs or for paralyzed people. People between the ages of 18 and 45, the minorities between the ages of 18 and 45 that are paralyzed or in a wheelchair, are from gunshot wounds. I went to visit them because I know what that feels like. Because I’ve been shot before and I’ve shot people before so that could’ve been me in that wheelchair, you know what I’m saying? So on the DVD you’ll see stuff like that shown. You’ll see me going to see people in wheelchairs and how I affect their lives. Or you’ll see me in the community. Or you’ll see me in the studio. You’re just seeing other sides of me.

One thing you’ll see on there that I didn’t realize until I looked at the edit is that I got a sense of humor. I joke a lot with my friends. You’ll see me laughing. A lot rappers…you never see rappers laugh. It’s like everybody’s so tough they don’t laugh. They’ll sit their and watch a whole Martin or Dave Chappelle with an ice grill, with a hard face on. I laugh! If something’s funny, I’m gonna fuckin’ laugh…(laughs). I like to enjoy life so that’s one thing you’ll see. Mega is Mega. You’ll get to know me for me. And there are a lot of unanswered questions on here like I got a trailer out now that’s catching people off-guard ’cause you got a lot of people on there making comments. So it’s like ‘wow.’ You’ll get to know me a little bit better and get to make your own assumptions about me. That’s the dopest thing about it.

TSS: You mentioned the Nas thing and how you’re asked questions about it. Do you feel like you’ve come out from under that shadow by revealing more of yourself on the DVD?

Mega: I think so because the DVD doesn’t focus on Nas. It doesn’t focus on beef or no other rappers. It just is me. You’ll see me doing a show by myself getting standing ovations from the crowd. You’ll see me talking to my fans. You’ll see me doing in-stores…packed in-store. I’m an underground artist. Every underground artist doesn’t pack S.O.B.’s and clubs out here in New York…or have in-stores where it’s packed. My shits are packed. I’m not [just] saying it. You’ll see for yourself. You’ll see the respect I have from my community because Tragedy is on there, Poet is on there, Nature is on there, Marley Marl is on there, Screwball is on there, Godfather from Infamous Mobb is on there, you know what I’m saying? So you’re gonna see a lot of things. You got people that knew me from Far Rockaway talking; you got people that knew me from Co-op City talking; you got people that knew me from Brooklyn talking. You’ll see. I can honestly say this is one of the best shot documentaries to date.

TSS: I got goosebumps when I saw the video of the “Affirmative Action” reunion on stage…

Mega: Oh my God. Yo that’s one of the most used phrases I’ve heard about that performance.

TSS: I got chills.

Mega: Everybody says that.

TSS: What was going through your mind when that happened?

Mega: When I came out at that shit, I was scared as fuck because that was an all-Nas crowd. It wasn’t like it was announced “Cormega will be here.” You know what I’m saying? It was ALL Nas fans. So as far as I knew they could’ve been like ‘boo’ or whatever when I came out. I was nervous as hell. I’m not gonna tell you no lie. I already knew how we were going to come out. We had an idea how we were going to do it but at the last minute I didn’t know how. But then L.E.S. put me on point and they gave me the mic. And then Nas said ‘what up with Cormega?/did ya see him, are y’all together?’ so I just walked out. And I heard somebody go like ‘Ohhhh!’ not like appreciation but like shock. The first two seconds were like shock. Then the ovation was bananas. It fucked all of us up. Nas was fucked up. When we left the stage and went backstage, we were all fucked up. And it made us realized ‘damn, we fucked up’…all these years of beefing with each other, we stripped ourselves of something because we realized how much the world wants to see us together. I’ve seen the footage of the Jay-Z concert when Nas came out and I’ve seen the footage of the Nas concert when we reunited. You can’t even compare the two. You know what I’m saying? That right there is telling you what the crowd wants. And for years Nas fans have been writing me on my site like ‘nah I ain’t gon’ front I like your music and I like Nas…I wish y’all would squash the beef’ yada yada. So I guess when we did that, we fucked everybody up. It was unexpected and unannounced.

TSS: What do you think it is about rap that sometimes breeds that between people? Because it’s obviously not just between you and Nas, it’s between a lot of artists and a lot of other artists…do you think that’s youth? How do we get past that?

Mega: I think everybody’s situation is different. But I’ll tell you this, at the end of the day, you’re depriving the fans of what [you] do. You’re depriving the fans of what they need and what they want. You’re being selfish when you deprive the fans of what they want. Like Ghostface and Rae, I’m a fan! I been wanted them to do Cuban Links Two. But it’s like how long you gon’ wait before people are like ‘what the fuck?’ and it’s the same thing with The Firm or…I get mad people saying ‘when are you and Mobb Deep gonna do another joint?’ or Nas and Mobb Deep. I think Nas and Mobb Deep used to make some incredible records. When we have our differences, we don’t realize the effect we have not just on ourselves but on the hip-hop community. Because when we’re making songs together, the song is such a high standard that it makes our peers have to stand up to try to compete to that standard. When me and Nas had our differences, he was living his life and I was living my life. I was doing my thing as an independent artist and every year I gained more notoriety, I gained more respect. Whereas, some media people was like Mega was just some n*gga who was down with The Firm [but] wasn’t in The Firm. You had some people that was like ‘he’s just a mixtape rapper’ when I was appearing on mixtapes. Then I came out with The Realness and some people were talking about that was his first album, all he was talking about was the streets. Then I came out with True Meaning, and I had songs talking about social issues. Then I got an award and people gave the respect to me. I worked my angle and he worked his angle. It’s not like I’m picking him up or he’s picking me up. I think it’s like we’re two strong people in our field and the fans really respect that and they appreciate what we do. So for us to do something is what they’re really craving for right now.

TSS: I think in some ways you learned from that because you’ve done — like you said — collaborations with a host of artists including Little Brother, who’s now popular on the independent scene for this time…Are there any artist who you’d still like to do work with that you haven’t yet?

Mega: Scarface…number one artist I wanna work with is Scarface…Slick Rick…umm, who else? Scarface and Slick Rick are my number one and two people I wanna do songs with. I wouldn’t mind doing a song with Lauryn Hill. Everybody’s always trying to put her down right now but at the end of the day we gotta start respecting — see, as black people, the thing I don’t like about black people is they like to build you up just to pull you apart. It’s like we make a toy and it’s like ‘aight, let’s break the fucking toy down’. You hear more black people shitting on Lauryn than any other people. And she’s one of us. So why are we doing that? If she’s going through whatever she’s going through, let her live her life. She is the same person who made “Killing Me Softly” and had everybody singing it. She’s the same person that helped sell 14 million records before and a lot of you went out there and bought it. We gotta start showing more respect for our own. Just like Whitney Houston…everybody wanna say all this stuff about Whitney. Let me tell you something, the day Whitney Houston don’t exist no more, she will be the last of a dying breed. So people better appreciate it while she’s here. Everybody go through their shit. Let her live her life, man. That’s still Whitney Houston. That’s still one of the best singers of ALL time. That’s still the standard for singing right now. Black people, we bring each other down man. That’s the thing that I notice lately and it’s repulsive to me how we don’t have no unity amongst ourselves.

Cormega’s Who I Am DVD with a bonus soundtrack is in stores 10.23.07. View the trailer here.

For more info, visit Cormega’s www.legalhustle.net.

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