I had never really explored his wider discography alongside Capone, often grouped under the mafioso rap umbrella when I did, though, my ears rejoiced.

His herky-jerky delivery over tight Neptunes production (shoutout to 'Superthug') had me hooked early. Noreaga has always been a personal favourite of mine. Rapping compadres Capone and Noreaga (later N.O.R.E) stook their claim for the hip-hop monarchy and, in doing so, helped solidify one of rap's most trailblazing, street-centric sub-genres. As a result, it was open season for the rap crown jewels. In 1997, Jäy-Z and Nas were one year removed from their debut and sophomore records and were not deemed legends (just yet). I say all of this to say, back in the era of Tower Records, $20 compact discs and BET's Rap City-musicians had to fight for airtime amongst their fandom. Lauryn Hill and Fugees became 'Cowboys', Outkast beamed down from space and taught humanity about ATLiens, and Tupac was being…well, Tupac. In 1996, the hip-hop scene and its viral smelling salts had the masses in an audio trance.

Has any partnership embodied hip-hop's essence more than Capone-N-Noreaga? Two dudes from Queensbridge who met each other while incarcerated took on infamous mobster/drug-lord stage names and produced one of the seminal albums in East Coast hip-hop history: The War Report.

Capone n noreaga the war report rare