Cappadonna Biography

Cappadonna Biography

He was well-known for his skills before the Clan formed, but only came to record with the group after a chance visit to RZA's Staten Island apartment-recording studio during the recording of Raekwon's album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx (see 1995 in music). Cappadonna visited the studio during the recording of the song "Ice Cream," and joked to RZA about him contributing a verse on it; however, RZA decided to take him seriously and allowed him to feature on the track. After appearing on "Ice Cream," he went on to appear on another Cuban Linx track, "Ice Water," and became a close affiliate of the Clan with several appearances on (and a co-starring credit on the front cover of) Ghostface Killah's Ironman album as well as several prominent appearances on the group's second album Wu-Tang Forever in 1997, most notably on the stand-out lead single "Triumph." However, his appearances are widely criticised for lacking flow, acceptable levels of lyricism, or sometimes even a coherent rhyming scheme. His verse on Ghostface Killah's "Buck 50" is often cited as an example of this.

Cappa's debut album The Pillage was released in early 1998, one of the first post-Forever releases from the Wu-Tang stable, and received mixed but generally positive reviews. When the next Wu-Tang group album, 2000's The W, arrived, Cappa seemed to have become an official member of the Clan; on Wu-Tang Forever his appearances were marked with "featuring Cappadonna" (as with other affiliates like Streetlife & Tekitha), but on The W Cappa's appearances were not marked in this way (whereas Street Life's remained designated as "featuring"). He also appeared with the original members in all the album's publicity shots and cover art, and was given equal billing in Sony Music’s press kit for the album.

His second album, The Yin & The Yang, was released in 2001. The lead single "Super Model," featuring Ghostface Killah, was moderately successful but the album was poorly received.