Cormega, The Testament Full Album Zip
Kanisha Dezarn
The Testament is the third studio album by Queensbridge rapper Cormega. The album was originally recorded as Cormega's debut album in the mid-1990s, and scheduled for a release on Def Jam, but was eventually shelved. Cormega, after many years, was finally able to obtain the masters to the album, and released it on his own Legal Hustle imprint in 2005.
1980s
He was featured on Hot Day's "Going Straight Up" from his album "It's My Turn". He was also featured on Blaq Poet & DJ Hot Day's track "Set It Off" from their album "Without Warning" in 1991.
Cormega was released from prison on appeal after serving almost 4 years in New York's Mid-State Correctional Facility. Following his release in 1995, Cormega became determined to pursue rapping. Nas included him on a song entitled "Affirmative Action" for his second album It Was Written. The song also featured AZ and Foxy Brown, and became The Firm's first appearance. Based on his performance, he was signed to Def Jam and recorded an album called The Testament. Based on the buzz from "Affirmative Action," Nas, his manager Steve Stoute and producers Dr. Dre and Trackmasters joined to produce The Firm. Cormega was replaced with another artist, Nature, because either he would not sign a contract with Stoute or Stoute felt Nature was a better rapper. This led to an alleged altercation between Cormega and Nature. Cormega's dispute with Stoute also ended his friendship with Nas. Following the end of his membership in The Firm, Alex Trojano contributed in producing his album The Testament. Meanwhile, following a falling-out over creative differences with his manager Chris Lighty and Def-Jam imprint Violator Records, his debut album The Testament was indefinitely shelved. During the recording for The Testament Cormega responded to Nas' "One Love" in the form of a letter also entitled "One Love".
2000s
In 2000, he was released from his contract and he started his own record company, Legal Hustle Records. Cormega vented his disappointment with Nas and The Firm in a mixtape song titled "Never Personal".This song was never directly pointed to Nas, but the media made it look like that. In 2001, he released his new debut album, The Realness, which was acclaimed by critics. Many of the songs share a theme of betrayal. Nas responded to Cormega on his song "Destroy and Rebuild" from his album Stillmatic. Cormega retaliated with more mixtape tracks, "A Slick Response" and "Realmatic". Nas revisited the Cormega beef in his song "The Cross" on the album God's Son. In reference to Cormega, Nas rapped "What I've discovered is my brother's tryin to be/The next me, yeah I support him but he's blinded I see/ Jealousy he love me to death and I'm buggin I love him for life/ We both still mournin on our mother's life" (referencing the fact that Cormega's mother was murdered when he was four).
Cormega's follow-up album, The True Meaning won the Source Magazine's prestigious Underground Album of the Year Award. In 2004, he followed up with Legal Hustle (a compilation album showcasing his label's artists) and other talented hip-hop lyricists such as Ghostface Killah, Large Professor, AZ, Kurupt, Jayo Felony, and several others. This album is considered by some as more of a project than an actual solo album; nonetheless it was well received. In 2005, he was able to release The Testament on his own label, which saw good reviews and sales and featured the original banned version of "Dead Man Walking" as a hidden track.
The feud was settled in Cormega's home in early December 2005, when Cormega and Nas realized that it was destructive for each of them. It is not known who was responsible for their meeting but both artists are now working alone. In the mid-2000s Cormega helped produce a few albums and was featured on several songs with The Jacka and the Mob Figaz.
An album collaboration with Lakey The Kid entitled My Brother's Keeper was released independently on August 22, 2006. On November 20, 2007, Cormega finally released his DVD in-the-making Who am I?. The DVD took over four years of filming of Cormega in all aspects of his life and what others thought of Cormega, unedited. The DVD was released as a soundtrack plus DVD. Cormega intended to release an album which was to be entitled Urban Legend before T.I.'s album of the same name was released (Cormega mentions this on the Who Am I DVD, dated circa 2003); the new title is Born and Raised. The album was released October 20, 2009. The first single is called "Journey."
Over the course of hip-hop history, there have been countless albums that got shelved. In some cases, an artist's work might be deemed too controversial for a record label to touch at the moment while in others, heavy bootlegging is the cause of an album's permanent delay. Some get released years later on a different record label, while others never make it out alive. Here's a list of Rap Albums and Mixtapes That Got Shelved Into Oblivion. May they all one day be reclaimed from the industry abyss.
Center of Attention would eventually be shelved by Elektra Records with the group soon disbanding afterward. However, the album would find an eventual home with minor alterations as part of a Pete Rock double-disc retrospective, Lost & Found: Hip Hop Underground Soul Classics, in 2003.
Raw, occasionally brutal, and definitely uncompromising, the album showed the trio at their best over one of the single best-produced albums of 2002, with Alchemist and Havoc producing most of it. If there was a grittier look into the streets of the forty-first side of twelfth street during this time, please show me what it was.
Much like Nas with Illmatic, Mobb Deep had the arduous task of repeating the same acclaim of The Infamous with their follow-up album, Hell On Earth. The result was an album many consider to be as good and in some cases better.
The true arrival of Havoc and Prodigy occurred with this classic album. Oozing of Queensbridge blood, Mobb Deep presented an aggressive, violent, and brooding album filled with what their world consisted of: guns, violence, drugs, and stick-ups.
I'm reading Prodigy's autobiography at the moment and looking into getting into some more Queensbridge rappers. Already a massive fan of Nas and Mobb Deep's Infamous album. Looking more so for tracks than albums from people like Cormega, Capone-n-Noreaga etc
Il s'agit en fait du premier album du rappeur, enregistré au milieu des années 1990 et prévu pour être publié chez Def Jam. Après plusieurs années d'attente, Cormega a récupéré les bandes originales et l'album est sorti sur le label Legal Hustle Records[1].
Mega does seem a little cocky, but after years of being knocked down and having to pick himself back up while trying to carve out his career, he loves not having to throw elbows for position anymore. And having an album with introspective tales and thug anthems like "Love In, Love Out," "I'm Built for This" and "True Meaning" has his chest puffed out a little bit more.
But the Mega song that has the most lips moving, "A Slick Response," isn't going to be on the album. The dis record that strikes back at Nas for "Destroy and Rebuild" (a song that Mega cites as the straw that broke the camel's back in their relationship) wasn't included because Mega didn't want to further fuel accusations that he's throwing stones at the throne of his fellow Queensbridge MC.
Mega's destiny seemed so simple after he appeared on Nas' second LP, It Was Written, on "Affirmative Action." The track featured Foxy Brown and AZ, and together the four would form the Firm, put out one of the most anticipated albums in rap history, and that would no doubt set up Mega's album like a no-look pass from Mike Bibby to Chris Webber, right?
Lol did cormega even have an album? Like nas said he got him a deal but his rhymes was trash..you expect nas to hold your hand you crybaby? Prodigy used to be my favorite but he aint been s**t since the infamous and havoc has been destroying him on tracks ever since..they just sounded jealous in this interview..
If you grew up in the 90s and listened to rap, you probably read The Source, Vibe, XXL, Blaze, Rap Pages, and many other hip-hop magazines. Seriously, ask yourself: did you learn more from studying calculus or listening to a Ghostface album on your Discman for an entire summer?
You will also find commentary on the most disappointing debut rap LPs (Unfortunately, my favorite rapper in eighth grade Canibus made the top of the list. Second was The Firm\u2019s self-titled 1997 album, which just happened to be one of the first CDs I ever owned), notable rap albums that were never released (shoutout Cormega\u2019s Testament), and rap movie soundtracks that don\u2019t suck (Soul in the Hole is my personal pick because it features one of my favorite non-album Wu-Tang songs).
I honestly can\u2019t remember a book I\u2019ve revisited more over the past two decades. It\u2019s impossible to pick up \u201CBook of Rap Lists\u201D and not find yourself down a 15-minute rabbit hole every time. For \u201CCover Story,\u201D I referenced the book (and specifically a list titled \u201C5 Things Pen & Pixel Will Not Put On An Album Cover\u201D) for an interview I did with Pen & Pixel co-founder Shawn Brauch, who designed a 2018 SLAM cover featuring Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins. The cover might have confused a new generation of fans who didn\u2019t grow up worshipping album cover designs like Big Bear\u2019s Doin Thangs. It was a nostalgic trip down memory lane for anyone who did grow up in the 90s and can mentally catalog every single No Limit Records release by their album cover.