Three Years Is a Long Time to Wait for a Reunion

Here’s what matters this week, and why it belongs in the crate.

Capone-N-Noreaga, The Reunion

The War Report, released in 1997, was the kind of debut that makes a career. Then Capone was sentenced to prison shortly before the album even came out, and the follow-up Queens hip-hop was waiting for got put on hold for three real years. Noreaga kept things moving with two solo records in the meantime, but a genuine CNN reunion had to wait for Capone to actually come home.

The Reunion arrived in November 2000, via Noreaga’s own Thugged Out Entertainment and Tommy Boy Records, and it plays exactly like what it is: two artists who spent real time apart finding their way back to each other on record. Capone’s cold, clipped delivery still grounds Noreaga’s wild-eyed charisma the same way it always did. DJ Premier laces “Invincible.” The Alchemist builds the brooding, over-the-top “Bang Bang” around a real Foxy Brown feature. Havoc produces. Nas shows up. Mobb Deep shows up. This is New York rap’s actual architects surrounding two guys who’d earned the right to call in favors.

”Y’all Don’t Wanna,” the second single from The Reunion, restored in 4K by Tommy Boy. Capone and Noreaga back in the same frame after three years apart.

It’s not a flawless record. Critics at the time were split, and some called it uneven against the impossible bar The War Report set. But “Bang Bang,” “Invincible,” and “Queens Finest” hold up as real, hard-drummed proof the chemistry never actually left. Sometimes a reunion doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to be real.

In the Store

2xLP · Deluxe Edition · 2000

Capone-N-Noreaga, The Reunion

Three years apart, one album to prove the wait was worth it. Premier, Alchemist, and Havoc on the boards, pressed across two records.

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CD · Deluxe Edition · 2000

Capone-N-Noreaga, The Reunion

The same deluxe edition on CD, for the car and the crate alike.

Shop the CD

Three years apart. One album to prove the wait was worth it.

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