EXCLUSIVE: Cappadonna On “Eyrth, Wynd & Fyre” and Getting That Wu-Tang Feel Again

EXCLUSIVE: CAPPADONNA TALKS HIS NEW ALBUM AND REKINDLING THE WU-TANG CHEMISTRY

Cappadonna has had an interesting position when it comes to a career in Hip-Hop music. Always an affiliate, and eventually an official member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Cappadonna has had both a more outside and complete inside view of the Clan’s day-to-day relations.

Planning to drop his Eyrth, Wynd & Fyre album this coming February along with announcing the targeted release of his sequel to the 1998 classic, The Pillage, Capppa’s target is mass product in 2013. Like other veteran artists, he is also becoming more reflective in his music, something he says he believes is only inevitable.

“I just see myself basically settling down with it and really finding something that’s comfortable,” he says. “That works, and I really think that I’m on top of my mojo.” AllHipHop.com speaks to the Staten Island legend about his recent work, the happenings going on within the Clan, and more:

AllHipHop.com: Eyrth, Wynd & Fyre is coming near the top of 2013. Last year, you dropped The Pilgrimage. What was the mindset behind this one and what can fans be anticipating?

Cappadonna: I believe this one right here, I leaned back a little on it. I just got more into the message and the music man, and just tried to focus on that a little more – production by J. Glaze. I kind of was just really free in the mind when I did this CD right here – Eyrth, Wynd & Fyre – those are elements right there. That fire’a that truth, and that wind, that’s the substance, and the Earth is the strength that keeps me grounded. So these elements right here exist within my style and life, what I had to go through, so I got that and I got the other double CD with DJ Snips and J-Ronin and of those producers, good looking out for J-Ronin on A&R’ing the project. But yeah, things is right, man.

AllHipHop.com: A lot of veteran artists tell me that they are taking a step back and being more reflective over their music and their music careers. Is that what you’re doing with this one at all?

Cappadonna: Yeah, man. I always look at the kind of work that I was doing, and I definitely, from myself hear a little more maturity in this album and some growing. Even trap-wise, I sound like I’m really trying to put a little more together than usual.

AllHipHop.com: You were featured on Wu-Tang’s “Six Directions of Boxing” off RZA’s Man With The Iron Fists. What was it like recording that track and getting back onto a record with a bunch of Wu members?

Cappadonna: Man, it just felt like we were back to our old tricks again [laughter], so it’s like I definitely want to do more of that, and it was even more fun going to the Jimmy Fallon show and performing the song. It was a beautiful thing, man, and I had a lot of fun doing [it] and even more fun being with the fellas.

AllHipHop.com: Yeah, I remember actually seeing that [Jimmy Fallon] performance. Speaking of Wu-Tang, what’s the vibe like in the Clan right now?

Cappadonna: I think everybody is really trying to get back into the feel of everybody again. We had to do a little separating, soul-searching, but other than that, there’s still mad differences, man, that’s all. We just got a lot of different minds, and everybody don’t always agree on the same thing.

AllHipHop.com: A lot of people remember you as THE guy on “Ice Cream” off of Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. But I think the first time I heard you was when you killed that verse on “Ice Water”. What is your favorite Cappadonna verse ever?

Cappadonna: “Ice Water” is definitely one of my favorite verses, but I like the verse on “Camay”, I like “Winter Warz,” I like “Triumph”, so it’s probably a collaboration of a bunch of different verses, but the one that everybody loves the most is and caused me to love the most is “Winter Warz”.

AllHipHop.com: Maybe a more open and honest question…where are you at this point in your career both as an artist and as a person in your life?

Cappadonna: I just see myself basically settling down with it and really finding something that’s comfortable, that works, and I really think that I’m on top of my mojo. It could be a little sharper, though, but that’s just as far as the music go. But as far as the business, it could definitely use some sharpening.

AllHipHop.com: What’s next for you in the immediate future?

Cappadonna: Man, it’s that The Pillage 2 project, trying to drop that maybe September, and if that’s too soon, then I’m gonna pick another date, but that was one of my thoughts. We’re trying to do Hip-Hop the best way we know how, and balance it out one more time – Wu-Tang forever. Plus, we working on something and we’re just talking; hopefully, something pans out well in that we can all be successful in completing another album with the benefits of our labor.

Look for Cappadonna’s Eyrth, Wynd & Fyre album in February 2013.