His 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, Cappadonna 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 Cappadonna’s appearances were not marked in this way (whereas Streetlife’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. Cappadonna was absent from the Wu-Tang Clan’s fourth album Iron Flag, released in late 2001. In the year since the release of The W, he had reportedly become dissatisfied with being in the group, and had also gotten into a dispute with the group over the revelation that his manager Michael Caruso was a police informant.[2] Whatever the case, he did not appear on the finished album. It is highly likely that he recorded with the Clan at the album’s recording sessions, but was edited out of the album at the last minute (Clan leader and producer RZA is known for rearranging verses and song structures very late in the recording process), as he participated in the photo shoot for the Iron Flag album cover, but was later airbrushed out (one of his legs remains on the cover). In other shots from the same photo shoot, such as that which appeared on the back cover of RZA’s 2004 book Wu-Tang Manual, he is clearly visible. For some time after the release of Iron Flag and his hiatus from the group, Cappadonna was forced to resort to more pedestrian means of earning income, and it is known that he was a taxi driver in Baltimore for eight months. Rumors abound about his brief change in vocation: it is hypothesized that he did so in order to support himself and his family, while Cappadonna’s own explanation is that “he intentionally gave up what material possessions he had amassed and walked the streets of Baltimore for 8 months, before returning to the rap game”.[3] Regardless, he returned to the music industry shortly after, releasing 2003’s The Struggle album. This album featured some Wu-Tang Clan members, and was released on Wu affiliate Remedy’s record label, although Cappadonna maintained at the time he was not directly associated with the group itself anymore. In fact, he later publicly accused RZA of cheating him out of royalties, a charge that RZA strenuously denied.[4] Differences with the group appeared to have been forgotten when he joined the whole Wu-Tang Clan for their reunion concert at the Rock the Bells music festival in San Bernardino, California, which was later released on DVD and CD as Disciples of the 36 Chambers: Chapter 1. He also appeared with the whole Clan on their early 2006 club tour as well as on the acclaimed Ghostface Killah track “9 Milli Bros.” off his 2006 album Fishscale where he references his stint driving taxis: “Diggler, AKA the Cab Driver / Drop ‘em off in the middle of fire / Dirty Island, drag bodies to the Murderland [Maryland] / Knock niggas out hurtin’ my hand.” During May 2008 Cappadonna signed with Chambermusik Records. Chambermusik Records is distributed via Koch Entertainment Distribution. Cappadonna’s first release off of Chambermusik is entitled “Slang Prostitution.” Cappadonna is often referred to as the unofficial 10th member of Wu-Tang Clan |
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