Cormega and Havoc have never made an album like this before — literally. Although they've released several songs together in the past, the New York City natives' approached their upcoming body of work with a completely different mindset.
"Havoc was the streak shooter here," Cormega tells iHeartRadio. "Let's say it's 3:30 right now. I get a song from Havoc and his verses already on it. By 7 o'clock at night, I'm getting another email. It's another song with another verse. I wake up in the morning, there's more mail with more verses and more. I was like, oh, okay. This is what we doing. It was like that pushed me in a way."
"I've never got pushed like that ever on an album because I've never experienced that," he continues. "It's always been spaced out or a lot of artists take long to deliver verses. So that was the difference. I didn't have to chase nobody down. And like I said, Havoc pushed me."
Cormega and the Mobb Deep producer have worked together several times during their nearly 30-year friendship. After they appeared on Nas' It Was Written album in 1996, 'Mega and Hav went on to make songs like "Fallen Soldiers" and "Hear Me Now" with The Alchemist. They recently reunited on "Paradise" for Cormega's 2022 album The Realness II. Within the past few months, the duo cooked up a fresh batch of songs for their first-ever joint album.
"Cormega has a different style" Havoc tells iHeart. "He has a different approach. So when he presented the opportunity to do [the album] that way, I never really knock another artist's style or the way they like to do things. I kind of go with it because I learned that from working with Prodigy. Whatever I think is like conformity, Prodigy goes outside of those lines and it ends up being dope. So when Cormega was like, 'Yo, let's play them the album.' I'm like, 'Yo, it's not finished.' He's like, 'Nah, it's going to be good.' I let him ride."
The seasoned artists debuted their masterpiece for the first time at a massive listening event hosted by journalist Datwon Thomas at Dazed Cannabis in New York City last month. Their collaborative project is a living, breathing work of art — so much so that 'Mega added more to the album just hours before the event began. The duo invited fans to hear 10 songs that will appear on the album including one collaboration with Raekwon, and another track Cormega heard for the first time.
"There's a song literally I never heard before until that day at the event," Cormega explains. "I did vocals to a different beat and I sent it to Havoc. And then when he sent it back, it was a different beat. The way I'm a perfectionist with my rhymes is how he is with his beats. So that day some of the music was as fresh to me as it was to the fans."
The attendees checked their phones at the door before they experienced the album. Datwon Thomas kicked things off with a Q&A session with Cormega and Havoc that provided more insight into their creative process for the project. Fans got to hear each song and provided feedback with plenty of screw faces, head nodding, and other positive body language. They even got to help name one of the tracks, "Alliances."
"It was an engaging experience," Cormega says. "That's what made it so dope."
In honor of the event, Cormega and Havoc teamed up with Dazed Cannabis to release exclusive merch for the album. Some fans took home a blue t-shirt featuring artwork by artist Casa, who drew the black-and-white image of both artists by hand. Only 200 shirts were made and each one comes with a number. They also got a pair of white socks with a Mets-inspired colorway with "40 side and 41st side" up top.
As of presstime, Cormega and Havoc are still putting the final touches on the album. They're working on it "every day" and plan to include more collaborations. During our conversation, the duo talk about making the untitled album, reflect on the successful listening event, reveal the origin of the merch designs, and more.
iHR: You just gave the world the first listen of your joint album with Havoc during your Dazed event. What were some of the reactions that you noticed?
Cormega: The reactions were very consistent. They were a lot of head nodding in there, a lot of head nodding, passion in people's faces, kind of like, I can't even explain it man. People look really satisfied and it made me feel satisfied. Put it like that.
Havoc: I liked the event. Anytime we get to showcase new music, it's dope. The love from the people was crazy, you know what I'm saying? The supporters was there, the love was crazy.
You both played 10 new tracks for the crowd. Will their reactions help determine the final track list or is it final?
Cormega: No, that's pretty much the tracklist, but we're going to add probably a couple. There are two more songs that I needed to write. Their reactions for ——there's one song we don't even have the title for yet, but it was my favorite song from the jump. It was one of my favorite songs and it always stood out to me. So it was great to see that the crowd felt the same way when I played it. It was the last song I played and people went crazy and even after that people was like, 'Yo, that last song we played,' they was like, 'we like all the joints. But that last song there's something about that.' It was dope to see women getting into it too. Body language is the most honest language in the world. You could go to a country where you don't speak their dialect, but you'll know if they're hostile or friendly just from their body language. The body language in that room was very satisfying. I felt a sense of relief and I felt a sense of pride.
It's great to hear that especially when you're playing music that people have never heard before and have no idea what it's called. You didn't announce the song titles either, right?
Cormega: I don't even think we have names. Only two songs have names at the moment. One song, we let the crowd help choose the name, so now it's going to be called "Alliances." Havoc listed it as that. We wasn't certain, but that's what he listed it as and then the fans agreed that should be the title. So now, because of the fans, the fans were like the A&R that day. If they'd have been like, 'yo, this song sucks,' That song would not have been on the album.
You don't see a lot of artists out there nowadays doing that kind of process. You guys are literally letting the fans witness the creative process and everything.
Cormega: Not only that, we bet on ourselves because imagine if the album was trash and we just played it in front of people. The word of mouth, like I said, body language, most honest language and word of mouth in New York City? God never needed to make social media or the internet. All he needed was word of mouth in New York City. You know what I'm saying? When s**t spreads in New York, it spreads. That's why I felt satisfied in a sense of relief.
I can tell based on your enthusiasm about it. The event looked like one to remember. I heard you also played a record with Raekwon out there. So how was it working with him on this song?
Cormega: It's always beautiful working with Raekwon. We've been on four songs together. But as far as for my projects, this is the second time he's did it. I think Kwon's a beautiful brother, man. He's very humble. He got a great heart. He's the type of person, if he f**k with you, you'll know it. You'll feel the love. He's a very sincere brother. That's one of my best guys in the industry. Out of all rappers, that's my bro. So it felt good to have him on there. I got to give him his props and my gratitude because he was on point. He made sure I got the verse before the listening event.
I feel like this album is still being made in real-time as you're going along, which is even more incredible. The final product is going to be a true reflection of yourself and what you've just been working on for the past couple of months. Prior to the event, how long have you both been working on it?
Cormega: It's two answers. We've been working on it for years, but then again, we've been working on it for months because some of the songs —— I have a song that I did with him a couple of years ago that I didn't even play. And I'm going to say that's due to Large Professor's input. At one point I was going to get different producers and Large Pro was like, 'Nah, nah, nah, let Hav do all that. I listened to Large, he's like a mentor. So when he said that, I took his word. I took his word for what it was. So then Hav just did all the production. So some of the production that he gave me previously, it's like Havoc didn't even want to use it. And some of it is fire.
Havoc: We've been working for over a month on that project. We was supposed to do this project a long time ago, but for whatever reason it just came to fruition now.
I can tell the final product will be fire. In honor of the event, you guys also cooked up some dope merch along with Dazed Cannabis. Where did the idea for the merch come from and how did that all come together?
Cormega: We sat down and asked about some ideas. I ran it by the Dazed crew and they made it happen. The sock idea was an idea I always had. I just never manifested it because I've never done socks and I always wanted to find the right people to do it with. And I wanted to do one foot to say 40 side and one foot to say 41st side —— how I envisioned Queensbridge. When I seen the final product, I was definitely pleased with it. The shirt idea, I don't take credit for the shirt. That credit goes to Dazed. All I did was I hollered at Casa. I knew what I wanted. Chris is a fan of art. So he showed me some work that Casa did previously. The artist made it happen and we got it done. So here we are. It's limited and I like that it's numbered. I think I might do something where I might call out some numbers and those numbers I call out will be invited to chill with me one day and just vibe out.
I know the fans would love that idea! This will be the follow-up to your last project, The Realness II. Are there plans for another solo album after this?
Cormega: At this moment, I'm simultaneously working on three projects. I have one project that's produced by Harry Fraud. That album is going to be insane. That album sounds like if you could turn an art gallery into sound. That would be what that album is. It's different. So that album is already mostly done. Just got to do some mixes and stuff. That's mostly done too. That album could be done in a week if we want it. And we already got the first single ready and everything. So that album is right there. It's on deck and ready. So I got that. Then I got another secret project that I'm doing with another producer. We got some songs out the way. Then I'm going to do a Lost Tapes album.
That's a lot of work!
Cormega: I have so many joints that was popping, but I never put them —— I have a song called "Use Mad Clips" for me and Styles P that was very popular, but it was never on none of my albums. It never came out. Songs like that and unreleased stuff that's brand new that people never heard, that I never put on nothing. I'm going to put some of that. So pretty much I, I'm ready to go. I got four projects pretty much.
We can't wait to hear them. Do you have anything else you want to add about the project?
Cormega: Listen man, the album is 1994 to 1998, reincarnated into 2024 to 25 to 26. Put it like that. It's future nostalgia