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Cappadonna
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Darryl Hill, best known by his stage name Cappadonna, is an American rapper, friend of the Wu-Tang Clan. He has appeared on many of their albums, as well as having a successful solo career. Although many believe him to be a member of the clan, he is not one of the original nine members.
September 18 1968 in Staten Island New York Cappadonna came to record with the group after a visit to RZA's Staten Island apartment-recording studio during the recording of Raekwon's 1995 album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx.
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Darryl Hill, best known by his stage name Cappadonna, is an American rapper, friend of the Wu-Tang Clan. He has appeared on many of their albums, as well as having a successful solo career. Although many believe him to be a member of the clan, he is not one of the original nine members.
Biography
Born September 18 1968 in Staten Island New York Cappadonna came to record with the group after a visit to RZA's Staten Island apartment-recording studio during the recording of Raekwon's 1995 album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. Cappadonna visited the studio during the recording of the song "Ice Cream," and joked to RZA about him contributing a verse on it; however, RZA decided to take him seriously and allowed him to feature on the track. After appearing on "Ice Cream," he went on to appear on another Cuban Linx track, "Ice Water," and became a close affiliate of the Clan with several appearances on (and a co-starring credit on the front cover of) Ghostface Killah's Ironman album. In late 1996, he appeared on a track for the soundtrack to Don't Be a Menace alongside Ghostface, Masta Killa, U-God and Raekwon, and made several prominent appearances on the group's second album Wu-Tang Forever in 1997, most notably on the stand-out lead single "Triumph."
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. 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". 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. 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."
Discography
Albums
Singles and EPs
- 1996 Don't Be a Menace soundtrack - track "Winter Warz"
- 1998 "Slang Editorial"
- 1998 "Run"
- 1999 "Black Boy"
- 2001 "Super Model"
- 2007 "Don't Turn Around"
- 2009 "Somebody's Got To Go"
External links
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