Cappadonna
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Cappadonna (born Darryl Hill in 1969) is an American rapper closely associated with the hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan.
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Biography
Cappadonna was a friend of the Wu-Tang Clan, and a rapper well-known locally for his skills, since before the Clan formed but he only came to record with the group after a chance visit to RZA's Staten Island apartment/recording studio during the recording of Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx (1995, 1995 in music) album. Cappa 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 was subsequently to become effectively a member of the Clan with several appearances on (and a co-starring credit on the front cover of) Ghostface Killah's Ironman album as well as several appearances on the group's second album Wu-Tang Forever in 1997 (1997 in music).
Cappa's 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, Cappa 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 Cappa'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 on the album's cover art.
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 an absentee from the Wu-Tang Clan's fourth album Iron Flag, released in late 2001. However, in the year since the release of The W Cappadonna had become reportedly dissatisfied with being in the group (RZA has said he felt unhappy that people outside of the group did not respect him as much as the original nine members) and had also got into dispute with the group over the revelation that his manager Michael Caruso was a police informant. [1] Whatever the case, Cappa did not appear on the album though 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 on 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 the 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. Rumours abound about his brief change in vocation: it is hypothesised 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" [2]. Regardless, he returned to the music industry shortly, 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 Cappa maintained at the time he was not directly associated with the group itself anymore. In fact, he later publically accused RZA of cheating him out of royalties, a charge the RZA strenously denied. [3] Cappa's 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 (the concert was later released on DVD and CD as Disciples Of The 36 Chambers).
Aliases
- Cappachino
- Cappa-villain
- DonnaMite
- Jay Bird
Discography
Albums
- 1998 The Pillage
- 2001 The Yin & The Yang
- 2002 Cappadonna Hits (compilation)
- 2003 The Struggle
Singles and EPs
- 1998 "Slang Editorial"
- 1998 "Run"
- 1999 "Black Boy"
- 2001 "Super Model"
Appears On
- 1995 "Ice Cream" & "Ice Water" (from the Raekwon album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx)
- 1996 "Winter Warz", "Fish", "Camay", "Daytona 500" & "Iron Maiden" (from the Ghostface Killah album Ironman)
- 1997 "Maria", "Little Ghetto Boys", "Heaterz", "For Heaven's Sake" & "Triumph" (from the Wu-Tang Clan album Wu-Tang Forever)
- 1998 "Sweet Love" (from the Method Man album Tical 2000: Judgement Day)
- 1999 "Strange Fruit" (from the Pete Rock album Soul Survivor)
- 2000 "Buck 50" & "Wu Banga 101" (from the Ghostface Killah album Supreme Clientele)
- 2000 "Careful (Click, Click)" & "Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off)" (from the Wu-Tang Clan album The W)
- 2003 "Respect Mine" (from the Mathematics album Love, Hell Or Right)
- 2003 "Ice Cream Part 2" (from the Raekwon album The Lex Diamond Story)
- 2005 "Spot Lite" (from the Mathematics album The Problem)
- 2006 "9 Milli Bros", "Dogs Of War" & "Jellyfish" (from the Ghostface album Fishscale)