| Cormega | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Birth name |
Cory McKay |
|
Also known as |
Mega, MC Cor |
|
Born |
3 December 1970 (age 50) |
|
Origin |
Queens, New York, United States |
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Genres |
|
|
Years active |
1989-present |
|
Labels |
Def Jam, Landspeed, Legal Hustle, Slimstyle |
|
Associated acts |
The Firm, The Jacka, Lakey the Kid, Large Professor, M.O.P., Mobb Deep, Nas, Roc Marciano, Tragedy Khadafi, Wu-Tang Clan |
Cory McKay (born 3 December 1970), better known by his stage name Cormega, is an American rapper from Queens, New York. He was raised in Long Island City, Queens, and formed childhood friendships with future rappers such as Nas, Nature and Capone. Cormega was sentenced to 5-15 years in prison for armed robbery in 1991, but gained some attention when Nas gave him a shout-out on the song "One Love" from the critically acclaimed Illmatic album in 1994. He was released from prison in 1995, and became determined to follow a career in hip hop music.
Nas included him on a song entitled "Affirmative Action", which also featured AZ and Foxy Brown, for his second album It Was Written in 1996, and this became the first appearance of supergroup The Firm. Based on this performance, Cormega was signed to Def Jam and recorded an album called The Testament. However, Cormega was replaced in The Firm by another artist, Nature, because either he would not sign a contract with Nas' manager Steve Stoute or Stoute felt Nature was a better rapper. This led to an alleged altercation between Cormega and Nature, and the dispute with Stoute ended Cormega's friendship with Nas. Meanwhile, following a falling-out over creative differences with his manager Chris Lighty and Def Jam imprint Violator Records, his debut album The Testament was shelved.
In 2000, Cormega was released from his contract and started his own record company, Legal Hustle Records. He released his debut album, The Realness, the following year, which featured many songs that shared a theme of betrayal. Nas and Cormega created diss tracks attacking each other several times after the release of the album. Cormega released his second album, The True Meaning, in 2002, which has a song called "Love In Love Out" that documents the beef with Nas. In 2005 he released the album The Testament on his own label, which saw good reviews. That same year, he announced that he and Nas had spoken and ended their feud. He released the album Born and Raised in 2009 and the compilation album Raw Forever in 2011. His latest album, Mega Philosophy, was released in 2014 and produced entirely by Large Professor.
Discography[]
- 2001: The Realness
- 2002: The True Meaning
- 2004: Legal Hustle
- 2005: The Testament
- 2007: Who Am I?
- 2009: Born and Raised
- 2014: Mega Philosophy