Cormega

Hip-Hop

Cory McKay (March 2, 1973), better known by his stage name Cormega often abbreviated to Mega, is an American rapper from Queens, New York. Cormega’s streetwise poetics and perseverance has made him one of the most respected East Coast lyricists. Cormega was raised in Long Island City, Queens, forming childhood friendships with future rappers such as Nas, AZ, Nature, and Capone-N-Noreaga. 1980s He was featured on Hot Day's Going Straight Up from his album It's My Turn. He was also featured on Blaq Poet & DJ Hot Day's track Set It Off from their album Without Warning in 1991. 1990s Cormega was sentenced to 5–15 years in prison for armed robbery in 1991. Despite his incarceration, Cormega gained some attention following a shout-out from Nas on his song One Love, from the critically acclaimed Illmatic album. Cormega was released from prison on appeal after serving almost 4 years in New York's Mid-State Correctional Facility. Following his release in 1995, Cormega became determined to pursue rapping. Nas included him on a song entitled Affirmative Action for his second album It Was Written. The song also featured AZ and Foxy Brown, and became The Firm's first appearance. Based on his performance, he was signed to Def Jam and recorded an album called The Testament. Based on the buzz from Affirmative Action, Nas, his manager Steve Stoute and producers Dr. Dre and Trackmasters joined to produce The Firm. Cormega was replaced with another artist, Nature, because either he woul...