Were you around when Tommy Boy folded?
I left a year before.

So, are you on Noreaga’s side and “fuck Tommy Boy?”
No, not at all.

So when he says “fuck Tommy Boy,” he’s including you?
I don’t like to think that, because even though, N.O.R.E. said, “fuck Tommy Boy” and a lot of people associate that with the staff at Tommy Boy, but there were a lot of people there that he had a good relationship with. Noreaga’s beef had more to with the actual owner of Tommy Boy, not the staff. A lot of people on the staff worked very hard to make his project happen. I know that that wasn’t directed at me. I see him and it’s all good.

Of course! I’m sure he wants to be on a Cornerstone mixtape…So what took you from Tommy Boy to Cornerstone?
My last year at Tommy Boy, we had a great year in regards to Hip-Hop projects. Running the urban department I had the opportunity to put on different independent marketing companies to help impact our projects. Cornerstone was one of those companies that I contracted. I developed a great relationship with Rob Stone and have always had great respect for Cornerstone and the work that they’ve done. I was looking to do something different and Rob and I shared a common vision.

Who picks the music, the DJ?
My staff normally selects the music, of course with the imput of the DJ. We allow the DJ freedom to play songs that they wanna play. We try to represent the different perspectives of the music. You’ll hear underground joints, you’ll hear club joints, you’ll hear dirty south joints, because even though we’re in New York, the CD is not a New York CD. Sometimes we’ll get radical opinions on the mixes, but that’s the power of the mixtape. We give cats an opportunity to showcase their talents for how they do it. Every DJ doesn’t have the same style, if they did we could just have the same DJ every month.

Is there payola involved in the mixtape?
There’s no payola involved but don’t get it twisted, it’s a marketing tool so there are economics associated with it. We are a marketing and promotions company.

What other services do you guys provide?
The CD is a component of Cornerstone, we’re a full service marketing company. We do radio promotions, we do mix-show promotion, we also have a college marketing team called the Farm Team. They do lifestyle marketing, product placement, product research, college radio promotion. We have an online marketing department which does online services. We also have a corporate marketing component where we do product placement and product promotion on a coporate level such as X-Box, Sprite, or Fila. We also have the Fadar Magazine, which is a separate entity from Cornerstone.

Let’s bring it back to the Cornerstone CD. What’s more important to the Cornerstone Mixtape, the DJ or the music?
Both. The Cornerstone Mixtape wouldn’t be hot without the right DJ or the right music.