When Queens natives Capone-N-Noreaga dropped their 1997 debut album The War Report Hip Hop was in the middle of a transition period. A new crop of MC's were coming in, many of the benchmark artist of the late 80s early 90s were starting to fall off and labels focused their efforts on getting artist on mainstream radio ushered in by the "Jiggy Era". For Capone-N-Noreaga this commercial shift was not an option, they represented what just a few years earlier their Queens brethren Mobb Deep displayed on their second coming "The Infamous" LP.
To make the Queens connection even deeper, the mastermind behind The War Repost was QB Legend Tragedy Khadafi who discovered and molded the duo into the flagship artists for his newly christened 25 to Life Records. In many ways Tragedy was the unofficial 3rd member of the group as he appears on more than half the album.