S aigon

Mix-tape (and Entourage) star preps long-delayed debut. Really!

Curious that for an artist perennially touted as New York hip-hop’s brightest hope for the future, Saigon yearns mostly for the past. “Right now, the state of hip-hop is so screwed up that I feel like I’m in the wrong era,” offers the 30-year-old sitting in the Manhattan offices of Violator Management, where a life-size cutout of 50 Cent glowers over the scene. “I don’t make up new dances and shit, so maybe mainstream America is going to have to cross over to me.”

Statements like that might be why the
path to success, or to the brink of it, has
been a frustrating journey full of scaled
peaks and deep valleys for the burly MC.

Born Brian Carenard in Rockland County, New York, Saigon was seduced early on by the thug life, eventually spending nearly six years in prison for first-degree assault. Upon his release in 2000, he released a string of mix tapes, attracting the attention of producer Just Blaze (Jay-Z, Kanye West), who brokered a deal with Atlantic Records.

Then he waited. And waited. And waited some more. Signed nearly four years ago, Saigon started wondering if his debut, The Greatest Story Never Told, was doomed. “They wanted a radio hit, not a song that means something to somebody,” he says of the holdup. Even a massive publicity coup—Saigon appeared as a rapper

FAST FACTS

> His nom de rap was inspired by the book Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans, by Wallace Terry. > Though his hometown was rough, “you could throw a rock and hit a nice neighborhood,” says Saigon. “We’d interact with kids with money; that’s when I began to understand something was wrong with our situation.”

named Saigon on HBO’s Entourage— didn’t speed up the process. This summer the MC took his frustration out online. “I got tired of cats asking me, ‘What’s up with the album?’” An epic, now-deleted MySpace rant blamed the delay on Atlantic and producer Blaze, who in turn responded with a massive blog post. “Blaze’s thing was, ‘Why would you do that now? Things are starting to move!’” Saigon recalls.

Finally set for a December release, the record is as good as the wait was long—it’s an articulate mix of militancy and streetwise storytelling that showcases Saigon’s rough-hewn, economical flow. Unsurprisingly, it’s more reminiscent of the mid-’90s than the mid-’00s. “Your debut is your baby; that’s your Illmatic,” he says, referencing the 1994 Nas classic. “That’s what sets the stage for the rest of your career.” At last, he’s right on time.

B Y PETE L’OFFICIAL

PHOTO BY JAMIE-JAMES MEDINA