Cormega has been doing his thing independently for a while now. After all his hard work and pushing so many units independently, he is finally being recognized and has been awarded with "Independent Album of the Year" for his 2002 release The True Meaning at this year's 2003 Source Awards held in Miami.

The category was new this year and Cormega was the first to be presented with this award. Within the last two years, Cormega has moved well over 250,000 units on his own label, Legal Hustle Records. This being done without the backing of a major label and without significant radio or TV exposure. With numbers like that, which is very impressive, you can see why he was presented with the award.

The Source Awards were cut short because of time constraints, so the "Independent Album of the Year" and other categories were not announced on-stage. As a result, Cormega found out after the award ceremony was over that he won.

“I’m so used to not getting love, that to receive the Independent Artist of the Year Award is such an honor. To be recognized by fans for putting out a quality album is important to me and I have to say that I was surprised to be finally acknowledged by the industry,” says Cormega of receiving the award.

Cormega is currently in the studio working on his newest project, which will be a compilation album titled Cormega Presents: Legal Hustle. The compilation album is scheduled for a late December of 2004 release.

“The compilation album features some of the music that fans have been waiting for from the Ayatollah compilation and some other tracks from the Legal Hustle vault,” explains Cormega. The album will be distributed by Selecto Hits.

He’s also recording his third studio album, Urban Legend, to be released on Legal Hustle Records March 2004. On Urban Legend, Cormega returns to the same formula that made his debut album, The Realness, a hip-hop classic. “On each album, I try to grow as an artist. My first album, The Realness, was a real grimy street album because that’s where I was back then. The True Meaning was more mature with ghetto tales like ‘Soul Food’ and ‘Live Ya Life.” Urban Legend has that same type of lyrics, but with the sound of The Realness.”

Cormega is also working on a DVD of behind the scenes footage of his everyday life, in the studio, at concerts. The DVD will include never before seen exclusive music videos from The Realness and The True Meaning including “The Come Up” featuring Large Professor, “Built For This,” “Get Out My Way” and “RU My Nigga.”