Well hello there Thursday - the weekend is quickly approaching. Time to take a swing at a review in my wheelhouse again - a little rap on my cold Thursday morning. I was running through my iPod this morning, and saw this album sitting there. Now, I haven't listened to this in probably 5 years - but I do recall it being not terrible. We'll see if my tastes have changed. Cameron Giles aka Cam'ron aka Killa Cam was born in 1976 in Harlem, New York. He went to high school with two other rappers you may have heard of - Jim Jones and Mase. Mase and Cam'ron were very promising high school basketball players, but Cam had academic issues that forced him to drop out of high school. He still ended up getting admitted into a college in Texas - but that didn't last very long. He thusly returned to Harlem and began selling drugs before beginning his hip hop career. In the late 90's, Cam was introduced to Notorious BIG through Mase who was signed by Bad Boy at the time. Big was so impressed with Cam that he introduced him to a guy that ended up signing him to Epic via the Untertainment label. That label produced two Cam albums, but ended in bigtime controversy. Cam demanded out of that label and was picked up by Damon Dash's Roc-A-Fella records. (yeah, before Jay took over) The ROC was huge at the time, with success from Jay and Beanie Sigel. They signed Cam to a 4.5 million dollar record deal, and the first album produced was this very one. This is his best selling album at a simple platinum - and was released in 2002. I could talk about 10 million other things relating to Cam and his music - but I've already run long. His style is Dipset, which I consider the beginning to party rap. Some stolen samples and lyrics that don't blow your mind off. It's worth a listen, but don't expect a legendary album here.
TRACK LISTING:
1. Intro
2. Losing Weight, Pt. 2
3. Oh Boy
4. Live My Life (Leave Me Alone)
5. Daydreaming
6. Come Home With Me
7. Welcome to New York City
8. Hey Ma
9. On Fire Tonight
10. Stop Calling
11. I Just Wanna
12. Dead or Alive
13. Roc, The (Just Fire)
14. Boy Boy
15. Tomorrow
Listen To Samples
Top 3 Tracks:
1. Welcome To New York City
2. Hey Ma
3. Oh Boy
FINAL RATING:
2.5 out of 5 stars
For this first comment, I just skipped over the entire post to say I can't wait to read what you put down for this one. If I know you the way I think I do so far, you won't let me down :)
ReplyDeleteWell put. I try not to completely knock and artists but I've just never been too hyped up on Cam'ron. I think it's the way he flows that throws me off, as well as what he says. I just can't seem to shake that.
ReplyDeleteWhat I've heard from Cam'ron over the past near decade, I can recall only one song that I liked and I can't even remember it.
I don't know, maybe it's just me. I hope he comes out with a smash though, it would be nice to see.
I think part of the problem is Cam is the owner and founder of the Diplomats, aka Dipset. He spent so much time lately trying to figure out how to make them relevant again, I doubt he still has the studio chops.
ReplyDeleteIf you think about his two big singles, they heavily involved Juelz Santana and others - but those "others" never took off either. I don't know. Cam recently made a diss track on Kanye - dubbing over 'Runaway' off Twisted Fantasy. If that's his plan to get back in the spotlight, he's incredibly mistaken.
A diss track...Your serious?
ReplyDeleteA diss track saying what? What is he gonna diss about.
Yep...here is a link.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w992w7nTWNI
B Side, go ahead and call me clueless cause I feel it commin. But I don't get it
ReplyDeleteI'm reading the comments, trying to understand what happend exactly and the conclusion I'm coming to is this: Apparently maybe Kanye tried to get the upperhand on Cam'ron on that whole ROC thing or something like that and he wasn't feeling it too much...
Help me out here B, I've never understood the beef and dis stuff
This one is tough. Cam feels like Jay-Z and Kanye pushed Damon Dash out of Roc-A-Fella - but that happened years ago. This track just obviously came out, since 'Runaway' was dropped last year.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Jay or Yeezy think Dipset is worth while, and they probably were the ones that cut them from the Roc nation. Probably a smart move, but one Cam, Jim Jones etc didn't like.
Beefs are dumb..but whatever. Grown men should settle their differences easier.