Simply put, Harlem’s favorite son Cam’ron is a movement unto himself. From literally changing the face of urban fashion with his trendsetting, redefining sense of style and signature pink wardrobe, to his mind-boggling ghetto nursery rhymes, to the secret code he’s developed with his Diplomats crew - ‘Dip Set,’ ‘Byrd Gang,’ ‘Purple City,’ ‘Un Casa,’ ‘Sheist Bub,’ – ‘Killa Cam’ has turned Harlemworld into Cam’ron’s world.
Cameron Giles - the flamboyant young cat who would go onto become Dip Set superstar Cam’ron - came up in Harlem’s grimiest streets with the same hopes, fears, talents and dreams as the other kids on the block; except young Cam was maybe that much better. Whether it was kicking rhymes with his friends, getting the latest gear just right, or playing ball, Cameron Giles had it. His love and gift for basketball was the first to truly shine: as a guard for Manhattan Central High School, young Cameron was named All-City, All-American and was eventually awarded a college scholarship based on his on-court talents. “I been this way since I was, like, three,” muses Cam’ron. “From the moment I wake up at like seven in the morning in my boxers and socks, I’m that fresh. I’m Cam.”
But soon, he’d enter a different game entirely. Through friend and fellow-Harlemite Ma$e, Cam had a chance meeting with the late Notorious B.I.G. Though his city-wide reputation as a baller preceded him, Biggie Smalls was impressed with Cam’ron’s abilities on the mic. “Mase took me to his crib after he signed to Bad Boy and he just threw on a bunch of beats and I rapped for B.I.G.,” Cam remembers. “Every beat he threw on I had rhymes, I had mad rhymes back then. Big said he wanted to sign me.” Biggie and partner Lance “Un” Rivera were astounded by Cam'ron's skills and immediately signed him to their Untertainment Records.
Both his Untertainment debut, 1998’s Confessions of Fire, and his sophomore release, Sports, Drugs and Entertainment, went gold. But Cam, seeking to take his career to the next level, grew disenchanted with then-distributor Epic. Ever determined and creative, Killa Cam, as he was becoming known, took matters into his own hands; he and his Harlem Diplomats crew began putting out mixtapes for the streets, well before it was commonplace.
“It’s been going on about a couple years, but we made a tapes ‘cause we always had music. We would put all the songs on a CD and put them out on the streets for free. We started selling them for $5 just to get our money back. After I did it other artists started doing it too,” he remembers.
Eventually, Cam’ron’s buzz had become larger than just mixtapes; the streets were crying for another studio album. Always an opportunist, his friend and former manager Damon Dash negotiated Cam out of his deal with Epic and signed him and his Diplomat Records to a deal under Roc-A-Fella. In 2002, Cam released his long-awaited opus Come Home With Me, which sold over one million units and catapulted Cam’ron to celebrity status. The monumental success yielded the smash single "Oh Boy,” which also rocketed protege Juelz Santana to fame.
Now, with the release of Purple Haze, Come Home’s highly anticipated follow-up, Cam puts it down like only he can.
“I’ve been working on this for about 7-8 months. I always grow every album. I’m around nice artists like Juelz, Jim Jones, J.R. Writer and a whole bunch of new people and it keeps me on my toes,” Cam says. “It’s like tough love and that’s why every album I do is better than the last one.”
From the Jeep banger “Killa Cam,” to the certified street anthems “Get Em Girls” and “Shake,” to the radio hits “Hey Lady” “Lord You Know” featuring Jaheim and the new single, Cam’s spin on the Cyndi Lauper classic “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” Purple Haze continues Cam’s legend. Featuring appearances from the entire Dip Set crew – Juelz Santana, Jim Jones and Freekey Zeekey – as well as Kanye West, Jaheim, Lil Flip, and Twista, Cam’ron delivers his most diverse, creative and cinematic album to date. In fact, Cam plans to release a ‘Purple Haze’ short film in conjunction with the album.
“I want you to have the visual, even if you don’t see the movie,” muses Cam. “Visualize it just by listening. Its like a verbal movie or even a book.”
Purple Haze’s lead single, “Lord You Know,” features the thunderous crooning of thug-prince Jaheim. The song, a more introspective look at the streets, reveals Cam’s maturing view of the world. “The Jaheim joint is real soulful. I just wanted to give a tribute to all the people in jail. Jaheim came up with the hook and it was crazy. You feel that song in your gut,” Cam says. “I think that’s a big plus for everybody locked inside.”
But Cam’ron reveals that his favorite song is one that strikes in the heart, not the gut. “My favorite song is ‘Ghetto Soap Opera.’ It’s about me and my son’s mom and what we are going through right now,” he reveals.
Cam’ron, notorious for hisd tenacity, believes in constantly moving forward and Purple Haze is the culmination of that mentality. “If you do five albums and don’t grow, then you are just stupid,” Cam laughs. “That’s like going to high school for four years and still being in the 9th Grade. I went from artist to CEO to selling cologne to selling liquor.”
True to his word, Cam’ron is one of the elite few artists that has been able to escape the confines of the game to expand Diplomat Records into a franchise.
Along with the Purple Haze album and film, and his other ventures including “Oh Boy’ cologne, Cam’ron has taken his purple game to the spirit world as well – liquor that is. Along with his Diplomat partner Jim Jones, Cam has launched a cognac-based purple punch appropriately dubbed Sizzurp. Sizzurp has secured national distribution and is set to launch this summer. Be warned: Rap’s Pink Panther and Harlem’s freshest Diplomat – Cam’ron – is back with Purple Haze.
|
The videos currently from Purple Haze are "Get 'Em Girls/Killa Cam", "Lord You Know", and "Girls/Family Ties". To view these go to www.launch.com. |
The wait is over!!! Purple Haze is officially in stores as of 12/7!!! The album features the smash single "Girls" and it also includes "Shake" and "Get 'Em Girls". The album features appearances from The Diplomats, Kanye West, Syleena Johnson, Mona Lisa, Jaheim, Nicole Wray, Physco Drama, Twista, and more. For more information go to The Diplomats official website at www.dipsetmixtapes.com or go to www.rocafella.com or www.defjam.com. |
1. Intro
2. More Gangsta Music
3. Get Down
4. Welcome to Purple Haze (Skit)
5. Killa Cam
6. Leave Me Alone, Pt. 2
7. Down and Out
8. Harlem Streets
9. Rude Boy (Skit)
10. Girls
11. I'm a Chicken Head (Skit)
12. Soap Opera
13. O.T. (Skit)
14. Bubble Music
15. More Reasons
16. Block (Skit)
17. Dope Man
18. Family Ties
19. Adrenaline
20. Hey Lady
21. Shake
22. Get 'Em Girls
23. Dip-Set Forever
24. Take Em to Church [*]
|
The Reesey-Piecey Man Cometh (and Rhymeith)
By KELEFA SANNEH
In 1998, years before it became obvious that he was one of hip-hop's most appealing surrealists, Cam'ron was just another aspiring star, content to hold down the world's most glamorous job: New York rapper.
He announced himself by telling everyone how to recognize him: "You might see Cam in designer underwear." That was the first line of his breakthrough hit, "Horse and Carriage," which had a singsong refrain by Ma$e, the rapper whose infamous shiny suit epitomized a time when hip-hop seemed like a form of wish fulfillment.
The process was simple: a couple of hit records, a couple of memorable videos, and suddenly you were richer than God and nearly as omnipresent. It was a time when even the most extravagant hip-hop boasts could pass for predictions: O.K., maybe you didn't actually own an island, but you were so close.
This gilded age didn't deliver on its promises. New York rappers discovered that music-industry success was nearly as demeaning as failure: it's hard to look cool when you're working overtime to satisfy radio stations and club D.J.'s, and it's hard to maintain your king-of-the-world image when you're being outsold by boy bands.
Ma$e retired to become a preacher (he "ran to Atlanta," as Cam'ron bitterly put it), cutting short his career before his second album had a chance to do it for him. And although Jay-Z stayed on top, many other New York rappers had to find ways to brag about a lifestyle that no longer seemed quite so glamorous.
That era's end was exactly what Cam'ron needed. When his first two albums failed to propel him into the stratosphere (they barely propelled him into the, um, sphere), he signed with Jay-Z's label, Roc-a-Fella, and started consolidating his crew, the Diplomats. Over the last few years, Cam'ron's rhymes have grown stronger and stranger.
Like some fearsome dictator gone off the deep end, he issues one outlandish pronouncement after another, never pausing to acknowledge that there might be some gap between word and fact, sometimes not even pausing to make sense of his own scrambled syllables. This is a terrible way to run a country, of course, but it's a great way to rap. For Cam'ron, even more than for most rappers, saying is believing.
You could see this strategy in action at the Apollo Theater in Harlem on Tuesday night, when the crew gathered to celebrate two new releases: the entertaining new Diplomats compilation, "Diplomatic Immunity 2" (Koch), and Cam'ron's marvelous new CD, "Purple Haze" (Roc-a-Fella/Island Def Jam), one of the year's best hip-hop albums. For more than an hour, Cam'ron delivered mesmerizing, sometimes nonsensical rhymes: "Bucket by OshKosh B'Gosh/Golly, I'm gully, look at his galoshes/Gucci, gold-, platinum-plaque collages." And he often took gangster mythology well past its logical conclusions. "All y'all think it's peace and peachy/I'll leave you Reesey-Piecey," he snarled, turning a bag of candy into a Dada threat.
That last rhyme comes from a track on "Come Home With Me" (Roc-a-Fella/Island Def Jam), Cam'ron's swaggering 2002 album; according to Nielsen SoundScan, it has sold over a million copies, more than his first two combined. Since then the Diplomats have flooded the streets with an addictive series of official mixtapes (you can find them online at www.dipsetmixtapes.com), which seemed designed less to win new followers than to winnow out casual listeners.
Obsessive fans could follow the Diplomats into a half-imaginary world, gaping at the cover of "Back Like Cooked Crack" (it shows Juelz Santana, a young Diplomat, standing at a stove, tending to a pot, a jar, a pile and a lump), and wondering whether J. R. Writer, another Diplomat, would ever top his lung-busting "6 Minute Freestyle."
"Diplomatic Immunity 2" is just one more mixtape, although, like its predecessor, the double-disc "Diplomatic Immunity," it's available for sale in mainstream record shops. Like the others, it probably won't win Cam'ron any new fans, but it does have a fistful of great tracks, none better than "S.A.N.T.A.N.A.," the latest outburst from Santana, the mischievous rapper whose wild-eyed stage presence contains more than a hint of Christopher Walken.
Santana nearly stole Tuesday's show with a chaotic rendition of "S.A.N.T.A.N.A.," abetted by his preschool-age nephew, who sang the hook. While a drum machine sputtered behind him, Santana shouted out his stream-of-consciousness pronouncements: "I ain't here to wine ya/I ain't here to dine ya/I came here to pop ya/And I came here for lobster/The whole damn shebang, and I ain't bring the pasta."
When the nephew's work was done, he toddled offstage, but not before receiving his pay: a few brick-sized stacks of bills, straight from Cam'ron's pocket.
Part of what's exciting and confounding about the Diplomats is that they're so deadpan. The members don't stop to assure you that they're actually nice people, and they don't spend time analyzing their own whimsical rhyme schemes and asymmetric rhythms.
Cam'ron has perfected his persona as a don so powerful that no one dares question his quirks. If he wants to dress in all pink (as he did for about a year) or brag about shopping at "Neimies and Bloomies," who's going to second-guess him?
"Purple Haze" is due out on Tuesday, and it's a left-field masterpiece, showing off all the things he does so well and so weirdly. On his last album, Cam'ron spent most of his time explaining his favorite pastimes (putting drugs on the street, putting women on their backs, putting enemies in their place), but he occasionally switched directions for a startling love song or an even more startling avowal: near the end, he declared, "Now I realize, Christ the king." The new album is more abstract, with spikier beats and more fractured narratives; there's less room for regret but more for experimentation.
For newcomers, the longtime mixtape favorites will be a revelation. "Killa Cam" pairs Cam'ron's sinuous wordplay with a similarly sinuous, muezzinlike cry by a singer who calls himself Opera Steve. And "Get 'Em Girls" uses a bombastic beat (someone's been listening to "Carmina Burana") to propel a mesmerizing cascade of phrases beginning with the unforgettable claim, "I get the boosters boosting/I get computer 'puting."
It's always fun to hear Cam'ron bully a beat, slowly spitting out an endless series of petulant phrases, as if he were expecting the rhythm to adjust to his unpredictable cadence. And when it comes time for a pop song, he turns on the gruff charm: "Down and Out," with a hard-hitting Kanye West track, finds Cam'ron reeling off gruesome sex rhymes, then changing directions to bark one of the year's best pick-up lines: "You got pets? Me too: mines are dead." He elaborates, "Fox, minks, gators, that's necessary/Accessories/My closet's pet cemetery."
By the end of Tuesday's show, Cam'ron had changed from a black sweater to a bright yellow one; the whole audience had joined him in flashing the Diplomats hand sign; his protégés had run riot; and the crew had barged through nearly two dozen tracks. So long as you were in the building, it was possible to believe that Cam'ron had taken over the world the way he was supposed to back in the 1990's. But once you walked out into the Harlem night, it became clear that he had invented his own world instead.
|
Cam'ron - Purple Haze(Interview)
Sixshot: Hello Cam. How are you doing this evening?
Cam'ron: Cool.
Sixshot: I wanted to talk to you a little bit about what’s going on and what your album is doing, and I have a couple of questions for yah.
Cam'ron: Cool, You know the album first of all is coming out tomorrow November 23rd “Diplomatic Immunity Volume 2”, and then my album “Purple Haze” comes our December 7th.
Sixshot: December 7th?
Cam'ron: Yes.
Sixshot: One of the things I want to know, is okay December 7th? What happened? Why has it been pushed back for so long? We have a couple users that would like to know.
Cam'ron: Definitely, at the end of the day there is a transaction in the business department, LA coming, and when LA came I had to renegotiate my deal., and the was probably a 4-5 month process. So, after everybody got here LA fired a few more people, so you know you got people working your records and that’s just like, you know you can’t really throw a project that you worked so hard on, out there with out the right staff and behind it and people not fully onboard so that’s the only reason it took a minute, it’s been done for a while. But everybody needs to be on the same page.
Sixshot: Yeah, that’s the truth right there. Who produced this album?
Cam'ron: I have different producers, of course I executive produced it. But you know I got some production from a lot of new people, in house producers, Skitzo of course Heat makers worked on a lot of my others stuff. Kanye did a couple joints on there, but I messed with a lot of new guys who are hungry. DJ Nasty out in Orlando he did a couple of tracks on the album.
Sixshot: I am looking forward to it. What’s your favorite track on this album?
Cam'ron: My favorite track, I would say would be Ghetto Soap Opera.
Sixshot: Ghetto Soap Opera?
Cam'ron: Yeah, it’s based on a true story me and my son’s mother, just about you know, her not liking my job and what I am doing, but you know they reaping the benefits.
Sixshot: You know we are Sixshot.com hip hop magazine and community so I do have some question from our users and what not. They definitely what to ask you some questions, I went through and kind of filtered out what we could ask you and what not.
Pretty much, what tracks on this album alone have the most meaning to you lyrically?
Cam'ron: Lyrically….Um, I would say Harlem Streets and Adrenaline Rush. Harlem Streets I really broke down went in and did a lot of lyrics that was crazy about Harlem, and it came out all crazy and then with Adrenalin Rush you know I am on that song with two people from Chicago, one Twista and another guy name Buck. And I think you know besides New York, Chicago got the best lyricist cause there’s a lot of people, if you walk around on the street in Chicago there’s the best people that aren’t even signed. Them dudes are….Like I lived out there for two years there nice, there great.
Sixshot: They’re out there killing it huh?
Cam'ron: Crazy, It’s like they just starting to get a little cross between Kanye and Twista but they have been rockin’ for a long time and plus like the best artist are not even signed. Just getting on a track with anybody from Chicago I always bring my “A” Game.
Sixshot: Who else do you have featured on your album?
Cam'ron: Kanye, Twista, Selena Johnson, and all the Diplomats of course, that’s basically it right there.
Sixshot: What do you think makes this album different from the other previous work that you have done?
Cam'ron: It’s me, I am always excited to do music but I always step up and of course I have to rap about what’s going on. Like you may hear and I got ten thousand stories so therefore I may tell you something that I didn’t tell you last album that I wanted to tell you this album. And it may have happened to me when I was eighteen, but I may have told you a story last album that happened to me when I was nineteen, but it’s just so much stuff that I have been through. That people can relate to today so at the end of the day what separates the albums it’s just my creativity, my persona, but of course my story telling is always a major key because people can visualize what I am saying. That’s the major key to me, if you could listen and picture what I am talking about; it’s like a lyrical book.
Sixshot: What’s the difference between “Dipset” and “The Bird Gang?”
Cam'ron: It’s all the same thing, and Bird Gang is our nick name.
Sixshot: Why are you always wearing pink?
Cam'ron: Nah, like what happened was; I don’t even wear pink anymore because it’s a simple fact that everybody started wearing it. When I was wearing it I was doing it to be different. You know.
Sixshot: So you were rockin’ if first huh?
Cam'ron: Exactly, I was doing it just to be different and it was like, people started doing it so I stopped wearing it because that isn’t making me different. That’s like when Don King started wearing his hair up; if you go outside and everybody got hair cuts like Don King. What’s going to separate Don King? You feel me?
Sixshot: That’s real.
Cam'ron: So, that’s why I started wearing it. But it wasn’t necessarily anything to start a fashion trend or anything like that. That’s just me being from Harlem being fresh, and saying I am taking it to another level, if everybody’s going right, I’m a go left. And then I go left and everybody goes left and now I have to make a U-Turn.
Sixshot: Ha, Ha, Ha, I like that. That’s tight. Okay, what does I keep Computers Putin’ mean?
Cam'ron: Chuckles…..Nah, that was like if you look at the slimily of the rhyme. I just took the last ending of every word. I said, “I keep the boosters boostin, I get computers putin, ya’ll get shot at call me I do the shootin.” So, in others words I was just saying anything that, like even if I am on the computer, I get the computer jumpin. You know what I am saying, “I get the boosters boostin, I get computers putin, ya’ll get shot at, call me I do the shootin.”
Sixshot: What are the creative differences between the Diplomats and Roca Fella?
Cam'ron: Roca Fella is Dame Dash is thing; The Diplomats is Cam’ron and Jim Jones’ Thing. Pardon me Jay Z, Dame Dash and Big’s. We just have our own entity, Dame made it possible for me to set a venue just to display all the artist and the talent I have. But at the end of the day Roca Fella has all they artist, and I have a bunch of artist assigned to me, my Label. So, it’s just able and I don’t just have a deal at Roca Fella, I have a deal, me and Juelz are signed to Roca Fella but I have three other artist Jim Jones, J.R Writer and Hell Rell which are signed with Koch. So, I have two different distribution camps. That’s the difference.
Sixshot: What do you think about hip hop now it this day and age?
Cam'ron: I mean, it’s a beautiful thing. At the end of the day I just like the fact that right now everybody loves hip hop. And not only just the music, it’s the fact that it creates so many jobs for people, people have a place to work. There are hundreds and thousands of jobs just for hip hop. Not only that but it leads into several other different businesses you like, I got several others things that I got poppin’ just because of music that I may make more money off of. And I am makin’ music and the music lead to that. Hip Hop is in full motion and it’s a beautiful look.
Sixshot: Where do you think hip hop will be in the next ten years?
Cam'ron: At the end of the day, nothing is guaranteed but, that’s what they asked us ten years ago, ten years ago you was like yo it’s going to be crazier than it is now. And they was absolutely right. So at the end of the day, as long as people stay creative and keep it moving it will be much crazier then when they ask this question again.
Sixshot: What do you think is essential for and Emcee today, in order to make it out there in the game?
Cam'ron: Honestly, there is different stuff for different folks in different places.
Sometimes it doesn’t have to be lyrical for people to like songs. Sometimes it may be an alright lyrical song with a crazy hook. And the artist is going out there a million sold. You feel me off one joint so that’s all. Right now realistically if you are a lyricist make sure that lyric and that song is tight; so you make good songs and then get crazy on the album lyrically. You feel me, because at the end of the day you could get crazy on the single but all of America doesn’t’ understand what you are talking about. So therefore, I think when your doing a song make sure you speak clearly, your hooks are catchy and therefore people can relate to you. Then get crazy lyrical on the album so they will be like. If they was second guessing you because of the single and then they pick that album up. It’s like “Oh, I’m buggin shortie’, Money was nice”.
Sixshot: What is going on with all the beef between Mase and Eminem between you and Jim Jones?
Cam'ron: Nah never did…I never had any beef with Eminem I don’t even know why people are asking me that. People ask me that. You’re not the first person to ask me that. People asked me like what’s going on with you and Eminem; I never even had beef with son. You know what I am sayin’ I like son’s stuff. So that’s out of the question. I don’t know what that’s about. And the thing with Mase, I never had no beef with Mase. Mase got on the radio and was lying, and I had to check him and I did a little song just saying stop lying you’re a reverend. You know what I am saying. But I always wish him the best of luck too. I always hope he does well also. I don’t wish anybody bad. But just when you say my name I got to get at you. That’s all that every happened with Mase, but I still wish him the best of luck. And I still don’t have a problem with him.
Sixshot: We want to know if the Diplomats are going on tour soon.
Cam'ron: We are working on something for the end of January thru February but I don’t want to say until it’s confirmed.
|
After getting hit with heavy bootlegging over the summer, Cam’ron went back into the studio and made sure his new album Purple Haze had all new tracks. During the summer five new songs were leaked to the streets and put on an unofficial Cam’ron album titled Purple Haze.
The official Roc-a-Fella Records album which hits stores December 7th, features such songs as “Killa Cam,”, “Get Em Girls”, “Lord You Know” and “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”. Alongside his Dip Set crew( who will also be releasing their new album titled “Diplomatic Immunity 2”), guest appearances are done by Kanye West, Jaheim, Lil Flip, and Twista.
You can catch presently catch Cam’ron on tour in the following cities:
11/07/04 Atlanta, GA
11/08/04 Atlanta, GA
11/09/04 Jacksonville, FL
11/10/04 Orlando, FL
11/11/04 Tampa, FL
11/12/04 Miami, FL
11/13/04 Miami, FL
11/15/04 Mobile, AL
11/16/04 Baton Rouge/Lafayette
11/17/04 Houston, TX
11/18/04 Houston, TX
11/19/04 Dallas, TX
11/20/04 Dallas, TX
11/22/04 New York, NY
11/24/04 Hartford/Providence |
To vote for Cam'ron's "Girls/Family Ties", The Diplomats "S.A.N.T.A.N.A.", or Jim Jones "Crunk Muzik" video go to http://www.bet.com/Site%20Management/Polls/106%20and%20Park%20II.htm?wbc_purpose=Basic&WBCMODE=PresentationUnpublished&Referrer={104DC609-968F-431A-924E-0FA99C23DD6C} for BET's 106 & Park and http://www.mtv.com/onair/trl/vote/ for MTV's TRL |
|
|
Article From The New York Times |
Cam'ron Interview with SixShot.com |
Vote for Cam'ron & The Diplomats |
|
