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Cam’Ron Album Review: KILLA SEASON

“It ain’t my fault I’m RAW, I’m Sorry….BUT I WANTED WAR!!....” – Cam’Ron, “You Gotta Love It”.

Oh yeah! WAR TIME! YOU GOTTA LOVE IT! Been a while since some big names went to war….Enter Cam’Ron from Stage Left. With his newest album, KILLA SEASON, Cam’Ron throws his hat in the ring of big names trying to go to WAR. Just a couple years ago Cam’Ron had joined the “Roc” but word had it that Jay-Z wasn’t around when Cam’Ron was signed and secretly never liked Cam’Ron being a part of the R-O-C.

With good reason too cause Dipset is like that group of cousins that you’re scared to invite to the family BBQ cause they’re gonna not only eat up all your food without bringing any food to contribute but they’re gonna curse out your guests, smoke weed in front of your church-going grandma and blast you for running out of hot dogs. Case in point when Cam’ron had joined Rocafella his crew (Dipset) was saying the next day how Cam’Ron was “taking over the ROC”.

I was wondering how Jay-Z would feel about this cockiness and apparently he didn’t like it so a rumor started that Jay-Z was trying to find some potentially career ruining pics of Cam’Ron doing something embarrassing to present during the next Summer Jam in NY like Jay-Z had done in prior years when he showed a picture of Prodigy in Ballet tights when Prodigy was young in front of a sold out crowd. So Cam’ron decided to launch a preemptive strike on Jay-Z as he left the Rocafella label and subsequently released “You Gotta Love it” on numerous underground Mix CDs dissing Jay-Z (and his girl Beyonce for added measure). The song was only a bit above average but the point was made.

Cam’ron had drawn a line in the sand and dared Jay-Z to cross it. To add insult to injury Cam’ron made sure that another song was put in to heavy circulation that showcased numerous famous Jay-Z verses that were proven to be nothing but lines he bit mainly from Biggie, Tupac, Slick Rick, Wu Tang, and even Nas.

Cam’Ron didn’t even make that song (some down South DJ did) but that fanned the flames even more and even had your favorite Journalist’s, favorite Journalist, Benz0, questioning whether he really should still view Jay-Z as his favorite rapper ever since half of my favorite Jay-Z quotes were actually Biggie quotes unbeknownst to me.

Jay-Z has released one attack verse in return to counterattack and there is now a song circulating that tries to turn the tables on Cam’ron as it features verses Cam’Ron has on albums biting his own crew. To further complicate things Cam’ron was recently non-fatally SHOT this year in D.C.

in what seemed like a car-jack attempt on Cam’s Lamborghini but ask Cam’Ron and he’ll say it was all a conspiracy by Jay-Z to take him out cause he fears he’ll rise to the top of the rap game. Now Cam’Ron the undisputed leader of Dipset (one of only TWO super rap crews left – G-Unit is the other) has released a new album to start another war – “The war to become a rap legend has just begun” (quoted from The Game).

Cam’Ron fittingly starts out the album by sneaking a verse from 40 Cal’s previously released “Worried” before the actual Cam’Ron track called “Killa Cam” kicks in (though he should have separated the two songs as both songs are on the same track).

I say “fittingly” because 40 Cal is quickly rising through the Dipset ranks to the point where he’s giving J.R. Writer a run for his money as the best battle lyricist of Dipset (For now I’ll give J.R. Writer the edge cause JR has already released a series of legendary “Writer’s Block” mix CDs). Once 40 Cal’s verse ends on Track one, Killa Cam straight rips it on a sick eerie track that you don’t want to end as “K-I-L-L-A!!” is chanted in the background. Killa Cam spits patented clever lyrics like “Y’all niggaz all the fools, [you’re] regular, Married with children, 9 to 5, office pool, Couldn’t live that life, I need a loft and pool, I had TOO much Class, I ain’t report to school…”. Don’t get it twisted.

Cam’Ron IS THE BEST RAPPER ON DIPSET cause he not only has battle lyrics but also has the lyrical SAVVY to separate him from the thousands of backpack rappers who think that battle rhymes are enough to make it in rap (All you backpack rappers realize that to take things to the next level of rap you gotta ALSO relate to the audience on other levels than just good rhyming..Make the audience FEEL your joy, struggle, and pain).

40 Cal and Cameron Giles hook up again on the explosive “Triple Up” where 40 Cal admittedly steals the f’ing show with the following verse: “I came a long way from getting hanged by a WHITE jury, look at my neck, all you see hang?, WHITE jewelry, that’s triple the chains..dice game, the same night I throw triples and split, I get Menage et trois to triple the chics, I got them on a triple beam taking trips with the bricks, My click the Weight Watchers, we WAIT for n$$$$ with Watches or Watch n$$$$ with Weight(drugs), with cake in their wallet, raping their pockets and taking their projects, if you flip like T-Mobile I can make you a SIDEKICK..”. Whew!!! Game Over!!!

Continuing the Dipset tradition of having the best beats in the business are the songs “Wet Wipes” (Cam’s lead single for the album that was produced surprisingly by The Alchemist), “Girls, Cash, Cars”, “Touch It Or Not” (a hot collaboration featuring Lil Wayne), and “Get Ya Gun”. The latter is a real live News report on the impact of the staggering amount of guns on the street with the craziest news fact being: “Did you know a 3yr old has the physical strength to pull a gun?...”. As a bonus Cam also includes his war song against Jay-Z called “You Gotta Love It” that still rocks.

He also adds the incredible “War” featuring powerful lyrics with another rising Dipset Star, Hell Rell, which was actually previously released on the latest nationally released Dipset Mix CD called DIPSET: THE MOVEMENT MOVES ON. But probably the juiciest bonus that Cam gives us is a powerful remix of “Get Em Daddy” that features almost all of the Set and we find Cam replaying the events in which he was shot and he uses almost the entire alphabet to spell out how he aims to avenge the shooting.

A host of other songs also keep the pressure on as “Leave You Alone”, “Living A Lie”, and “We Make Change” flow consecutively through the speakers. He also shows off his patented mellow introspective style with the songs “Do Ya Thing (a remix)”, “Love my Life” (Another ode to his true friends and tough upbringing), “Something New (samples that ol Grand Daddy IU track), and “I.B.S.”. “I.B.S.” is crazy as Cam’Ron reveals something we probably didn’t want to know; He suffers from IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME! Look it up if you don’t know what that entails. Here’s a hint “Don’t get mad if [Cam’Ron] s$$$s on you!”. If your counting at home what we have is NINE exceptional songs along with SEVEN songs that are either solid or above average. That puts this album into MUST HAVE territory regardless of if you’re a Cam’Ron fan or not.

Admittedly though there is one MAJOR problem with the album: Besides the intro the hottest songs on the CD AREN’T EVEN DISPLAYED TILL TRACK SEVEN! Even the intro is crazy though because you can’t listen to ‘Killa Cam” (a great song) till 40 Cal finishes his verse from “Worried” which means if you have the song on repeat you start getting mad that you can’t jump straight to “Killa Cam”.

The ordering of the songs on this album could be a fatal error as anyone listening to the CD for the first time might not make it to Track seven cause the beats on the songs before that are just average. Even worse is that the weird “He Tried to Play Me” is mysteriously featured on TRACK TWO! That song just throws the whole album off track before it even gets started and Track Six features a VERY stupid skit that should have been left off the album.

If Cam had been smart he would have made the album start with Track one and made Tracks 7-20 follow next, then followed by Tracks 3-5 while leaving “He Tried To Play Me” (Track 2) and “White Girl” (Track 13) off of the album along with the TWO weak skits. ALL you artists take note and don’t make the same mistake of not ordering the songs on your CD properly. It would be a shame if people start bad mouthing the album solely based on the slow start to the CD. So trust me this album is a Must Have due to the sheer volume of quality songs (but a notch below Cam’s previous Classic album PURPLE HAZE). It just takes a while for it to heat up.

Benz0
Contact Benz0: BenzWritings@Hotmail.com