(aside: forever on the Rushmore of beat bass drops)


I started watching, paying attention when I was 8, 9 years old. I’ll be here forever telling you a bunch of names, but people that I loved was KRS-One. Kool G Rap, Slick Rick, 3rd Bass, EPMD, A TRIBE CALLED QUEST, N.W.A, Gang Starr, De La Soul, Queen Latifah, Naughty by Nature. I remember going to the Gap trying to get polka dot shirts because Kwamé had a polka dot shirt.

To me it was neck and neck between the conscious and the street rap, then all of a sudden the gangster just took over. Maybe because what was going on outside of rap with the drugs and crime. Maybe that elevated gangster music more than regular music.

My aunt lives in Inglewood, so I used to go to California in the summers and hear the radio and they wasn’t playing what we was playing. And then I went to Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas, in ’94. And I remember getting to school and it was like a culture shock almost, ’cause it was no New York music being played. All they played was BONE THUGS-N-HARMONY. Also these guys that I wasn’t aware of that had a big influence on the South, UGK. I loved it. With UGK, I think BUN B can rap with anybody, any state. I think Pimp C was more a lifestyle thing. Bun and Pimp, they mesh beautifully.

When I came home from Christmas break that year, “Shook Ones” was out and I was like, yeah, New York! I went back to school with “Shook Ones” on a cassette tape and I kept playing that every day. That had me in the New York mentality and I end up pistol-whipping somebody and getting kicked out of school.

So with me being from New York, I learned a balance. I don’t want to act like I’m not a lyricist, but then at the same time it may be too much for people. I probably have more male listeners, but I always keep in the back in my mind, I want some girls coming to my show, too. This one of my top three rappers, but I’ve never heard any girl be like, yo, throw that Kool G Rap on.

I remember when I was on the verge of getting a deal. I was at this girl house and Jay-Z was just coming out. He didn’t have an album yet. His first few singles was out. I’m like, yo, Nas is nice, man. She like, nah, I like Jay-Z. She said, Cam, I don’t want to carry a dictionary to the club with me when I go out.

That Nas and Jay-Z argument, it wasn’t just with the girl. I seen it starting to happen in different conversations and I was like, Jay is kind of the new standard. Before we had phones, when I didn’t have a deal, I used to keep 100 different loose-leaf papers in my pocket. I was like, whenever Jay-Z come out with something, I gotta come out with something because I seen where it was going and how people started adapting to him.

There wasn’t anybody that we said we need to be like them or rap like them. What I did see was that movements were always accepted. Whether it was the Native Tongues, the Hit Squad, or whether it was Cash Money or No Limit, or Roc-A-Fella or Murder Inc. I was like, I could create a team to where if you don’t like Cam, you may like Juelz. If you don’t like Juelz or Cam, you may like Jim Jones. ’Cause we used to be on my block arguing about who was the best in No Limit and people used to be like, oh, y’all don’t even know about Mr. Serv-On. And I would pay attention to these arguments and I’d be like, yo, everybody likes No Limit, but they have their favorites. So as long as you like No Limit, it don’t even really matter, ’cause you like the brand.

I remember Master P arguing with a D.J. in New York. I won’t say the name. And they was trying to say, yo man, if you come to New York, we could give you this, this and this, ’cause Master P never had been in New York. And Master P, I remember him telling the D.J., look man, I don’t need New York. I don’t need y’all. I’m good. And I was like, yo, is really eating outside of New York. So I already knew it’s an audience for that, so I always kept that in my mind.

Years later, Pimp C called me one day and he said, “Hey man, I’m about to dis the whole East Coast except for y’all. Them up there be fronting. I believe y’all raps, man. I was at ‘106 & Park,’ I seen Juelz. He had a Maserati, that thing was cute. Everybody else, they ain’t getting no money like us down here. But I think y’all are.’”

Related Artists
BUN B
LIL WAYNE
CARDI B
EARL SWEATSHIRT


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz