If that wasn't reason enough to inspire curiosity, Cam'ron's lead single, "Oh Boy," blew up urban radio all summer. A wise hustler, Cam played both sides of the fence, affirming his allegiance to Roc-A-Fella by soliciting features from Memphis Bleek and Beanie Sigel on “The Roc (Just Fire).” Despite the behind-the-scenes tension between Cam and Jay-Z, the Roc-A-Fella head delivered the sharp and gloating opening verse on the post-9/11 anthem “Welcome to New York City.Just when seemed as if everyone had forgotten about Cam'ron, he returned in 2002 as part of Jay-Z's industry-dominating Roc-a-Fella collective. They all turn in some of the hungriest verses of their respective careers. On the features front, Come Home With Me is essentially a showcase for Cam’ron’s Diplomats compatriots: Juelz Santana, Freekey Zeekey, and Jim Jones. It’s a sound The Diplomats would perfect the following year with their debut, Diplomatic Immunity. Just Blaze, Rsonist, a young Kanye West, and the rest of the album’s producers put their singular spin on soulful yet bombastic beats that sounded like a procession of vibrant Escalades mobbing through the projects.
(Granted, both stand in stark contrast to the extensive STD PSA “On Fire Tonight” and the cold-blooded macking of “Stop Calling.”)Ĭome Home With Me codified the sound of New York rap that began with Jay-Z’s The Blueprint the year prior. It’s a slight shift in tone from “Daydreaming,” where Cam plays the sensitive, reformed thug who’s trying to make amends and rekindle a former love. Cam is irrepressible as the affable, self-aware player half-heartedly pretending he’ll change his ways. The laidback, quasi R&B beat built around a Commodores sample and conversational hook is embedded in the brain of anyone who listened to rap radio in the early 2000’s. Chief among them is “Hey Ma,” the album’s hit single. In two lines, he condenses his life in the early ’90s: “’Cause I ain’t have no fresh clothes/Or jewelry with the X O’s, my house had asbestos.”Įver the businessman, Cam knew he needed songs that appealed to women. “Live My Life (Leave Me Alone)” and “Come Home With Me” follow along the same lines, but the latter features some of Cam’s most concise and evocative writing. It’s the kind of song that would resonate with The Wire’s Avon Barksdale, the player sending his soldiers to sell on and protect his corners. On “Losing Weight 2,” Cam recalls beefing with rival crews dealing in the same neighborhood. Many of the songs are memoirs of the Harlem depicted in the collage on the album cover. That reflection defines much of Come Home With Me. Though jaded by the rap industry and scarred by all that he witnessed growing up, Cam pushed ahead, his flow slower, calmer, and better suited for reflection. Come Home With Me also signals the moment Cam perfects his invincible head honcho persona, the man calling plays for his partners and grinning a sardonic “Hi hater” to anyone who didn’t show respect. Throughout the album, Cam’s combination of swagger, wry wit, and inexhaustible wordplay made his lavish material flexes sound fresher than those of his peers while making the harrowing realities of the Harlem drug trade seem both more surreal and even colder. “Oh Boy” presaged the tone and greatest strengths of Come Home With Me. Listen to Cam’ron’s Come Home With Me on Apple Music or Spotify.
Cam set up an office in a storage closet, regularly conferenced with label staff, and began recording songs for Come Home with Me with the Diplomats, his crew of Harlem compatriots that included Juelz Santana and Jim Jones. After an acrimonious exit from Epic, he signed with the ascendant Roc-A-Fella Records, the label co-founded by Jay-Z and Cam’s childhood friend, Dame Dash. He had to score with his third album, Come Home With Me. only went Gold, virtually middle age in rap years. Cam’s grimy sophomore effort, 2000’s S.D.E., detailed his deflated hoop dreams and transition from hustling to rapping while displaying substantial artistic growth, but Epic Records dropped the ball when promoting the record.Ĭam’ron was in his mid-20s when S.D.E. His 1998 debut album, Confessions of Fire, yielded a moderately successful single (“Horse & Carriage”) but didn’t make him a commercial or critical diaper dandy. championship game at Madison Square Garden, which grazed the rim and altered his career trajectory. The first was Cam’ron’s missed game-winning three-pointer during the P.S.A.L. In the years leading up to 2002’s Come Home With Me, the man who would usher in a new era of New York rap had seen one too many shots fall short.
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