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Come Home with Me Review

Cam'ron's Roc-a-Fella debut uses Jay'z blueprint.

by Douglas Passion | 2002.10.19

Following the gold-selling success of his 1998 debut Confessions of Fire, Cam'ron disappeared into the treacherous quagmire of the recording industry. After Untertainment folded and his relationship with Epic faltered, Cam seemed destined to join the well-populated ranks of hiphop one-hit wonders. But although he spent the last four years toiling in relative obscurity, the Harlem native always managed to produce enough club bangers and ferocious mix-tape appearances keep his name among the leaders in the hot-commodity category. Nobody's fool, rapper and self-made record exec Jay-Z took notice of Cam's street buzz and eventually inked him to a deal with Roc-a-Fella Records.

Cam'ron's latest album, Come Home with Me, apparently takes the title of Hovito's The Blueprint rather literally. Following The Blueprint's lead, Cam's third effort features a healthy dosage of the same 70's-influenced samples and chirping sped-up vocal snippits that made the production on Jay's joint such a breath of fresh air in a genre polluted by the sounds of finger-fucked Casios. Unfortunately, despite having the floor plans drawn, Come Home with Me never achieves the towering artistry of "The Blueprint" due to an overabundance of nepotistic guest appearances and Cam'ron's own shortcomings as an emcee.

When he first emerged in the wake of the Harlem World renaissance, Cam'ron found his niche as a harder-edged version of Ma$e's uptown pretty-boy thug archetype. After allying with the Roc-a-Fella camp, it seems that not much has changed. Cam's content still revolves around the same essentials: drugs, jewelry, gunplay and receiving oral sex. While the many thuggish rappers attempt to soften their recollections of street exploits with tinges of morality, Cam's insistence on reveling in his depravity seems almost contrived. Perhaps enough references to beating bitches "like Tina" will make the rap audience forget his yellow sunglasses in the "Horse & Carriage" video.

At his best, Killa is a potent storyteller who uses an accessible flow and witty narrative to describe both the pleasures and horrors of street-life. On "Losing Weight Part 2" (the original version featured Roc-a-Fella nemesis Prodigy), Cam'ron shines as he tells the story of an abused woman who becomes so infatuated with him that she kills a rival drug dealer: "Her mom died, heron overdose stuffed in her wrist/ father fucking her, older man fucking her sis/ but love my music, say I do nothing but hits/ she'll do anything for me, nothing but hits/ cause when she needed help, I got her nothing but fix/ needed coke, needed dope, yeah I gave her a fix/ so she went across the street, gave him a kiss/ stuck her tongue out, flirted, played with his dick/ 'you know Cam?' he said 'Yeah', 'don't play with his chips'/ stood back blazed him with six - amazing as shit."

Cam'ron's consistency is both his strength and his weakness. His delivery, while technically solid and flush with multiple-syllable wordplay, rarely varies throughout Come Home with Me. His penchant for repeatedly rhyming the same phrases with different meanings ("But look, money from across the street/ think it's sweet, think he get money across the street"), while likable and often clever, usually doesn't showcase much in the way of layered thought process. The same talent for straight-forwardness that allows easy digestion of his mixtape/radio show verses gives little room for the lyrical subtleties that separate good artists from great ones. Cam isn't someone you'd want to battle on a street corner, but, then again, he isn't someone you appreciate more through repeated listenings.

The production on Come Home with Me, while not quite up to the lofty standards set by "The Blueprint", is solid. On mixtape favorite "The Roc"(which features labelmates Memphis Bleek and Beanie Sigel), Just Blaze goes the quasi-Primo route, complete with stuttering MPC chops and a medley of scratched samples. Several tracks, including the New York spring anthem "Oh Boy", utilize the high-pitched loops of sped-up R&B crooners. The only time the tactic sounds forced is on "I Just Wanna", where the chirping D'Angelo vocal sample quickly becomes both monotonous and irritating.

The wave of rock & roll t-shirts, mesh caps and other 80's nostalgia rears its mulletted pompadour a few times, as several tracks, (such as the humorous "On Fire Tonight"), are hampered by cheesy Eddie Money-ish drums. The retro feel materializes again, but to better result, on one of the album's standout tracks, "Welcome to New York". Although Just Blaze's heavily-synthed musical backdrop is admittedly somewhat schlocky, the melodramatic score succeeds when Jay-Z joins Cam'ron for a rousing gangster tribute to "The home of 9-11, the place of the lost towers".

What separates "The Roc" and "Welcome to New York" from many of the album's other tracks is the quality of the guest appearances -- far too many songs on Come Home with Me feature members of Cam's Diplomats crew. While his boys aren't objectionably bad, only thrice on the entire LP does Cam'ron handle the rhyming duties by his lonesome. Considering the Diplomats' deliveries and content are markedly similar to those of Cam, the listener is left wishing for more Killa and less Jr. Killas.

Come Home with Me is a solid release, but seems as if his camp pushed the project ahead of schedule to capitalize on the publicity generated by his signing. With a little more time and effort, Cam'ron's Roc-a-Fella debut could have been much more memorable.

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