Cam’ron had trouble coming to terms with not being as talented as The Notorious B.I.G., according to record executive Lance “Un” Rivera.
Un sat down with VladTV and briefly spoke about what it was like reuniting with Cam’ron for the film Percentage after their music relationship fell apart years before, and the executive admitted the pair “clashed” a lot during their time together.
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“I enjoy [Cam]’s creativity, we clashed a lot creatively,” he said. “‘Cause I had this thing with Cam — and I heard that he kinda traumatized Juelz with the same process … I always challenged Cam on when he thought he was better, I challenged him [and said,] ‘You hadn’t gotten better. This is sub par to me.’ And I wasn’t taking anything away from him. Cam [would say,] ‘Biggie woulda did it this way.”
He continued by saying Cam was never able to elevate himself to a “platinum” status, and instead made a career as a reliable “gold artist.”
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“He’s a legitimate gold artist like Redman and Method Man and all of these other guys, so Cam didn’t wanna put in the work or listen to what it took,” Un continued, “Puff had to tell Big, ”Machine Gun Funk’ is not gonna get you to an album.'”
He continued: “Nas had to do Lauryn Hill ‘If I Ruled The World’ to get to that level. Jay didn’t really start making big records until Pharrell. Everything else was still this underground rapping choruses. Nah, if you wanna sell millions of records, here is what we learned and this is how we do it. That’s why Puff was so successful.”
Cam’ron initially kickstarted his career on Un’s Untertainment imprint, where he released Confessions of Fire in 1998. At the time, Untertainment had a distribution deal with Epic, but subsequently lost the deal in 2000. Cam’ron’s contract was absorbed by Epic Records as a result, which started a two-year legal battle that concluded with him getting signed to Roc-A-Fella Records.
At the time, Cam said the deal was nothing more than a business move, and that Epic’s absorption of Lance’s label simply caused him to look elsewhere.
“I don’t want people to think I’m a team-jumper,” he told MTV News in 2001. “To get it correct, Un lost his deal and I was forced to go to Epic. Epic, they’re great on the R&B tip, but I’m not answering to a n-gga about Hip Hop who’s wearing some damn khakis and moccasins. That’s what happened with Epic. I felt I couldn’t work with them.”
“[Cam’ron signed with Dame Dash] because they was from Harlem, and there was one big plot for me to help break them, and for Big to help break them,” he said. “And then, all of a sudden, they end up gettin’ the masters. Like, it was all one big, ‘Screw Un and Biggie.”
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He continued: “That’s what I say, you know? It was like, ‘Oh, y’all put in the work, you got us here, thank you, but we’ll go give Def Jam and Roc-A-Fella ‘Oh Boy.” You know, these dudes learned marketing and promotion from us, Untertainment. They want to rewrite history as if their career started at Roc-A-Fella. You know? Like, nah. It started with the work that we put in to get you where you are.”
