On Cam’ron’s 2002 track Dead Or Alive, Cam raps, “The way I been treated in this industry? Not nicely / Little faggot motherfucker like Mike Lighty.”
Though on the official version of the song has Lighty’s name censored, the track refers to an altercation Cam and his Diplomat crew had with Mike Lighty, the brother of now-deceased A&R Chris Lighty. Chris Lighty co-founded Violator, a record label and management company which represented, among others, 50 Cent, who would later beef with Cam’ron.
In a recent interview with VladTV, Dipset’s Freekey Zekey spoke about the altercation with Mike Lighty.
“We goin’ to do this show,” said Zekey. “I think we in Boston, Massachusetts. It’s me, Cam, Jim, and Juelz, and my boy British. British is about 4’9″, we call him Buddy Lee…”
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“So we go to this show, see Mike Lighty, Mike Lighty said, ‘Y’all niggas is next,'” he said.
Things ramped up at the show when Dipset learned that other acts had gotten paid to attend. “N.O.R.E. come off the stage,” he said. “We like, ‘N.O.R.E., whaddup?’ He like, ‘Where the fuck Mike Lighty, he supposed to pay me! Where my payment?’ We like, ‘Pay you? This ain’t a promo?’ He like, ‘Shit, it might be for y’all! Y’all niggas is suckas, ha!’ So we like, what? Oh, fuck that nigga, ‘Fuck you, Mike Lighty! We’ll slap the shit out of you!’ We thought we was gangsta. We got hands on him, in Mike Lighty’s face like, ‘You gonna pay us, we ain’t gettin’ on no fuckin’ stage [until] you pay us our fuckin’ money!'”
Things took a turn for Dipset, however. “Mike Lighty go inside, come out with some niggas 6’5″, and 17 niggas. We like, ‘Oh, shit.’ They all run over, and they grab Cam. Mike Lighty’s like, ‘Take his chain! Take his chain!'”
Fortunately for Zekey and his crew, they had backup. “When we get to the van, British come out with the hammer! They all sliding like, ‘No!’ And British took the kid Mike Lighty chain. And after that, we drove off, and we went to the studio, and made a song about Mike Lighty.”
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Watch the interview below:
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