Juelz Santana has responded to Cam’ron and Ma$e for questioning his career decisions and lack of musical output.
The Harlem rapper was criticized by Murda and his former Dipset cohort Cam for not living up to his early potential having only released two studio albums in over 20 years.
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Speaking on the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast late last year, the duo discussed Juelz’s wasted potential, with Ma$e claiming he “could’ve been Hov level.”
Killa Cam added: “Real talk, he had it. And he had it at a young age. He could’ve been the leader of everything that’s going outside right now.
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“He could’ve been all these young n-ggas’ father, uncle, whatever you wanna call it. The chicks liked him, he could rap, he was fly. He had every element you needed to be that n-gga.”
Cam went on to criticize Santana’s apparent reluctancy to release music: “I wouldn’t say [he had] poor work ethic, but I’m just not sure why. Juelz is sitting there with 300 songs in his hard drive and won’t put it out.”
Speaking to The Art of Dialogue this week, Juelz Santana addressed the pair’s criticism of his career trajectory and refuted the suggestion that he’s “lazy.”
“I don’t wanna say JAY-Z because I never strived to be JAY-Z. I was always just trying to be me. I definitely coulda been way further than I am. But I don’t ever blame nobody. I blame myself for anything that held me back,” he said.
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“You could never say I was lazy. If you look at my track record in the game, I didn’t put out albums but for whatever reason, politic reasons, I didn’t put out albums, I still gave hella music.”
The 42-year-old further criticized labels including Def Jam for why he has only released two solo albums in his career, while also acknowledging that he didn’t always have the right team around him.
Santana recently addressed the delay behind his next project We In Motion, which he has teased will be a Gangsta Grillz collaboration with DJ Drama.
“Truth is I wasn’t as ready as I thought I was,” he admitted in an Instagram post. “I want this album 2 be special… I understand the frustration but I promise [in] 2024 I’m all innnn… I won’t let y’all down.”
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Juelz further explained that his upcoming project is an independent release, “so all I really have is social media to [promote].” He added that “with the algorithm u don’t even reach y’all full audience.”
Looking to rally his fanbase while offering them some hope, he concluded: “I understand the frustration but I promise [in] 2024 I’m allll innnn but I’ma need help from my day 1s so lets get this #teamsantana going I wont let y’all down.”
