Lance “Un” Rivera has claimed that Cam’ron‘s Roc-A-Fella deal was nothing more than a plot to “screw” both him and The Notorious B.I.G.
Cam’ron originally started his career on Rivera’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. As a result, Cam’ron’s contract was absorbed by Epic Records, losing the Harlem native in the proverbial record label shuffle, and kicking off a two-year legal battle that ultimately landed him on Roc-A-Fella.
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As Cam’ron told MTV News back in 2001, Killa Cam claimed the move was strictly business and nothing more. “I don’t want people to think I’m a team-jumper,” he said. “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.”
But now, more than 20 years later, Rivera has presented a different side of the story. “[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 told VladTV in a recent interview. “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.”
Check out Lance “Un” Rivera’s comments on Cam’s Roc-A-Fella deal below:
This isn’t the first explosive claim that Lance “Un” Rivera has made to VladTV in recent weeks. He revealed last week that Biggie once helped Ma$e out of a financial bind by providing him with a ghostwriting gig.
“Puff signed Ma$e so can ya imagine what kind of contract Ma$e got? Because B.I.G. just came off that same contract,” Un told Vlad. “The LOX all of them came off the same contracts. So B.I.G. rapping with Ma$e on the 112 [‘Only You’] remix, Ma$e is broke.
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“So B.I.G. says, ‘Un, give Ma$e a check and he’s gonna write for Cease.’ Ma$e comes back with a record called ‘Crush On You’ for Lil Cease’s album…I think we paid him $7,500 a record and he made six records. He comes back with ‘Crush On You’ and there’s three verses with Lil Cease on there.”
He continued: “The original album that we shipped Kim wasn’t even on ‘Crush On You.’ It was all Cease for three verses and B.I.G. is doing the chorus. A million albums without Kim and then Kim rapped on the record. She wrote her own verses and B.I.G. said, ‘Come up with an idea for the video.’”
In other Cam’ron news, the rapper is apparently fielding a ton of offers to sign his Ma$e-assisted sports talk show It Is What It Is, and he’s getting close to announcing a new home for the show.
The Dipset rapper was a guest on Good Day New York on Friday (May 19), dressed to the nines as he discussed the success of the currently YouTube-based show that launched in February.
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While he wouldn’t reveal who the new deal will be with, Killa alluded to something already being in the works.
“It Is What It Is on YouTube,” Cam’ron said. “Soon getting ready to do a deal. We won’t say with who yet. I got a lot of people. I could have done a deal a month ago but I just want to weigh my options out. So we’ll figure it out.”
