https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDkM2bgWLm8

Who else besides Cameron Giles would have not only the boldness and audacity to not only rap over a sample from Vanessa Carlton’s ‘10,000 Miles,’ but also the skill and imagination to actually make it sound incredible? This just came out last night but I think I’ve already played it about 100 times after my boy BG thankfully alerted me about it; it’s just that infectious.

Cam takes on a different perspective here, narrating what is basically a story of a breakup and regretting not appreciating what you had until it’s too late, wishing things could have been different. It’s interesting perspective to hear because while Cam’ron has lived such a colorful lifestyle, this is a theme that pretty much every single person out there can relate to and has experienced to some extent. You can really feel what Cam is saying in the beginning, often the people that have loved us the most become the ones that can’t even stand to look at us after we wrong them. Unfortunately we all know what he means when he says he knows he was wrong but has too much pride to apologize. You get that classic Cam flow right after that, ‘iPhones and cameras, nights in Atlanta, tried to bring her gifts she said you ain’t Santa’ before he reflects that it’s ‘Hard to believe I messed trust up.’ That is a terrible feeling when you try to fix things by buying gifts etc. but the ship has already sailed and no effort on your part can fix things and you finally realize it’s too late. Since Cam is in his early 40s now, it’s cool to hear him rapping about a more ‘everyday’ type theme like this with a wise perspective .

Cam’ron absolutely slays this beat by casually rattling off quick and deft punch line after punch line in a way that works perfectly “Day to day life dealing with reality/lawyer got me off on a technicality/all I think about, we was Mickey and Mallory/nothing left but increase my salary/now money is the focus/hustling president POTUS/anything else right now is bogus/real estate opened up I gave notice/murder was the case Calvin Broadus/blue magic though hocus pocus/they forgot that my dope’s the dopest’.”  “Made a mil in one week yeah it’s poppin’/retail therapy I’m shopping/pulled off the lot, top dropping/no legs on the car but it’s bopping/speakers in the door so it’s knocking/I got all the keys so I’m locked in/felt above the law, Johnny Cochrane/and I’m off the rebound, Rodman.’ The way Cam just adeptly layers on reference after reference and paints such a picture with literally every single line/word is approaching a level of skill and mastery that you rarely ever hear. You could almost take any verse from this song (or almost any other Cam songs) and teach a class or write a textbook with it, from the pop culture references to how to set a scene and tell a story.

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