Cam'ron - Purple Haze 2 (Album Review)

One of my favorite rappers of all-time returns to the hip-hop scene with “Purple Haze 2.”

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TOP 5

5. THIS IS MY CITY/KEEP RISING

I’m not going to lie, I cried the moment I pressed play on both This Is My City and Keep Rising… Not only because I’m one of those cryers that cry when other people cry (Max B cries his ass off on the hook to both tracks), but the combination of the two tracks feature trill, sly, playful and classic versions of Cam’ron (Damn, I really missed this n***a!).

I’m not going to lie, the way Cam switched to the nostalgic-sounding Keep Rising after This is My City finished was tight as s**t!

4. K.O.P.

Cam is never going to end up on The Masked Singer; however, when he sings, I be feeling it! In K.O.P., you get a chance to hear crooner Cam, as, throughout the track, he melodically reminds both his girl and the world that, at the core, he’s still a drug-dealer/reckless n***a that would pay for some dome.

If Cam thinks drug-dealing, when you don’t have to, is smart, he needs to think again.

3. FAST LANE

I’m not going to lie, I was glued to my seat listening to Fast Lane! The reason being is that the track starts off with Cam telling us a story about holding his own when he was confronted by Suge Knight one gloomy club night. From there, the Harlem rapper tells stories about kicking it with Jay-Z, being wanted by some thirsty ass girls, and making money the hardest of ways in the song. (The song gets less and less interesting as it plays on)

I feel like Suge has had some type of beef with everyone that has ever picked up a mic (Suge even had beef with Vanilla Ice).

2. I DON’T KNOW

If I were to guess, Cam’ron is a big fan of Wale (Wale is the only feature on Purple Haze 2 that I would consider random). Whatever the case may be, in I Don’t Know, the two rappers show outstanding chemistry with one another!

I Don’t Know features this serene instrumental that reminds me of some s**t you would hear on a late Sunday morning. Unfortunately, the things both Cam’ron and Wale talk about in the song are s**t you would hear on an early Sunday morning. (To sum it up, both Cam and Wale come across as straight-up pimps on this song)

I love Cam’s wordplay/cleverness and Wale’s ruthlessness on this song!

1. BELIEVE IN FLEE

Cam’ron is already a legend, so anything he does these days is house money. With that being said, Believe In Flee is some of the finest house money out there!

On Believe In Flee, you get a juiced-up version of Cam that is slick with the flows, braggadocios as hell, and most importantly, street-personified. When you add the soulful instrumental that gasses Cam up to the overall equation of the song, what you end up with is a gem that only bolsters my favorite rapper’s catalog.

SONG BY SONG BREAKDOWN

1. TOAST TO ME (3.5/5)

2. MEDELLIN (3/5)

3. LOSIN’ WEIGHT 3 (3.5/5)

4. K.O.P. (3.5/5)

5. I DON’T KNOW (4.5/5)

6. BIG DEAL (3.5/5)

7. FAST LANE (4/5)

8. THE RIGHT ONE (3.5/5)

9. THIS IS MY CITY (3.5/5)

10. KEEP RISING (3.5/5)

11. THE GET BACK (3.5/5)

12. JUST BE HONEST (3/5)

13. RIDE THE WAVE (3.5/5)

14. KILLA BOUNCE (2/5)

15. BELIEVE IN FLEE (4.5/5)

16. STRAIGHT HARLEM (3.5/5)

OVERALL RATING

(C+)

In Purple Haze 2, Cam reminds the world why people in the hood see him as a triple OG, as, in the album, he tells believable tales about everything you can find in a hood encyclopedia. What makes the tales the Harlem MC talks about on the album even more rivetting is that they are accompanied by bars that sound bonafide and instrumentals that sound nostalgic.

To me, Cam’ron has never gotten the respect he deserves for being a highly-talented MC. In my opinion, his ability to slyly dish out clever punchlines, get creative with deliveries and give off a persona that is OG-like is very underrated. With that being said, in Purple Haze 2, I felt, heard, and internalized most of the lyrics the Harlem rapper dished out (Even when the songs were a little blah). Yes, when Cam was rapping about ‘Computers computin’ back in the day, it was bad, but on this album, he doesn’t say anything close to that level of egregious.

While I love Cam as a rapper, I think it’s the instrumentals he chooses to rap over that makes him such a unique listen. In Purple Haze 2, we are gifted to old-school instrumentals that your grandparents might f**k with, and for some reason, even though I am a young man, I enjoy listening to that s**t! Anywho, over these instrumentals, Cam finds very unique ways to drop his bars, which in my opinion, allows every word he spews out to stick out like a sore thumb.

The features on Purple Haze 2 were both limited and random. While you may know who Jim Jones, Wale and Max B are, you may not know who Mimi, Disco Black or Shooter is. Nonetheless, I thought that everyone who was featured on the album did a good job of feeding off of Cam’s gangsta/savage ass energy (Except for Max B… I don’t know what the hell he was doing on the two songs he was featured on).

With all the ass-kissing I did on this review of Purple Haze 2, why didn’t I give it an A+? Personally, I feel like a lot of the songs on the album are low-quality, some of the songs sound the same, and Cam didn’t wow me with the hooks he delivered. I get it, hearing songs about hood tales is dope and all, but in order to get anything higher than a C+ from me, I have to hear something dynamic… I didn’t hear anything dynamic on Purple Haze 2.

Purple Haze is one of my favorite rap albums. Purple Haze 2 isn’t one of my favorite rap albums, but it does remind me why I loved Purple Haze so much back then.