Birth Name: Cameron Giles
Genre: Rap
Period: `90s, 2000s
Biography:
Rapper Cam`ron was born and raised in Harlem, attending Manhattan Center High School, where one of his basketball teammates was Mason "Mase" Betha, who also became a successful rapper. Though his playing earned him scholarship offers from top colleges, Cam`ron was unable to take advantage of them because of his poor academic record, and he enrolled at a small college in Texas instead. He quickly dropped out and returned to Harlem, where he became a drug dealer before turning to rap.
Hooking up with the Bad Boy posse, he developed a pop-rap style similar to chief Bad Boy Puff Daddy. But Cam`ron didn`t sign with Bad Boy; Mase introduced him to the Notorious B.I.G., who in turn brought in his partner Lance "Un" Rivera. Un signed Cam`ron to his Untertainment label, distributed by Epic Records. Cam`ron first attracted attention with "Pull It," which earned airplay in May 1998. "3-5-7" was featured in the movie Woo and became his first R&B chart entry in June. Then in July came "Horse & Carriage," featuring Mase. It made the R&B Top Ten and just missed hitting the pop Top 40, setting up Cam`ron`s debut album, Confessions of Fire, which went gold and made the Top Ten of both the pop and R&B charts. "Feels Good" featuring Usher was another R&B chart entry in December. "Let Me Know" made the pop and R&B charts in June 1999.
A year later, "What Means the World to You" heralded the release of Cam`ron`s biographical sophomore album, S.D.E. (the acronym standing for Sports, Drugs, and Entertainment). Cam`ron worked with Ol` Dirty Bastard, Mobb Deep`s Prodigy, and producer Digga to complete the album, which was released in September 2000. After moving to Jay-Z`s Roc-a-Fella label, his single "Oh Boy" became a big hit on urban radio in 2002, and the album Come Home with Me performed well, too. Early the following year, his protégés the Diplomats debuted with the two-disc set Diplomatic Immunity. Diplomatic Immunity, Vol. 2 appeared a year later, and Cam`ron`s own follow-up, Purple Haze, dropped late in 2004.
On October 23, 2005, Cam`ron made news when he escaped an attempted carjacking in Washington, D.C., with only a bullet wound on his arm. The next year he directed the straight-to-DVD film Killa Season and released an album of the same name. Message boards blew up right before the album`s release when his Jay-Z dis track, "You Gotta Love It," began appearing on mixtapes, and Killa Season reached number two on the album charts. Duplicate entry '' for key 1
Discography: Discography
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