And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: The second installment of the latest Cam’ron album, Crime Pays…

Crime pays intro – The classic Cam’ron sound is back. Unapologetic Cam extolling his achievements that began with Crime. Tells a story to explain his thought process regarding entering the criminal enterprise in New York. Treats the drug game like the only hope with clear thoughts and well explained sentences.

Cookin’ up- begins to actually tell the story. It’s like Purple Haze but grimy; Giving his street bona fides, not rap. He’s trying to prove that he was in the street and that he is still connected. Cam is either the premiere storyteller of his time or the most delusional man in New York, but I don’t know yet

Where I know you from – This song is more affirmation of his illegal star status and a lamentation of the freeloader culture when people realize that he is coming up. He has not allowed his production to mature at all, so Cam purists will be pleased but he should not retain any hope for garnering a new fan base. It’s almost unbecoming to see a person get that big and never set their sights any higher. Reminds me of a Jadakiss line from pain and torture: “What other rapper you know blew up and stayed dealin”

F*** Cam 1 – Works on the level of explaining how much he feels hated on the one side. This is classic Cam. On his previous albums he would showcase the most ridiculous of his critics with no response

Never Ever- Brings it back to the old days. It’s a grown up fantasy life over whimsical production. I appreciate the nostalgic feeling of this track. The organization of the album feels more like SDE than Purple Haze. He hasn’t mastered the art of staying in his wheelhouse but Crime Pays feels like starting over. Cameron needs to hang out with some more elevated lyricists unless he plans to really advertise his niche of mastering the late 80’s and early 90’s flow with the basic wordplay that everyone sees coming

Curve – Off the top of my head sounds like a blinded by the light sample. Just a throwaway track about girls that he is not interested in for whatever reason. He’s attempting to start a new slang or something. Talking slick and inventing street lingo is the tough guys equivalent to inventing a dance so there you go, Cam: Superman that

Silky (no homo) – This song is the internet darling which along with the Jadakiss feature has people excited about this album. This song wins the production award without a doubt. Sampling is never a bad thing in production…I think. He went with Groove me baby by King Floyd which got a lot of people who enjoyed quality music before the ringtone era existed, but I’m just happy that he didn’t disrespect the sample. I could see my Aunt Weasy and Uncle Grover cutting a mean rug to this song. Cam speeds up the flow to an almost Bun B type cadence so I guess he’s starting to wake up. His storytelling becomes a bit more vague and figurative. He seems to actually have fun with this track…so did I

Get it in Ohio – This song is what originally got me buzzing about this album. First track I was actually happy to hear from cam. Attempting to analyze whether it’s more like a guilty pleasure (a la Hi Hater) or more of a taste of good things to come from a focused drug game tour guide is yet to be seen. This song is perfect because it explores a subject that a lot of people know but most people are unaware of: The Midwest got hit with the drug game behind New York and they have a lot of the same stories that you know from NY kingpins in their streets but much later.

Who- Has a big sound. It’s something that you might expect from the 2006 dipset crew. Sounds like a Gregorian chant in the background. He asks the question who does all of these things and obviously the expected answer is Cam. Pretty cool gimmick. It works.

Grease skit – Why does he do these skits

You know what’s up- Sounds cool at first and then this wannabe Nate Dogg jumps on the track and ruins the beginning. Beyonce wannabe is bearable. I am definitely skipping this one from now on. He spits like one verse about some graphic sex acts…hmmm ok

Spend the Night – Sounds corny right from the get-go. A couple of cool wordplays but I can’t really handle the disgusting shit that he says to women, or his sing-rapping. What is that? You need to stop, Cam!

F*** Cam 2 – ??

Woohoo – Good to see his still does biz with some friends from back in the day. I honestly felt a little bad for him because he was forsaken by all of his friends! It’s a pretty classic Cam’ron sound and it actually seems like he’s having fun again

Chalupa – seriously? A song named after a meal at taco bell. Ok let’s get past it. I actually enjoyed cam’s flow in this song. Why did he wait so long to turn it on? This is tight. He’s actually winning on this one.

Cookies and apple juice – This is a sick beat, it’s enjoyable until the chorus. This girl is spittin’ too! She has flows. Cam is going in on this beat!

I hate my job – Cool piano on this beat. Cam is attempting to appeal to the common man and it works because for some reason I believe this more than the drug talk. It seems so natural, but not exactly what you would call hot in the streets

Homicide –The second half of this album, he is on his shit. I wish he would have just put out a 12 track album without the beginning part. He is starting to lose the whole nursery rhyme thing. l Good for you cam. But as this cadence, there is not wordplay and storytelling goes out the window. Give me both!

F*** cam 3???

Get it for cheap – Cam’s favorite producer. It’s basic, nothing special except that nobody else is really doing this sound right now. Again telling war stories, do we believe you or do you need more people?

Get it Get it – Sounds like Killa is trying to be self reflective and almost inspirational. But if you’re going to do that, actually address the issues that are actually occurring. Remember dipest??

Bottom of the P***y – Just a weird song. Sounds like a personal apology but this guy is being unnecessarily graphic. Did he something weird as a child that makes him act this way?

F*** Cam 4- This is getting ridiculous

Let’s talk about ft. Jadakiss – Straight fire! First rapper to talk about swine flu! Leave it to Jada to teach you how to end a CD. This album really works hard to redeem itself.

However, that rant aside, this album has some qualities that cannot be challenged on the basis of their biographical mendacity. The CD caters to Cam’ron purists who were originally captivated by the simplistic nursery rhyme flow and grimy subject matter for which Giles is known. Fortunately, Killa goes back to his production wheelhouse which utilizes very basic drum patterns and melodies. This allows the listener to focus on the words while this son of Harlem takes us through a day in his life. The production is solid (but not spectacular by any stretch), featuring highlights like “Silky”, “Who”, and “Woohoo”. Lyrically, the album is adequate but fails to WOW because it takes so long to get started like a train when you rev it up (or me in the morning). It is rare that you will hear me say this, but Crime Pays could have used a few well-placed guest spots from people who we actually enjoy listening to. I was proud that he actually attempted to do something introspective toward the end but it amounted to being too little, too late when viewed in comparison to the overarching theme.

Overall, this album falls short of Cam’s best work but in the light of his hit and miss career with albums, it is still tied for being his second best studio project. I would not expect it to blow anyone away in sales but it will likely serve to re-energize his music and pave the way for some very solid mixtape work.

Be on the lookout for Part II of this post, where we will provide a track by track analysis of the album.