Cam'ron
Purple Haze
(Roc-A-Fella)
Despite months of delays and label politics between Cam'ron and Roc-A-Fella, Purple Haze emerges as an intriguing album. Cam provides a multitude of points that are familiar rap topics-drugs, violence and women are all major parts of Cam's universe. The production on Purple Haze is as good as any-it appears heavily influenced at points by the Roc-A-Fella hip-pop style, an influence even more apparent on Kanye West-produced \Down and Out."" However, despite a wide variety of beats backing him, Cam's level, glossy flow floats on tracks a little too lazily. His voice is just too consistent, too hypnotizing and too laid back. It's hard to get excited about most of the tracks of Purple Haze, no matter how smooth they are to listen to.
Lyrically, Cam is able to twist his rhymes with dexterity, spitting lines like ""I stay icy on purpose, like icy preservers / More than likely I'm the nicest you hearda"" on the opener ""More Gangsta Music."" For the most part, Cam'ron puts on a show in effortlessly crafting lyrics that wrap around one another. While he occasionally hits a consonant hard, most of his lyrics have an easygoing playful nature to their sound. It literally sounds as though Cam'ron is just goofing around, having a good time with it all. Even on more serious, violent lyrics (""Observe cock and spray / hit you from a block away / Drinking saki on a Suzuki, me and old Psycho Dave"") he's able to create an atmosphere of light mischievousness.
The two tracks that are most intriguing are the ones featuring an outside influence. The first, ""Down and Out"" featuring Kanye West and Syleena Johnson on a middling hook, sounds somewhat hollow, as though some effect got dropped off the backing track by accident. But the song does mix things up a bit for Cam'ron, creating some variety in his flow. The second features heavy sampling from Cyndi Lauper's ""Girls Just Want to Have Fun."" The song is just begging to be ripped, remixed and pumped up for club play. But as an original, ""Girls"" is just too soft and too slow.
That's not to say Cam'ron doesn't get it right fairly often on Purple Haze. While ""Girls"" completely misses its mark as a poppy club track, ""Hey Lady"" nails it by minimalizing the mostly-treble backing. ""Harlem Streets"" counters his drugs/money/hos attitude, delivering lyrics like ""But I give you an earful, it's tearful / Told my mother I hustle, and she said be careful."" And, unlike most albums, the skits on Purple Haze are genuinely funny at times.
Cam'ron was none too happy with the promotion (or lack thereof) Purple Haze got. Whether he remains with Roc-A-Fella or not, Cam'ron needs to explore some stylistic changes on his next album, or put more effort into refining his beats. The guy has indisputable talent with wordplay but sorely lacks vocal range. He needs to get more worked up, more passionate about his rhymes. While his smooth flow is soothing, it can quickly become boring. By failing to inject anything more than confident bravado in his flow, Cam'ron also dissuades the listener from getting too invested.
-William Temby
