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Cable news producers don’t learn. Cam’ron is the kind of rapper who makes himself available for interviews. These days, Cam’ron and Mase, a friend who became an adversary and then a friend again, are media figures themselves; they do a live sports talk show called It Is What It Is on YouTube every day. But Killa Cam is the last person you want to put on live TV, especially if you’re trying to discuss serious matters. Whatever the circumstances, Cam’ron’s appearance will become a meme, and there’s nowhere you can steer the interview to avoid that.
In 2003, Cam’ron and Dame Dash went on The O’Reilly Factory, and Cam’s repeated line — “you mad” — became arguably more famous than anything he ever said on a song. A few years later, Anderson Cooper tried to get to the bottom of Cam’s policy on snitching, and he asked Cam if he’d call the police if he found out a serial killer was living next door. Cam’s response: “I’d probably move.” Last night, CNN spoke to Cam’ron about the very serious situation involving fellow Harlem rap veteran Diddy, and Cam took that thing as far off-script as he possibly could.
On CNN last night, anchor Abby Phillip asked Cam’ron about the horrifying surveillance footage of Diddy assaulting then-girlfriend Cassie in 2016: “Did you recognize that Sean Combs?” Cam’ron condemned Diddy’s action in the video: “Everything in that video is egregious, I’m against. I don’t support all the charges that’s alleged against him. I don’t support any of that trafficking minors, domestic violence. I’m totally against it. So when I seen the video, I was kinda upset with it.” That was the most serious moment of the segment. Things went very sideways from there.
When Phillip again asked Cam’ron if he recognizes that kind of behavior in Diddy, Cam took the question as literally as possible: “I don’t know him like that! What you mean I recognize, did I recognize him? I seen him… I didn’t zoom in to see if it was really him or nothin’.”
When Phillip showed a video of Cam’ron and Mase briefly discussing past experiences with Diddy — specifically Mase not trying to get Cam a deal with Bad Boy — Cam held up a little thing of HorsePower, a sexual stimulant that he’s been selling, then slurped it down loudly and announced, “Sorry, I’m gonna get some cheeks after this HorsePower joint.” Cam then said he doesn’t know Diddy that well, and added, “But my show does come on at 8AM eastern on YouTube. It’s called It Is What It Is. Y’all make sure y’all check it out. Y’all might get some more information out of Mase from there.”
When Abby Phillip asked Cam about people in the industry protecting Diddy, Cam paused and then answered her question with a question: “Who the talent agent for this joint? You think I be sitting around watching what Diddy doing? I didn’t know this was a Diddy joint y’all invited me to. Yo, who booked me for this joint?”
All in all, another magnetic three and a half minutes of trainwreck television. Once again, I almost can’t believe it’s real. See it for yourself below.
Abby Phillip almost broke. She did a whole lot better than I would’ve done. Making it through that interview with a straight face must’ve been a herculean effort.