Now, the silent tension between Ma$e and Cam’ron is born. This time Mase was older than me and I was a little younger. “Now that i’m older, I kinda see the position Mase was in. Ma$e was coming out with a new album and his Bad Boy deal was coming to fruition. brother “started moving funny.” Cam peeped game. It was at that very time, Cam’ron began to notice his fellow C.O.C. Upon his return to Harlem, he along with Ma$e started to hang out with a kid named “Joe Moe,” known today as Jim Jones, who eventually becomes a co-founder of the Dipset collective with Cam.Īpparently, Ma$e and Jones fell out early, due to expected loyalty matters. One week later, he was featured on 112’s “Only You,” joining B.I.G.Īround the time Ma$e got signed, Cam’ron who was in the midst of his freshman year at a college in Texas, got kicked out and made his way back to Harlem to pursue his own rap career. Ma$e lands himself a $250,000 deal with Bad Boy Records after spitting for Sean Combs at a Hard Rock Cafe in Atlanta, a trip that was lead by Cudda Love. According to Cam’ron in a groundbreaking Instagram Live session, Cudda Love is the one who helped Ma$e “get pretty.” His sister, Stason Bertha introduced him to the road manager of Biggie Smalls, Cudda Love. In 1994, Murda Mase went off to SUNY Purchase on a basketball scholarship but after a few semesters, the aspiring rapper returned to Harlem to pursue his rap career. members Herb McGruff and Killa Cam were featured on Big L’s debut and only album, Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous on the Buckwild produced track, “8 Iz Enuff.” Known by the stage name ‘Killa Cam’, the Cam’ron developed a signature touch with his thematic cadance and raw-bound vocals.Ĭ.O.C. Ma$e who went under the moniker ‘Murda Mase’ was known for his hardcore street smart lyricism and unique flow patterns. In 1991, he gathered Cam’ron, Ma$e, & Bloodshed (Cam’ron’s cousin who was later killed in a car accident in 1997), and lastly Herb McGruff to form the rap group, Children of the Corn. After meeting Lord Finesse in 1990, the momentum of Big L spread across Harlem in the spirit of recognition. The dynamic duo even led Manhattan Center to a NYC PSAL Championship in 1992, unfortunately losing to Brandeis HS in the final moments of the game as shown in the hood flick ‘Killa Season’.ĭuring the early 90s, a 16-year old kid from 140th St and Lenox Ave was known to be one of the biggest rappers on the block. So close, they both chose the same high school, Manhattan Center For Science And Mathematics, where Cam’ron played the starting point guard and Ma$e was his right hand shooting guard on the school’s basketball team. Cameron Giles, who is from W 139th St and Mason Betha, whose stomping ground was in and around Lenox Terrace, both used to play ball for Young Life on 131st Street and Riverside Church on 120th Street as adolescents. I’ma paint the picture, let the niggas make the caption.”Ĭam’ron and Ma$e’s bond traces back to their native neighborhood of Harlem’s westside in the early 1990s through the sport of basketball. “Pussy nigga wearin’ pink I guess he think he matchin’
The stabs thrown on “The Oracle” were starkly intense.įrom accusing Cam’ron of incest (sleeping with his own sister), to conducting shady business with fellow Dipset bodies Juelz Santana and Jim Jones to paying the mother of a mutual friend to lie about Ma$e being influential in her son’s death, Ma$e found the track as being a way to tell the masses what really happened. But, he apparently always found Killa “saying something.” The “Been Around the World” rapper starts off the track by recollecting an encounter he had with Dame Dash back in 2004 when he resurged from “retirement” with Welcome Back, the mogul suggested, “Why don’t you and Cam just beef?” The once Bad Boy pretty boy insisted there was no reason for him to push the beef, when in his eyes, there was none. When it comes to the best diss track of 2017, “The Oracle” is neck to neck with Remy Ma’s Nicki Minaj diss “Shether.” The next day, Ma$e drops “The Oracle” on Soundcloud and ends up contributing to the roster of classic hip-hop diss tracks. “I let too much pass and I was gonna continue to let it pass but when somebody don’t stop - I had to just spank him one time,” Ma$e tells Genius. Feeling the fiery urge to respond, after the parade, Ma$e went into the studio to record a four minute and four second diss dedicated to Cam, “The Oracle.” Finalized in about one hour, the rapper/pastor spits over the beat of Jay-Z’s “Blueprint 2” -a song where the rap legend combats his fellow legend in rap, Nas, and exposes his knowledge on the shadowy conduct of the Harlem knight.