Cam'ron's Vocabulary: Word Clouds For Each of His Albums

What words does Cam'ron use the most when he raps?

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Cam’ron is one of the most entertaining personalities hip-hop has ever seen. He says and does pretty much whatever he wants, it seems, full of the famous Harlem swag and the bravado of a modern day rap pirate. At his best, Cam rhymes with a colorful mix of humor, loopy nonsense, and tough-guy gangster talk—and enough witty wordplay to the stodgiest poetry professor take him seriously. From his infamous pink phase to classic lines like “computers putin’” to his ridiculous ignorant moments, Cam is well, Cam.

With his new mixtape, Ghetto Heaven Vol. 1 supposedly dropping today (with Cam, you never know) we began to wonder about what the Diplomats leader's vocabulary is really made of. So we gathered up all the lyrics to each of his six studio albums, stuffed them into the Word Cloud generator at the very enjoyable website, Wordle, and found out exactly. You know how word clouds work, right? The frequency of every word in each cloud is expressed in the size of the font for that word in the graphic. In these, each cloud represents an album.) As one would expect, “Killa” and “Cam” are writ large for every one. But there's other words were more surprised to see so prominantly. How interesting, for example that Cam likes "get" and "got" so much. What an aquisitonal mind he has!

Anway, check out these Wordclouds for Each of Cam'ron's Albums to see the lexical tendencies of one of rap's great vocabulists. KILLA! 

Written by Nicholas Sella (@therealnsella)

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Confessions Of Fire (1998)

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Label: Untertainment/Epic Records

Cam'ron started his career in the late '90s. His first album wasn't a huge success, but it definitely had its moments. Cam scored his first hit with the Ma$e assisted "Horse & Carriage" (which fell one spot short of becoming a Top 40 hit) and he had a street banger with "357." But the album did little to establish him as a major star. Looking at the album's wordcloud, the lyrics for his first album were mostly typical rap words, though it appears he used "yo" and "know" more often on that album than on any other. 

S.D.E. (2000)

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Label: Epic Records

S.D.E. (Sports, Drugs & Entertainment) is Cam's sophomore album. Like his previous album, it wasn't a huge hit and he didn't really become a major star until he signed with Roc-A-Fella. This is also the last album before Cam switched his flow from a more traditional rap style to the one we all know him for today. The Diplomats were around but on this album the namedropping wasn't there yet. Maybe Cam was in a fouler mood than we recall, because he apparently he used the word "fuck" a lot. Also, seems there was a lot of girl talk on the album with words like "bitch," "chick," and "girl" appearing quite often.

Come Home With Me (2002)

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Label: Roc-A-Fella/Diplomat/Def Jam

Come Home With Me is Cam'ron's most successful album and featured some of his biggest hits. It introduced the general public to Juelz Santana and The Diplomats and was the beginning of his stint on Roc-A-Fella Records. The album went on to be certified platinum on the backs of the chart topping, Juelz-assisted, "Oh Boy" and "Hey Ma," It's no wonder "boy" is one of the most used words on this album. By this album, we began to notice that Cam likes to use the words "get" and "got" a whole lot. But the album also features many references to words like "Killa," "Cam" and "Harlem," which are staples of Cam'ron's vocabulary. 

Purple Haze (2004)

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Label: Roc-A-Fella/Diplomat/Def Jam

Purple Haze was the last Cam'ron album to be released on Roc-A-Fella Records and lacked the promotion and chart topping singles of Come Home With Me. However, the album has aged remarkably well and many critics and fans see it as one of the very best "coke rap" albums. Words like "white," "bricks," "coke," "grams," "work" and "bake" appear all over this album for that very reason.

Killa Season (2006)

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Label: Diplomat/Asylum

Killa Season was released right after Cam'ron had been shot and the last album before the turmoil amongst The Diplomats. It's a cinematic album that has the high-energy street sound of the mid-2000s and includes songs were Cam disses Jay-Z. It also heavily features the extended Dipset crew outside Jim and Juelz. It's no wonder "money," "shot," "Dipset," "boss," "chain" and "ice" appear as much as they do. And of course, he says "get," "got," and "Killa" a bunch of times.  

Crime Pays (2009)

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Label: Diplomat/Asylum

Crime Pays was Cam's first step back into hip-hop after disappearing for a couple of years to take care of his ailing mother. He was returning to a very different hip-hop world; The Diplomats were no more (although Jim Jones and Juelz Santana were still making noise), 50 Cent looked like the clear winner in their beef, and New York City had gone cold as far as hip-hop was concerned. Not to mention the recession was in full effect. By the looks of it, Cam used the word "like" more on this album than on any other, which would indicate a much more metaphor-heavy, punchline oriented flow. 

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