Dame Dash says Cam'ron was justified in deleting Jay-Z's verse from "Oh Boy" because Hov had "a pattern" of "jacking" other people's songs.
In an interview on The Gauds Show, the Roc-A-Fella co-founder said that he thought it was "fire" that Cam didn't release Hov's remix of "Oh Boy," the Grammy-nominated single that peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.
"He had been asking for a verse... No one gave Cam that beat, he took it," he said around the 1:13:00 mark of the interview, as seen above. "I was asking Kanye for beats for him, he wasn't giving them so he just took it and then put it out."
Dash said that Jay didn't give Cam a verse and it was only when "Oh Boy" was "hot" that he wanted to hop on it. "Cam was like, 'Nah,'" he added. "Cam honestly said, 'I thought the verse was whack.' And I said, 'That's gangster.'"
One of the hosts said it was a weird move because Cam was signed to Jay's record label, Roc-A-Fella, at the time. "It don't matter, bro," he replied. "Jay does that to people. ... What I'm going to do is stay out of that. It's not my business. He had already erased it, what I'm going to do? Get mad?"
Dash said it was never his place to criticize Cam for doing what he thinks is best for his music. "I wasn't mad at Cam for standing his ground, I respect him more," he said. "I wouldn't have did it, but I was like, 'I can't be mad at you.' ... Cam would never fold, and I got to respect him, he's a real Harlem n***a. He don't give a fuck. Bottom line is, I don't think Cam did anything wrong. And I would stand on that and anything else is bitch-ass n***aness. ... If a n***a don't like your fucking shit, and you wasn't trying to jump on it before, I don't care who you are... That's Harlem shit."
At the time, Dash just thought the situation was "funny," and he didn't care all that much because Cam was selling records regardless.
"If I was Jay I would've laughed," he added. "He didn't disrespect him. ... You know what's disrespectful? The fact that he had to take that beat and then the only way he could get him on that record is when it's already successful. Jay had a pattern of doing that. Of just jacking n***a's records. So Cam protected himself. You're not taking credit for this record. ... Jay has a record of getting on a record after it gets hot, and now he can perform that record. So it sounds like he made that record but it was already hot. That was a model he did. But he tried it on Cam and Cam didn't actually go for it. ... He didn't get caught up in Jay's bullshit."
Around the same time, Jay-Z remixed Joe Budden's "Pump It Up" for his mixtape, The S.Carter Collection, which was also highlighted during the interview. "That's fucked up," Dame said, to which he added that "Can I Get A..." was originally Ja Rule's record. "He does this thing where he says, 'Oh it's your record, I jump on it, now it's my record.' It's almost like extortion. That's what he did, so Cam was like, 'You're not extorting me, n***a.'"
Longtime Roc-A-Fella and Roc Nation audio engineer Young Guru, who has extensively worked with Jay-Z and Kanye West among others, responded to Dash's claims after a tweet with his comments started to circulate.
"CAP on this narrative that jay STEALS songs," he wrote. "1. Jay got 'I just want to love you' directly from Pharrell and made the song from scratch. Sparks says a Rick James hook. 2. 'Can I get' was Irv's idea, literally said, 'Jay get on this record but please keep Ja.' I love you OG but nah."
In a second tweet, he added, "And while we are here 'Pump it Up' was for a mixtape. That is what a mixtape was at the time. Rap over the hottest beats out. Everyone did that for mixtapes."
Last year, Cam'ron got candid about deleting Jay'z "Oh Boy" verse during an interview on Million Dollaz Worth of Game. "Hov did a remix for ‘Oh Boy,’ and I erased it," he shared, to which he was asked why he didn't just put it in the vault. "I should’ve,” he replied. “Looking back on it I should have, because… Shit, I could’ve got some money.”
He clarified that it was out of pettiness because he considered himself to be "very petty," at least at the time. "We should have kept it, and whether we used it or not we should’ve had it,” he continued. “That was just my mentality at the time.”
