Cam'ron Came to Canada and Everything Was Perfect

Photo courtesy of Matt Adam

Upon leaving the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto at 10:45 PM on a Saturday night, fans of Cam'ron seeped out onto the street and shared stories about what they had just witnessed. It felt like a momentous occasion, and despite the fact that his set was rife with issues that included faulty sound systems and a 45 minute performance that felt clipped and premature, everyone seemed to be overly pleased. Draped in Dipset-branded merchandise for the duration of his set, Cam'ron came on stage at a very respectful 10 PM to the raucous applause of the energetic crowd before working through a very efficient and effective set that spanned his entire discography, from the old ("Get It In Ohio") to the new ("Dipshits" and "Speaking in Tungs").

Cam'ron's stage presence and swagger went a long way with helping him connect with the crowd, but you could tell from looking around at the people in attendance that they were simply happy to be successfully witnessing an act that had been stifled many times by the Canadian border. In fact, even in the days leading up to the concert, fans were hesitant to buy a ticket that would soon have to be be refunded after a border guard took offence at something benign and denied Cameron Giles entrance into Canada. Again. It wasn't until he posted an instagram video on Friday night that fans collectively exhaled and made plans to don their all-pink outfits for the Harlem rapper's show. Looking around at the crowd, you saw fans of all ages dotted in the sea of people. There were the over-30 attendees, who tracked Cam'ron's career as he went from a member of Children of the Corn, to being the standout rapper of Dipset, to being a solo star. But there were also the under 25 fans, the ones who primarily knew Cam'ron for being the flamboyant rapper who introduced the world to all-pink outfits and Kanye West, and coined the internet's favourite rebuttal: "U Mad?"

Photo courtesy of Matt Adam

Throughout his set, it was difficult to make out the song being played until Cam'ron actually started rapping, an issue that lay with the sound system and the fact that Cam didn't perform a soundcheck prior to taking the stage. There were also some technical difficulties with songs being dropped prematurely, but to Cam'ron's credit, he didn't allow these setbacks to impact his time on stage. He ran through all of the songs that his fans wanted to hear while still managing to inject some of his new material into the setlist, which, to my surprise, a great number of people in the crowd knew all the words to. Of course you knew that he would play "Hey Ma" and "Oh Boy" and "Down & Out" but knowing that it was coming and actually hearing it live are incomparable. He never relied on the backing voals, though his DJ would often play the full song and not just the instrumentals, and he worked his way to both sides of the stage to make sure nobody felt left out. He even threw his hoodie into the crowd, prompting a fist fight in the front row.

Cam'ron's business acumen is one of his most underrated but admirable qualities, and this show felt like just that: business. He knew what the people wanted to hear and let them have it, while still promoting his new songs in a way that didn't feel like they were being forced down your throat. His banter throughout the set was clipped and to the point, as if he didn't want it to bite into his already shortened performance time. He came onstage on time and left promptly before the 11 PM noise curfew that exists in the residential areas of town could come into effect. Would it have been anyone else on stage, you would have felt that your $40 ticket cost would not have justified the 45 minutes of music you witnessed. But, holy shit, this is Cam'ron. In the flesh. In Canada. He could have shortened his set by 20 minutes and done nothing but walk around and made funny faces, and the crowd would've still eaten it up. This wan't a concert, it was history. And though it was a performance that was far from flawless, it was somehow still perfect.

This was Slava Pastuk's Outkast - @SlavaP