Can Cam’ron mount a comeback?

Cam'ron disappears for a few years, then all of a sudden he resurfaces on a random Tuesday in February. The fuck? I can't tell if he's just run out of money and figured he'd better hurry up and put an album out, or if this is all part of some brilliant strategy he has to get his career back in order.

The song and video he put out yesterday would suggest the former. On the one hand, I think it's brilliant, in that he's apparently made a song about my life, and hence it can't help but appeal to me on a personal level. Not only has he actually moved to the midwest, but he's rapping about how he's got a menial job that he hates, and how he smokes weed before he shows up just so he can get through a shift. Don't let me find out he's been working for the same company as me. I generally pass on the grass, not as a rule, but for the same reason I don't watch sports, but I've definitely rubbed one out before I punched the clock. It's one of the only ways of dealing with working with so many smoking hot high school girls. If only I was smart enough to work with adults, this wouldn't be an issue. (Grown women = gross!)

But I digress. Suffice it to say I enjoyed both the song and the video. It's like he's singing my life with his words. Killing me softly with his song, if you will. Nullus.

That being said, it's hard for me not to view "I Hate My Job" as a total non sequitir. Why in the fuck is Cam'ron rapping about the sad existence of those of us who've been shunned by corporate America, for whatever reason? And how in the fuck was it decided that this would be the move that would get his career back in order? Did he figure that people would be able to relate, because of the economy, and hence they'd run out an cop (despite the fact that they don't have any money)? I guess that last Young Jeezy album has done well. But you know the South supports its artists regardless of whether or not there's any justification. New York, meanwhile? Not so much. The video looks like Cam couldn't afford to hire Rik Cordero, so he hired whoever it is that does those Schweig-Engel commercials. The result might actually be better than a Rik Cordero video anyway.

Also, "I Hate My Job" somehow managed to hit the Internets the same day as the cover for next month's issue of XXL, featuring... you guessed it, Cam'ron. Coincidence? Not to suggest anything untoward about my benefactor, especially in times like these, but normally, I'd hardly notice if the cover of a new issue of XXL happened to arrive at a moment of brilliant media serendipity for the artist featured therein, if the artist was... say, Jay-Z, or Kanye West, or Fiddy Cent. But I just don't see Cam'ron having that kind of pull. If anything, there might be a certain amount of latent goodwill, based on the fact that he's one of the few LCD rappers who takes any kind of pride in his craft. Maybe the stars are finally lining up for him.

Which begs the question, if Cam'ron manages to build on the joementum generated by this new single and magazine cover, rather than just flake out like he always does, could he actually have a viable career in rap music once more? Or is he over and done with, like most other people who've ever beefed with 50 Cent? I guess we'll see.