Today, Feb. 4, marks the 43rd birthday of Cam'ron, a legendary Harlem, NY MC best known for his affiliation with hip-hop group, The Diplomats, a.k.a Dipset.

Born Cameron Giles in 1976, Killa Cam began his career rapping in the group Children of the Corn alongside his late cousin, Bloodshed, and Harlem legends, the late Big L and Ma$e. Focusing on his solo career after the group disbanded, Cam found his outlet with a successful debut LP, Confessions of Fire in 1998. The album, which was released under the label run by Biggie’s manager, Lance “Un” Rivera, had a mild buzz that gradually sold over 500,000 copies. Three singles, “357,” “Horse & Carriage” featuring Ma$e, and “Pull It,” were responsible for attracting Cam’ron’s appeal to the mainstream.

Eventually, the Harlem-bred rapper gained notoriety as the head of East Coast crew Dipset, and has remained a prominent fixture in the game ever since. As Dipset's leader, Cam has stayed steadfast to his New York roots, even in the light of fame. With a huge discography of headlining and assisted tracks, Killa Cam has collaborated with Jim Jones and Juelz Santana and has been putting out classic material throughout his entire career, thus birthing solo projects like 2006's wildly successful Killa Season and his highest selling album to date, Crime Pays in 2009. 

Since dominating music, Cam has also diversified into plenty of lucrative business ventures. He has showed a line of designer capes at New York Fashion Week, landed a deal with Frigo Underwear and most recently, he worked with Reebok to drop the Question Mid, a sneaker that served as the fourth collaboration between both parties.

The Diplomats rhymer has showed off some skills on both the big and small screens, having acted in skits for commercials, late night TV and Dame Dash's 2018 film Honor Up. He also appeared on Love and Hip Hop: New York from 2016 to 2017.

On the music side, Cam dropped an acclaimed mixtape in 2017 titled, The Program, and has since reunited with the core members of The Diplomats -- Jim Jones, Juelz Santana and Freekey Zekey -- who, after a 17-date tour in 2018, dropped a full length LP, Diplomatic Ties. The 9-track album is Dipset's first project in 14 years.

Happy Birthday, Killa Cam!

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