DAR Roundtable: Cam'ron's Come Home With Me vs Purple Haze

Come Home With Me

Tracklist 
1. Intro 
2. Losing Weight Pt. 2
3. Oh Boy 
4. Live My Life(Leave Me Alone)
5. Daydreaming 
6. Come Home With Me 
7. Welcome to New York City 
8. Hey Ma 
9. On Fire Tonight
10. Stop Calling 
11. I Just Wanna 
12. Dead or Alive 
13. The ROC (Just Fire)
14. Boy Boy 
15. Tomorrow

VS

Purple Haze

Tracklist 
1. Intro
2. More Gangsta Music 
3. Get Down 
4. Welcome To Purple Haze (Skit)
5. Killa Cam/Roll That(Skit)
6. Leave Me Alone Pt. 2
7. Down and Out 
8. Harlem Streets 
9. Rude Boy (Skit)
10. Girls 
11. I'm A Chickenhead (Skit)
12. Soap Opera
13. O.T.(Skit)
14. Bubble Music 
15. More Reasons/ Car (Skit)
16. The Block (Skit)
17. The Dope Man
18. Family Ties 
19. Chi(Skit)/Adrenaline/Phone (Skit)
20. Hey Lady 
21. Shake 
22. Get Em Girls/ The Mizzle (Outro)
23. DipSet Forever 
24. Take Em To Church 

We here at DAR have always been Dipset fans for the most part. We've discussed their legacy overall, and they'll be more discussion on the group in the future I'm sure. Today, we talk the leader of the Diplomats, Cam'ron and his two albums via Roc-A-Fella Records, Come Home With Me and Purple Haze. Both represent a different era for Cam, both solid albums, but which is better? We gathered the team to discuss. Let's get into it.

@_Oh_Bee 
Come Home With Me takes the crown this time around in my book. I appreciate Just Blaze's presence on this album. There's nothing like a great producer to me, especially when he has a signature sound.

Cam'Ron also had a lot of samples on this album and that's dope. From Rose Royce to 2Pac to Aretha Franklin, he was smooth in his placement. He utilized the samples in the songs perfectly without doing too much. If you listen close enough, you're able to clearly identify them.

Purple Haze was a bit cluttered to me. There were almost as many skits as there were songs. Come Home With Me was all music and that's the purpose of an album. Cam'Ron was amazing at storytelling on Come Home With Me. His use of imagery is amazing. He knew when to be serious and when to have fun on the track. He even got a Grammy nomination for the single "Oh Boy".

Come Home With Me was Cam'Ron's debut album on the Roc-a-Fella label. The world was also introduced to The Diplomats. What I like about Cam'Ron is he stays true to the signature NY sound. Many people remember this album for the single "Hey Ma", but I appreciate it more for "Come Home With Me". Purple Haze had more of a street feel to it. "Get Em Girls" is an anthem of sorts. Personally, I favor what I can relate to, not just what sounds good. Come Home With Me stands as the better project in my opinion.

@CherchezLaPorsh
I knew Cam’ron was something great when I first heard him on “Horse and Carriage” with Ma$e. I remember I liked the way he rapped, I don’t know what it was, maybe their silly vocals and lyrics or simply his voice and flow, but regardless Cam stood out on the track. I followed along with Cam’ron’s releases pretty much up until 2004 and this was almost too easy, as “Come Home With Me” KILLS Purple Haze.

First off, we all know what happens when you jam over 20 tracks on an album. Unless you can execute the project perfectly, you will end up with a bunch of fillers and a handful of tracks that sound lazy and thrown together, and that's what "Purple Haze" was. “Come Home With Me” is the opposite of that. I feel like this album was short, sweet, to the point and has some very memorable tracks on it. Seeing as this was his first release after being signed to Roc-a-Fella Records, the success didn’t come as a surprise nor did anything else about it. He had fantastic features with Jay-Z, Memphis Bleek, Beanie Sigel, and Juelz Santana amongst others, which make the tracks pretty good.

Cam and Juelz are a great pair so it's no surprise I liked the majority of the tracks, but to me “Hey Ma” and “Welcome to New York City” were the absolute greatest. "Hey Ma" was catchy, fun to rap along with and the back and forth was dope. I love the piano sound in there as well.  I love high energy songs and “Welcome to NYC” was put together very well. Whenever I listen to that track I feel like Cam, Jay and Juelz are a team and they just rotate their parts. They feed off each others energy and I love it. Even though Cam’ron would end up beefing with Jay, I think the business relationship and collaborations were more beneficial to Cam especially for this particular album. Selling 226,000 copies in its first week, it hit number 2 on the top 200 and was certified platinum....come on! This was a no brainer, Come Home With Me was great!

@SpeedontheBeat 
I've got to go with Purple Haze. While Come Home with Me is a solid album (and had less skits), it kind of felt more like a Dipset group album and less like a solo effort. The skits in Purple Haze, while pretty much having one for every 2.5 songs on the album, they help tie together the album and showcase some of that humor that Cam'ron's come to be known for. Additionally, "Down and Out" still bangs.

@CurlsAndSports
If you read my tweets occasionally, chances are, it's a Dipset or Cam'ron related tweet. I'm a huge Cam'ron fan. Hell, I'm doing this piece as I listen to "Get Em Girls".

I think Cam'ron became even more popular in the time when it was great to see beef between rap artists. Nowadays, you see lame tweets to one other. Put that nonsense in a song. But back to these Cam albums, between Come Home With Me or Purple Haze, I honestly cannot pick because they're both personal favorites of mine. I'm a hoodrat at heart, I know. But, if I'm forced to pick, Purple Haze has a special spot because I think this album, was Cam'ron unleashed. He was coming for everyone and didn't give a flying fuck who you were. I also think he revisited the aspect of rapping too. With Come Home With Me, they were more club bangers, in my opinion. Also, Purple Haze's album cover is one of my favorite album covers of all time.

When I listen to Purple Haze, I literally get in a good mood. You don't always find that in music.

@Filthy_Cent
Personally as a Cam'ron fan, I have to say Come Home With Me is Cam's best album. That can be disputed lyrically and track by track with Purple Haze, but Purple Haze definitely didn't have the commercial success of CHWM. As a matter of fact, I don't think niggas would've felt ok wearing pink if it wasn't for Cam rocking it in his videos from the CHWM album. That's an influence on culture. That's when Cam was hungry. Purple Haze was listened to because CHWM exists. I Loved Purple Haze, but the facts remain.

@TrueGodImmortal
For me, I lean towards Purple Haze in terms of the production slightly, but Come Home With Me is a bit better overall. Cam wasn't as lackadaisical lyrically on Come Home With Me as he was on Purple Haze. While "Get Em Girls" and "Killa Cam" were anthems and hilarious, I do have to say that as an overall album, Come Home With Me was just stronger overall. I respected his ability to go out there with the newfound Roc-A-Fella focus along with the Just Blaze assisted and Ty Fyffe production that carried the album. However, Purple Haze was just more of a risk for him. It was Cam doing what he wanted essentially and the skits prove that. The skits were clutter though on this album and some of them are totally unnecessary. However, Kanye West is the MVP of Purple Haze due to the fire soul samples he gave Cam on "Down And Out" and "Dipset Forever", two of the best songs on the album. The Heatmakerz showed up here to provide that gangsta music, Stay Gettin Productions and Chad Hamilton also provided fire too. I enjoy both albums and while I personally listen to Purple Haze slightly more, I would have to edge the album quality to Come Home With Me.

Come Home With Me features some of the most iconic moments for Dipset as far as production and videos, like the dancing in "Hey Ma", or the introduction to the mainstream that "Oh Boy" brought us. The beat on "The ROC" tends to be overused on freestyles and played for NY radio backdrops even still to this day. The rare collaboration between Cam and Jigga on "Welcome to New York City" was definitely greatness and I've always been a fan of "Losing Weight". I really enjoyed the Juelz appearances on the album as well, and while I personally doesn't consider either album a classic, I think Come Home With Me has more iconic status than Purple Haze in the Cam'ron discography. So, personally, I enjoy Purple Haze a bit more, but I acknowledge that Come Home With Me is ACTUALLY the better album overall.

Which album do you prefer? Post your opinions of the albums albums which is better in the comments section below.

-DAR