Juelz Santana has responded to Cam’ron and Ma$e for questioning his career decisions and lack of musical output.
The Harlem rapper was criticized by Murda and his former Dipset cohort Cam for not living up to his early potential having only released two studio albums in over 20 years.
Speaking on the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast late last year, the duo discussed Juelz’s wasted potential, with Ma$e claiming he “could’ve been Hov level.”
Killa Cam added: “Real talk, he had it. And he had it at a young age. He could’ve been the leader of everything that’s going outside right now.
“He could’ve been all these young n-ggas’ father, uncle, whatever you wanna call it. The chicks liked him, he could rap, he was fly. He had every element you needed to be that n-gga.”
Cam went on to criticize Santana’s apparent reluctancy to release music: “I wouldn’t say [he had] poor work ethic, but I’m just not sure why. Juelz is sitting there with 300 songs in his hard drive and won’t put it out.”
Speaking to The Art of Dialogue this week, Juelz Santana addressed the pair’s criticism of his career trajectory and refuted the suggestion that he’s “lazy.”
“I don’t wanna say JAY-Z because I never strived to be JAY-Z. I was always just trying to be me. I definitely coulda been way further than I am. But I don’t ever blame nobody. I blame myself for anything that held me back,” he said.
“You could never say I was lazy. If you look at my track record in the game, I didn’t put out albums but for whatever reason, politic reasons, I didn’t put out albums, I still gave hella music.”
The 42-year-old further criticized labels including Def Jam for why he has only released two solo albums in his career, while also acknowledging that he didn’t always have the right team around him.
Santana recently addressed the delay behind his next project We In Motion, which he has teased will be a Gangsta Grillz collaboration with DJ Drama.
“Truth is I wasn’t as ready as I thought I was,” he admitted in an Instagram post. “I want this album 2 be special… I understand the frustration but I promise [in] 2024 I’m all innnn… I won’t let y’all down.”
Juelz further explained that his upcoming project is an independent release, “so all I really have is social media to [promote].” He added that “with the algorithm u don’t even reach y’all full audience.”
Looking to rally his fanbase while offering them some hope, he concluded: “I understand the frustration but I promise [in] 2024 I’m allll innnn but I’ma need help from my day 1s so lets get this #teamsantana going I wont let y’all down.”
Cam’Ron and Ma$e act like politics aren’t 99% of that industry. Crooked I didn’t put out a proper album until 15 years into his career. Was he lazy too? Most of the shit is luck and who you know. Ma$e probably never comes out on Bad Boy if Biggie doesn’t get killed and is in the sweat shop ghostwriting for Puffy the duration of his contract before leaving. Without the Dame Dash affiliation, Cam’Ron’s career is over just like Charlie Baltimore’s after Un fumbled the bag when Biggie died.
politics don’t stop you from releasing music if youre in denial about a drug addiction so that is some laziness if you yellowed out blunt blowing with hanger ons around…politics ain’t the reason. you fan ass ninjas be doing everything but holding rappers accountable. juelz music was alright for what it was back in his heyday. but if he ain’t coming different at 42, hard pass. he not in his 20s anymore
He did release music dumb fuck, which is why you even know who he is. They were strictly talking about proper album releases. That’s record companies. That’s Def Jam. That’s Universal Music Group. That’s the suits in the office like Kevin Lyles and Lyor Cohen in the 2000s because there were no more street moguls by the time Juelz was on the come up. But your stupid ass probably doesn’t even know that or the history of this shit. By then, hip hop was the billion dollar pop vehicle cash cow for the music industry, and they moved accordingly.
And btw, hardly a fan of Juelz or any of those Dip Set dudes, but that’s the real of what happened in the 2000s. A drug addiction that 99% of the industry has too stopped him in particular from releasing music? FOH with that shit. not to disrespect the dead, but DMX was a full blown crackhead. Anyone would tell you as much. Wayne, the hottest rapper in the game during Santana’s come up, is an admitted drug addict and that was one of his running mates who he has songs in the vault with that Juelz label wouldn’t green light. Think dummy.
He had next, he was working, but hes pure ASS.
He was ok back in the day, but there isn’t a world in which he would have been the next Jay, or anywhere near that level.
I can’t say never because a lot of funny style shit started taking off in the 2000s that was the prelude to this total joke era we’re in now, but NY dudes do tend to put extra on anyone from there that they think has promise. I sat for ten years listening to NY dudes proclaim Papoose’s wack ass was the next Biggie.