by Cedric ‘BIG CED’ Thornton
After Ma$e was a guest, the chemistry between him and Cam just made sense for the Harlem natives to co-host the program together.
Two Harlem buddies with basketball dreams became successful in hip-hop instead of sports. But, after the fallout and feud between the two, the bond has been mended as the two rappers turned broadcasters are having a successful run in the sports world. Now that Cam’ron and Ma$e are true buddies again, it was revealed that the pairing almost didn’t happen as Killa Cam wanted his co-host of “It Is What It Is” to be Jadakiss of the hip-hop group, The Lox.
In a conversation with Complex, Cam’ron (Cameron Giles) explains how the two reconnected to do the sports show “It Is What It Is.”
“We reconciled maybe a little over a year ago,” said Cam’ron. “Mase actually helped me get my first record deal ever, and it was kind of my fault that we was beefing. I was going hard at him for years, pause, and saying a bunch of slick shit. So when we got cool again, I just wanted him to know that all that shit was dead for me.”
Once he took responsibility for the feud he started with the man that essentially “put him on,” he felt he needed to gain the trust of his long-time friend turned adversary.
“I just wanted to gain his trust back because I don’t want him to think that I could flip out again. I’m a grown man now. I can look back because I’m old enough to say that’s maybe what I was going through because he just left and was like, fuck everybody—not fuck everybody, but he was following his path of what he needed to do, and I didn’t recognize that at the time.”
Cam’ron goes on to reveal that Ma$e wasn’t even the co-host when he started the show. He had a plan to do it with the Yonkers-based Jadakiss, who was a labelmate to his Harlem friend when both were on Bad Boy Records. But, due to Jadakiss keeping a busy schedule with running businesses, it just didn’t happen.
“It was supposed to be me and Jadakiss, but Jada is busy as well. Jada got sh** to do, so he never came. He kept saying he’s gonna come, and it’s not his fault, but he’s busy as well. But that was my plan to do this show with me and Kiss.”
He then decided he’d be the sole host and invited Ma$e on as a guest.
“One day, I was like, I’ll do this shit by myself. I’m gonna just have guests, and I had Mase as a guest. So when Mase came on as a guest, and we vibed, I was like, ‘That shit was dope. Come back every week. We could do this once a week.’ So he called me. He’s like, ‘Would you wanna be partners on this?’”
And, as they say, the rest is history!
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Source: Black Enterprise
