But he follows up the sincere claim with brilliantly candid couplets, making light of his painful condition. Over an uncharacteristically subdued, twinkling beat from Dipset faves Heatmakerz, Cam starts off with the bold pronouncement, 'This is a true story.' Whether or not that makes the album's other tales less than genuine is unclear- truth is a highly relative term in Purple City. The album's finest moment- and one of the most intriguing tracks in Cam's catalogue thus far- is 'I.B.S.', an autobiographical tale chronicling the emcee's bout with the pesky, self-explanatory disease called Irritable Bowl Syndrome. When the stiff beats ease up and Cam (slightly) deflates his chest, Killa Season excels. Carter's fashion faux pas, it's always going to look pathetic when an opponent wins a fight by not responding. Still, no matter how amped Cam gets over one of Mr. Out of its original context, the song can now be judged as something other than a crass stunt, and Cam nails some stinging blows while battling the harsh beat (which earns a couple of pity points for sampling, of all things, the score from Basic Instinct). Exhibit A is 'You Gotta Love It', his infamous Jay-Z dis. Instead of showcasing his trademark never-rushed swagger, Killa Season sometimes finds Cam aggravated, yelling flustered barbs over chintzy Casio trumpets and too-busy hi-hats. The rapper's diminutive Flea moniker also hints at a paranoid inferiority complex that seeps into the record.

Yet, a large portion of Killa Season is committed to that aim with bumptious tracks like 'Girls, Cash, Cars', 'War', and the shamelessly-dubbed 'Get 'Em Daddy' all puffing lots of hot-air bluster rather than sounding audacious.

Thing is, 'Get 'Em Girls' can't be topped. Seemingly, the entire crew is trying to top Haze's signature banger's banger, 'Get 'Em Girls', which combines operatic vocals with arch strings and back-broke bass to emit a crippling, avant-garde thump. Aside from Juelz Santana, who actually showed some promising progression on two solo mixtapes and an impressive sophomore album last year, Cam and his cronies continue to release a relentless stream of street CDs with diminishing returns. Since Purple Haze, the whole Dipset machine seems to have fallen into a holding pattern.

Camron killa season tracklist