On Thursday (Dec. 21), Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson shared their latest episode of “ALL THE SMOKE” with Cam’ron. During the lengthy sit-down, the Harlem rapper spoke to the NBA stars-turned-hosts about how his hit show, “It Is What It Is,” first came to fruition.

“So many people was coming to me like, ‘Yo, do a podcast. Be on our podcast.’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t really wanna talk to n**gas for a living,'” he explained. “It’s no real n**gas talking how we talk with a professional setting in the background. So I said to myself, ‘Look, I’ma get the suits, I’ma build a set,’ and then when you watch it, you’re gonna be like, ‘Oh, now, what the f**k goin’ on?'” Now, “It Is What It Is” and the overarching Come And Talk 2 Me network is poised to be one of the bigger podcast entities in 2024.

One of the defining factors for said show is the inclusion of longtime collaborator and friend MaSe early on. Cam’ron opened up about that relationship, including an extended fallout that took place in the public eye.

“MaSe gave me an opportunity to get my first record deal,” The Diplomats frontman revealed. “I just started running ’round with him. When he got his deal and started selling three to four million records, he took me to Biggie Smalls. Biggie Smalls gave me my first record deal.”

Cam continued, “MaSe did my first video, ‘357,’ which was dope, and then I had another single with him called ‘Horse & Carriage.’ He didn’t do that video, so my label started gassing me, like, ‘Yo, why your man ain’t doing the video? He want $50,000 to do the video.’ I started feeding into that s**t… So we kind of fell out over that.” MaSe’s eventual defection to Atlanta and a series of diss records — including MaSe’s scathing “The Oracle” — would come during that period of separation. “We got cool again last year sometime. I tried to put a tour together, tour didn’t go well, and we just stayed cool after that.”