The 25 Best Dipset Songs
A 25-track salute to Harlem's reunited rap royalty.
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The 25 Best Dipset Songs - Dipset is reuniting—again. On Monday, Cam’ron, Juelz Santana and Jim Jones and Freekey Zeekey take the stage together in New York to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of their debut album, Diplomatic Immunity. The group last performed together and released the single “Salute,” in 2010, when they talked of putting out a reunion album. We don’t know if the album will ever actually come fruition, but the crew has left with us a bevy of classics over the years. Here, in honor of the Harlem rap royalty’s comeback, we present a 25-track salute to Dipset. —Alex Gale (Photo: Scott Gries/Getty Images)
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Juelz Santana, “There It Go (Whistle Song)" - It’s impossible to hate on a song that had tough guys whistling merrily on the dance floor, like this club-focused hit single from Juelz' sophomore album did.(Photo: Interscope Records)
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The Diplomats, "Salute" - Dipset announced their last reunion back in 2010 in dramatic fashion, with an evil electro beat from the crew’s production prodigy Araabmusik and one of Jim Jones’ best rhymes. (Photo: Interscope Records)
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Camron, “Down and Out” - From the pink Polos to the big egos, Cam and Kanye West had a lot in common, and it made for undeniable chemistry before their more recent squabbles. The beat, made when Kanye was at the peak of his early soul-sampling stage, inspired classic Cam’ron-isms, including “sipping sake on a Suzuki we in Osaka Bay.” (Photo: Matthew Peyton/Getty Images)
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Cam'ron, “What Means The World To You” - You gotta give it up to Cam for recognizing that the Police’s bouncy reggae-rock classic “Roxanne” would make for a club banger, perfect for his double-time punchlines. (Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for AXE)
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Cam’ron, “Live My Life/Leave Me Alone” feat. Daz Dillinger - Cam'ron jacked one of Tupac’s dopest, hardest classic beats (“Ambitionz Az a Ridah”) and made his own banger—no easy task. He even invited along Daz, the original’s producer, for the cosign. (photo: John Ricard / BET).
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Cam'ron, “Oh Boy” feat. Juelz Santana, Toya and Freezy Zeekey - Enabled by Just Blaze’s unusually cheerful production, Cam’s breakthrough 2003 hit introduced a novel rhyming technique—an MC incorporating a beat’s vocal sample into his rhymes—that’s since become commonplace. Happy rap—the Dips own it. (Photo: Interscope Records)
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Cam'ron, “Welcome to New York City” feat. Jay-Z - Released just a few months after 9/11, this five-borough anthem brought together two of the city’s best, cockiest MCs in their prime, over a cavernous Just Blaze beat. It’s a hell of a town, and a hell of a song. (Photo: Larry Busacca/Getty Images for Pepsi)
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Cam'ron, "Hey Ma" feat. Juelz Santana - Perhaps inspired by the classic, piano-driven Commodres song they sampled for this 2002 hit, Cam and Juelz dedicate this song to girls that are easy like Sunday morning. Just don’t touch nothing in Juelz’ car. (Photo: Interscope Records)
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Juelz Santana, “Mic Check” - Bad news, rap dudes! The first single from Juelz' second, enthusiastically titled album What the Game’s Been Missing! is perhaps is finest solo work, thanks partly to a Godzilla of a beat. (Photo: Brad Barket/PictureGroup)
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Juelz Santana, “Oh Yes!” - Sometimes you have to admire Dipset’s silly chutzpah. Here, replicating the let-the-beat-rhyme-for-you technique pioneered on Cam’s “Oh Boy,” Juelz samples the Motown classic “Mr. Postman,” with the Marvalettes singing the praises of his weight-pushing skills. (Photo: Brad Barket/PictureGroup)
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Cam'ron, "The Roc (Just Fire)" feat. Memphis Bleek and Beanie Sigel - In another show of Dipset/Roc-A-Fella unity after the crew signed with the Diamond, Cam recruited Jay-Z’s consiglieres over a prototypical early-2000s Just Blaze banger, resulting in an undeniably East Coast anthem.(Photos from left: Ethan Miller/Getty Images, John Ricard / BET, Bryan Bedder/Getty Images)
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Cam'ron "Dipset Forever" - Another soulful standout from Cam’s best album, 2004’s Purple Haze, with Killa cockily riding the melodic triplets of a Chuck Cissel sample. Too bad the song’s message of crew unity and immortality wasn’t meant to be. (Photo: Def Jam)
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Cam’ron, "Wet Wipes" - Only Cam’ron could make a song about a towelette work. With Alchemist’s screw-face beat, you couldn’t blame Killa for saying he’d “strart trouble inside the Waffle House” on this standout from Killa Season. (Photo: Diplomat Records)
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Cam'ron, "Touch It or Not" feat. Lil Wayne - Lil Wayne’s often seemed like an honorary member of Dipset, and since that joint album with Juelz looking increasingly unlikely, this will most likely remain the apex of his loose musical partnership with the crew. (Photos from left: Kevin Winter/Getty Images, Adrian Sidney/PictureGroup)
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Jim Jones, “G's Up” feat. Max B - Pete Rock and Jim Jones? This surprise pairing didn’t make any sense—until you heard it. The song, highlighted by Pete’s classic boom bap and Max B’s melodic hilarity, gave Jim a brief break from otherwise relentless backpack hate. (Photo: Jeffrey Ufberg/Getty Images)
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Cam'ron, “Come Home With Me,” feat. Jim Jones & Juelz Santana - One of Dipset’s darkest moments, this song takes listeners back to the crew’s early Harlem days, and doesn’t glorify it one bit—Cam even admits to smacking his mom after she found his drug stash. (Photo: Johnny Nunez/WireImage)
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Jim Jones, “Certified Gangstas” feat. The Game, Cam'ron and Lil Eazy - One reason Dipset succeeded is because they were never afraid to rep for, and even incorporate, sounds from other hip hop hotbeds. The remix to Jim’s debut single, which samples Eazy E’s classic “Boyz-N-The-Hood,” and its video are odes to West Coast gang culture. The fact that Game and Jim are rumored Bloods gave the song extra credibility, for better or worse. (Photo: Interscope Records)
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Jim Jones, "Crunk Muzik" feat. Cam'ron and Juelz Santana - Jim Jones has a penchant for dark, synth-heavy club beats, and this one, from the second single from his debut solo set, On My Way to Church, is one of the Dip’s most futuristic and frenetic. Ask Juelz: “Spectacular? Yes.” (Photos from left: MAXA /Landov, LK/ WENN, HRC/ WENN.com)
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Juelz Santana, “S.A.N.T.A.N.A.” - Only the Dips could be this hilarious and menacing at the same time. The pitched-up kid’s voice that forms the hook is ridiculous, but after 48 of Juelz’ best pit-bull bars, you can’t help but sing along by the end. (Photo: Scott Gries/Getty Images for Vh1)
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Cam’ron, "Let Me Know" - One of the best moments on Cam’s slept-on sophomore set, SDE, “Let Me Know” samples the epic Monday Night Football theme in brutal, bone-crunching fashion. The cocky chorus is an early example of a repetitive Dipset hook that’s annoying at first but then eventually wins you over with ruthless efficiency.(Photo: Epic Records)
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Jim Jones, “Fly High (Ballin’)” - Probably the most commercially successful—or at least most ubiquitous—Dipset song, Jim Jones’ signature hit came with a huge, woozy beat, an inescapable hook and a catchphrase (“ballin’”) and accompanying step that became a go-to for post-touchdown celebrations. (Photo: Johnny Nunez/WireImage)
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The Diplomats, "I Really Mean It" - Another amazing Just Blaze/Dipset collaboration, this song, one of the best on the crew’s debut double (!) album, features Cam bragging that he has “lofts in Boston and Austin,” while Jim is relegated to smack-talking. (Photo: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images)
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Juelz Santana, “Dipset (Santana's Town)” feat. Cam'ron - The Dips are suckers for a good operatic sample and a double-time hihat, and this beat—which sounds like the Heatmakerz but was actually crafted by Edward "Self Service" Hinson—has both. The “Dipset Dipset” hook was clumsy but undeniably catchy and effective; you couldn't help believe the crew’s takeover intentions. (Photo:Taylor Hill/Getty Images)
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The Diplomats, “I'm Ready” - This is prototypical Dipset. We wouldn't even be surprised if this is the song that brought their signature sound together. The Heatmakerz once again combine Kanye-esque chipmunk soul with the spastic drums of Southern rap. And with the cocky rhymes and endless smack talk, you can tell the crew knows they're onto something. (Photo: Interscope Records)