S. Samuel
Dipset's Cam'ron has turned down an opportunity for his Diplomat affiliate Vado to grace the upcoming cover of XXL Magazine's Freshmen 2011 issue in light of an upcoming feature in The Source.
According to Cam, there is no love lost, however, he preferred for his artist to be a standout on the magazine cover as opposed to being featured on a list.
“This is what happened, straight up and down, what happened was this– [XXL Magazine EIC Vanessa Satten] called me about doing it. You know they didn’t put him on last year. They wanted him on this year. So Allan [Grunblatt], that’s the CEO at [E1 Music]. Me and Vado have an album coming out and Jim [Jones] has an album coming out. So I told the lady at XXL I’d get back to her because I was saying, if Vado does do the cover for XXL, I want him to be a main focus. I’m not trying to be an a**hole or be like, it’s us or nothing. I’m just trying to say, my man put a lot of work in the last year. So I’m not trying to say the other people that’s coming up shouldn’t be on the cover either. I’m not saying that, I’m saying just give him a little focus on the cover, and she said she didn’t know if she could do that, this that and the third — But what happened is, we got an album out — so the dude at Koch, Allan Grunblatt, he went to The Source and [got us] the cover — it doesn’t make sense for him to be behind seven people on the [XXL] cover and he’s gonna be front face on The Source cover with me and Jim. So, I told her that I couldn’t do it because she couldn’t give any guarantees on how his look was going to be. I still love the XXL and appreciate all the support they’ve given us.” (Shade 45)
Last year, tensions rose after Young Money’s Jae Millz called out XXL for not featuring Vado on the cover.
“I don’t feel no sort of way about me not being in the Top 10 but can’t no n*gga tell me that my n*gga Vado ain’t supposed to be on that cover or on the flip cover of that XXL Top 10 Freshmen issue,” Millz said in an interview. “Can’t nobody tell me that, and if you do want to argue with me, you can argue with me about anything because I only know five n*ggas out of the ten n*ggas on that cover. And my ears [are] to the streets…I’m not even gonna say the name of the n*ggas I know, that’s gonna single n*ggas out or whatever, but n*ggas know whose supposed to be on that cover and n*ggas know who ain’t supposed to be on that f*cking cover…Vado and Cam put out Boss of All Bosses with [DJ] Drama, killed it, they putting out random records, their records coming out every single f*cking week on [DJ] Kay Slay — so who the f*ck are these other n*ggas? Like just because you think he’s a good emo rapper or he’s a good backpack rapper, them n*ggas are f*cking wack my n*gga. Don’t tell me nothing about my man ain’t put in work. If he ain’t put in work now, he put in work with me all them years.” (“True Stories Radio”)
The remarks and snub caught the attention of Freshmen inductee J. Cole.
“I haven’t,” Cole said when asked if he was familiar with Vado. “But I did see that — I heard he co-signed him. I don’t know who in particular he was talking about and I don’t know him but if that’s his opinion, that’s his opinion. Like, that’s how I feel. I don’t feel any type of ill will towards him for saying that, if that’s how he feels, he’s sticking up for his man there. That’s what it is but I feel like whoever is on that cover would beg to differ. I personally, it don’t matter to me because I know what I deserve and what I don’t deserve. I know what I work for. But I feel like, I don’t know, everybody on that cover could make that case, if you ask them.” (Miss Info TV)
While fans await XXL’s new list, rapper Big Sean recently named his three personal choices for this year’s Top 10 Freshmen.
“My advice to the 2011 [XXL] Freshmen class is just use it to your advantage, man. Don’t be lazy, get off your a**. That’s the biggest. When you’re a rapper and on the come-up, you dream about having a platinum record. You dream about — getting signed, you dream about being on the covers of magazines, so that’s one of the biggest accomplishments of all-time, of my life. So man, take that sh*t for what it is. Do what it do, man. You earn that sh*t so congratulations…If I could nominate 2011 [XXL Freshmen], it would be Chip Tha Ripper, Kendrick Lamar, SayItAintTone, a whole bunch of people.” (Janicella Moca)
Check out some recent Vado footage below:
