Whoever coined the phrase “too soon” forgot to loop within the Diplomats. “I ain’t mad that the towers fell,” Juelz Santana spits on “Gangsta,” from the Harlem rap crew’s 2003 debut Diplomatic Immunity. “I’m mad the coke price went up / And this crack won’t sell.”
9/11 has loomed giant over virtually every thing in well-liked tradition to at the present time, and the gargantuan and bombastic Diplomatic Immunity is actually no exception: Gilbert Gottfried gaffes be damned, the report is streaked with references to the deadliest terrorist assault in American historical past, from Taliban name-checks to “Ground Zero,” an unmistakably titled monitor the place Santana invitations the listener to “Follow me through the debris of these towers.” What higher reflection of the resilience and perpetual over-it-ness of bred-in-the-bone New Yorkers than the flexibility to talk freely and recklessly about one thing that, on the time, many individuals discovered completely unspeakable?
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Certainly, irreverence – the willingness to say something, make any joke or flip any phrase, no matter how profane, probably offensive, or perplexing it is perhaps – defines Diplomatic Immunity as a complete. A sensible showcase for the versatile and at-times dizzying rhymes of Juelz, Cam’ron, Freekey Zekey, Jim Jones, and the then-incarcerated Hell Rell (who nonetheless manages to show a memorable look over the jail telephone on the beatless “Hell Rell (Interlude)”), Diplomatic Immunity arrived on the good time to cement the Diplomats as NYC’s tough-talking courtroom jesters, a quintet effortlessly switching between barbed bars and punchlines so sharp they nonetheless draw blood. Their lyrical legacy has been deeply felt by way of the 2010s, from Das Racist’s well silly hipsterisms to the difficult wordplay of Lengthy Island spitter Roc Marciano and Motion Bronson’s pure WTF-worthy audaciousness – however there’s by no means been a bunch fairly just like the Diplomats since, both.
Diplomatic Immunity was very equally a product of its time as properly: even by at present’s stream-busting requirements, the gathering is giant and in cost, spanning two theoretical CDs (keep in mind these?), 27 tracks, and a run time that’s simply quarter-hour or so shy of The Form of Water. This largesse harks again to an period during which rap data ran lengthy and languid, however its rambling really feel additionally speaks to the Diplomats’ effectiveness when working within the mixtape format. Anybody with even a passing curiosity in hip-hop that roamed the streets of Manhattan within the 2000s certainly remembers selecting up a cheaply-printed Diplomats mixtape from a road vendor (DJ Kay Slay’s Quantity 5 from 2005 was a private favourite), and Diplomatic Immunity was the sensible street-legal model of this method.
As a complete, the report’s not a lot the sort of factor you sit round and hearken to in a single go because it’s one thing to maintain in your automotive’s CD changer (if it nonetheless has one), or within the background at a celebration. In different phrases, vibe-setting music, in the event you’re searching for a vibe that features one-liners like this: “This cat think he sling / Cause he got a pinky ring / Rinky-dink diamonds / They don’t even make your pinky bling.” That’s Cam’ron on the Jefferson Starship-sampling “Built This City,” and his dizzying verbal dexterousness is in pure abundance on Diplomatic Immunity.
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The report’s general legacy has obscured that it truly noticed launch at a time shortly earlier than Cam’s actual massive break: his third solo album, Come House With Me, which dropped a yr earlier and sported the massive singles “Oh Boy” and “Hey Ma.” However only a yr after Diplomatic Immunity would come Purple Haze, his crowning vital achievement that paired the pinks-and-purples of Kanye West’s School Dropout-era manufacturing model with the kind of spitting that sprayed forth like a dripping thesaurus. When it got here to New York Metropolis rap within the 2000s, Cam’ron’s run was spectacular in how he labored in managed detonations, like 4th of July fireworks over the East River. When he was on, he was on, and his standout verses on Diplomatic Immunity will be seen on reflection as a second of self-prophecy when it got here to his pure verbal talent.
Diplomatic Immunity was additionally a showcase for manufacturing crew the Heatmakerz, who carry credit score for the lion’s share of the report’s manufacturing work – and the way. To music listeners of a sure age, the Heatmakerz had been NYC rap radio, full cease: their mix of futzed-with soul samples, tight hi-hats, and basslines so regal they virtually deserved coronation sound frozen in amber 15 years later. One of many joys of residing in NYC has at all times been catching the newest sounds from passing visitors and parked automobiles, and as a lot as Diplomatic Immunity cuts just like the Freeway-featuring “My Love” and the immortal “Dipset Anthem” had been made for the membership, metropolis denizens can virtually really feel the anticipate the sunshine to alter when listening to these songs to this present day.
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Regardless of the Heatmakerz’s whole dominance on Diplomatic Immunity, maybe the album’s most well-known lower got here with equally speaker-blowing manufacturing from Paterson, New Jersey’s most interesting, Simply Blaze: “I Really Mean It,” which makes implausible hay out of a pattern of Main Harris’ 1976 single “I Got Over Love” as Jim Jones and Cam’ron commerce blow after lyrical blow over the huge-sounding wreckage. Moreover carrying a status as a fully towering rap lower, “I Really Mean It” additionally served because the backing monitor for the notorious rap battle meme from the late 2000s that includes then-high schooler Eli Porter.
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A lot mean-spirited comments-section ink has been spilled about Porter’s perplexing rhymes within the decade-plus for the reason that video initially surfaced on-line, however it’s maybe missed how endearing he comes throughout, letting free his stilted rhymes over Simply Blaze’s towering beat in a way completely not like Cam and Jimmy’s personal linguistics. “I’m the best, man – I did it,” Porter memorably says at one level, and earlier than you chuckle, ask your self: would the Diplomats not say related about themselves? Such braggadocio and believe-in-yourself-ness is what makes Diplomatic Immunity a lot enjoyable to look again on, and it additionally speaks to a vital tenet in understanding the Cult of Dipset: even while you’re lifeless critical, it’s necessary to crack a joke each on occasion, too.
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Editor’s observe: This text was initially printed in 2018.
