Steve 'Flash' JuonIt has been a minute since I heard anything about K CAMP. In fact it has been more than a minute — it’s been a pre-pandemic minute. His song “Lottery” went viral on TikTok in 2019, and in the process it sparked a conversation about cultural appropriation. Jalaiah Harmon’s dance to the song was remade by white content creators who didn’t acknowledge her as the originator, but CAMP ultimately settled that debate by renaming the song “Lottery (Renegade)” as a nod to her name for the dance moves along with publicly giving her credit for the track’s success. Good on ya K.
CAMP was of course releasing music throughout and since the pandemic’s impact faded, but I haven’t seen anything blow to the degree that “Lottery” did. “Built Different” feels like a mission statement that he’s made for longevity and not simply a viral one hit wonder on TikTok. It would have been easy for K to cave to the pressure of having an album filled with big name cameos, chasing clout by association, but the single biggest guest I can find here is SleazyWorld Go on “Box Em In.” When even short albums are so star-studded they feel more like compilations than a single artist’s vision, it really is fair to say that these 38 minutes are built differently.
Since this is our first time discussing Mr. Campbell though, how does he rate as a writer? Well I dug deeper into his single “Watch It Fall” and had two different and somewhat oppositional thoughts. The positive side was that appreciated how clean his vocals were (even with heavy pitch shifting applied) and how nimbly he could shift between his rap couplets. The negative side was that he was reflecting a shallow and arguably misogynistic view of relationships between men and women predicated entirely on the wealth he holds and how many ladies want to grab onto it.
“Came with the funds
she know we the ones
I took her right out of that Kia
Came with the racks and
yeah, that’s a fact
I turnt that bitch up, now you see her”
This doesn’t disqualify K CAMP as an artist. In fact he almost sounds accidentally misogynistic as opposed to a pure alpha male woman hater who thinks they need to be subservient to men while cooking dinner and pumping out babies. It does make me question his sincerity though on a smooth sounding song like “Just Need Luv.” He wants to have an intimate relationship with the other half, begging his beau to “show me how you act up in private,” but there’s more to “luv” than the freaky things you can do in bed. If he needs love and wants a “main squeeze” for real he needs to be able to converse with her when they’re not getting horizontal. The song is 100% horny and 0% relationship.
It’s hard for me to not see the irony in an artist who went to great lengths to assure that a black girl got the credit she deserved can’t offer more than superficial platitudes to black women in general. It makes me wish he’d actually just floss more and feign interest in the opposite sex less. Let’s hear about those “diamonds shining” on “Foreign & Presi.” If he vows he’s “been this way forever” we might as well take him at his word for it. What evidence is there to the contrary? The dogs on his cover are barking on the track though because he still can’t help hitting on a girl that’s “cute as fuck.”
By now you’ve gleaned that I have mixed feelings about “Built Different.” I think K CAMP is pretty smooth on the mic and his singing is easy to listen to. I also think that he’s built so differently that it could be hard to relate unless you’re as young as him and having as much sex as he is. Hopefully he’s using protection, but that’s his business. For nearly 39 minutes you get to see CAMP flex his star power and woo attractive ladies to ride his train like a Quad City DJ. It’s not BAD per se, it’s just a tad bit boring by the end. I almost wish he was a drill rapper with a bunch of opps he didn’t like just so the subject matter was a little more spicy and dramatic.