by Cedric ‘BIG CED’ Thornton
May 30, 2024
While speaking at BLACK ENTERPRISE’s Disruptor Summit in Atlanta, the Harlem native goes into detail about how the show started
Harlem native Cameron “Cam’ron” Giles came up in the entertainment industry as a rapper but has recently made a splash with his childhood friend, hip-hop recording artist Mason “Ma$e” Betha, producing and hosting their podcast, “It Is What It Is,” with Treasure “Stat Baby” Wilson moderating.
Instead of talking about hip-hop, which seems to be the route many rappers have taken lately (Joe Budden, N.O.R.E., Gillie Da Kid, Fat Joe, Willie D, etc.), the duo chose sports. The show has done so well that after broadcasting for only a couple of months, it was announced in August 2023 that the duo signed a deal allegedly worth eight figures with Underdog Fantasy (a sports betting platform). The show was recently nominated for a Webby Award for Best Sports Podcast.
At BLACK ENTERPRISE‘s Disruptor Summit, which took place in Atlanta earlier this month, Cam’ron spoke to Sidnee Douyon about how “It Is What It Is” was started and how listening to Ma$e helped them make more money than he would have settled for.
The “Horse & Carriage” lyricist mentioned that he would speak on the phone with a friend and have extensive arguments about sports. It was so intense that two hours had passed by the time they hung up. After questioning himself, he had an idea.
“All the sports shows to me were pretty much the same, and you had different personalities on shows, but the formats were pretty much the same. So what I did was I said I’m going to invest $250,000 into this project. I didn’t even have to spend 250,000, but that was the number that I said I’m gonna max out on. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.”
So, instead of setting up a simple setup at home, he spent some of that money on building a professional studio. Then, he would do the show in the same vein as having conversations with his friends. Oh, and he would wear a suit on set.
“I remember we did the first episode, and people were like, why are they letting Cam talk like this on ESPN? And I’m like, we not on ESPN. We was on our platform, but it looked like a professional setting. And it took off. I did 3-4 episodes by myself.”
But, after inviting Ma$e as a guest, his Harlem cohort loved it so much that he asked if he could “go half on it?”
After telling Ma$e yes, they did several episodes, and momentum was built. After initially being offered $1,000,000, he felt that more could be gained. As the numbers went up, he was ready to make a deal.
“When they got to, like, $6 million, I was like, ‘Ma$e, it doesn’t make sense not to do the deal.’ But, he had a real number in his head, and he said, ‘Cam, we got to do it, so we did 30 (episodes), and we ended up doing a $20 million deal.”
On a recent episode of “It Is What It Is,” Cam’ron mentioned that the duo was asked to walk Mike Tyson out for his boxing match against Jake Paul in July, according to HipHopDX. But they turned down the offer. He also stated that the offer was made before Tyson’s recent health scare.
“They offered us the walkout with Mike Tyson,” he said. “This was before this incident, and I’m like, ‘I’m not sure if I want to do that.’ Now, I’m probably not going to do it.
“‘Cause I don’t want n**gas blaming me for nothing when n**gas don’t win. Like when Devin [Haney] lost [to Ryan Garcia], n**gas said, ‘Why he wearing Balenciaga sneakers?’ […] If we walk Mike out and Mike don’t win, I don’t know if I need that type of pressure.”
