1115.org

I’m a big fan of obscure references and callbacks (news, right?), but I think I may have just had my mind completely blown. Several years ago, for a few weeks, the whole internet became obsessed with an interview with Harlem rapper Cam’ron in which he explained that any time he said or did anything that could even remotely be considered gay, he was required to follow it up with the phrase “no homo.” In Cam’s words:

“I’ll be with my lawyer and I might say something ‘no homo,’ and my lawyer might look at me and be like ‘what?’ and I’ll be like ‘I know you have no idea what I’m talking about but I just needed to say that because I said something homo, no homo.”

So like I said the internet was goin’ nuts. Some people were attacking Cam’s ignorance, some were having a laugh, some were attacking the ignorance of those who were having a laugh, etc. At the time, all I could think about was Seinfeld’s refrain “not that there’s anything wrong with that.” And because this is a political blog, and not a hip hop blog (try as I may), I tied in the similar and just as absurd “but I support the troops” mantra that Iraq war opponents felt necessary to append to their criticisms. I planned never to write about Cam or “no homo” again, but this post became a lightning rod for political correctness scolds, and I ended up using “no homo” in as many posts as possible for a while. At some point Your Favorite Rapper’s Least Favorite Blogger came up with the code word “nullus” that means the same thing but spared us the Google onslaught and the need to write more posts defending against people calling me a homophobe. Still, years later, everyone I know says no homo/nullus at least once in a while, so Cam might be smarter than he appears.

Fast forward to 2009, and Killa Cam is working on a TV show he’s billing as the black Curb Your Enthusiasm:

Looks like Cam’ron is not only staging a musical comeback, the Dipset leader also has plans for hitting the small screen. Killa recently revealed to XXLmag.com that he plans to follow in Seinfeld creator Larry David’s shoes, as he is currently working on a show that he describes as a “black Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

The Harlem MC is apparently a huge fan of David’s hit HBO series. Calling it his favorite show, he said, “I got a sitcom coming out but we don’t have a title exactly to it yet. It’s like black Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

Staying true to Curb’s unique brand of Jewish humor, Cam – who once had a DVD in the works called “Here’s Cam’ron (You Little Yentas)” – says that he wants to include Jewish people in the project. “Right now while I’m writing my show, it’s a lot of stuff that has to do with Jewish people,” he said. “So I called my lawyer, my man Andrew Bergman, and I’m like listen, would I be allowed to do this because I don’t wanna offend anybody.”

If you’ve continued reading to this point, you must be getting the idea that being Cam’s lawyer might just be the most entertaining job in the industry. And now I’m kicking myself that I didn’t go to law school because I’m (nominally) Jewish, have encyclopedic knowledge of both Seinfeld and Curb, and am not easily offended. This Bergman dude is living my dream. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.