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Cam'ron has been all but a ghost for the past three years. All attempts to track him down and get in contact with the former Dipset front-man have proven fruitless. His mother's health complications and - straight from the horse’s mouth - his disillusionment with rapping kept him relegated to the shadows while former best friend Jim Jones & protégé Juelz Santana saw their careers skyrocket.

Starting out his career on major labels - Epic's Lance "Un" Rivera-owned Untertainment to Jay-Z's own Roc-a-Fella Records, for example - must have felt great for the Harlem born-and-bred MC. But as his solo career began flatlining and his "sidekicks" saw a great increase in their stocks, and went from independent labels (Koch, for example), to Cam's former home (Roc-a-Fella for Santana and Columbia for Jones), I'm sure Cam can be nothing more than envious of his former group-mates. Cam'ron has always been the star and rightly so; he has the personality, lyrics, and flow. Subordinates like Jim Jones and Juelz Santana rounded out the highly successful rap crew The Diplomats, but are really nothing more than highly paid weed carriers who Cam brought on-board out of nothing more than loyalty.

Cam began his independent career sloppily with the release of his fifth album, 2006's Killa Season, on Asylum Records. The record sold poorly and it's success, or lack thereof, was a mere shadow of the gold and platinum-selling records he had recorded four times prior. Perhaps all of this attributed to his three year-long hiatus; a sick mother, a disinterest in the rap game, and spiraling sales for both his Killa Season album and self-made film of the same name. Things weren't looking too good for Cam. But three years later, Killa seems reinvigorated.

Receiving a big re-welcoming from fans and the hip hop community alike, Cam'ron's new single, (I Hate) My Job (one of the album's many highlights), renewed interest in his seemingly dilapidated career. Rapping from the perspective of a 9-to-5 everyman who hates his boss, his pay, his hours, and (of course) his job, Cam got ears perked by exemplifying the mindstate of the working class citizen in our rough economy. Not only were Cam fans awaiting his sixth release, Crime Pays, with all the impatience of a crack fiend waiting for their next hit after two weeks of sobriety, but this was going to be the album that put Cam back on top. If Cam was disillusioned with the rap game for the three years leading up to Tuesday's release of Crime Pays, it's sure hard to tell.

Produced almost entirely by (who I'm guessing are new Dipset beatsmiths) Skitzo and araabMUZIK, Crime Pays excels at one thing, at least. It has a very distinct sound that is carried through to the very last song. Not the richest or cleanest sound, but for the most part it suits Cam's flow & style well and he sounds positively refreshed rapping over these simple orchestrations. If anything can be said about the album's beats it's that they don't sound as refined as those found on previous Dipset releases or other major label records by the group or a plethora of other artists. Songs like Curve, Silky (No Homo), and Chalupa are certainly rhythmic, but they lack the infectious, upbeat "oomph" of Cam's past output.

The man probably doesn't have the money or label support to bolster his lackadaisical vocals with the highest quality beats anymore, but admittedly, many of the beats handed to him are positively magnetic. The album's Intro, as well as Get It in Ohio, Never Ever, Spend the Night, Get It Get It, and Bottom of the Pussy emulate those aforementioned big-budget productions with little flaw. Cam, ever the enigmatic funnyman, manages to poke fun at himself while still spewing some of the most verbally repugnant criminal yarns this side of Eazy-E. Some may be disappointed that Skitzo and araabMUZIK focus more on seething synths and banging drums to accompany Cam's unique rhymes instead of the sped-up-soul-sample affairs that was the Diplomats' past work. But if Cam'ron is rhyming this flawlessly, effortlessly and skillfully over these beats, I say let the abovementioned producers hammer out more product for Cam more often.

Disappointingly, however, some ideas aren't executed as well as they could have been and the record runs a little too long at 23 tracks with five skits linked into that running time. A trio of tracks, Woo Hoo, Cookies-N-Apple Juice, and the previously mentioned Chalupa are all overly chauvinistic songs that, if done right, could have held just the right amount of lyrical wit, charm, and trademark Cam humor that the rest of the material does. But because of an obvious lack of effort on rapper Cam'ron's part, they seem more like padding than essential listens.

Much of the record feels too "back to basics," with a reinvigorated Cam at the helm, to fixate on the facets of the LP that don't work. This isn't a Cam'ron album that will change the way you look at him. He's still materialistic, still chauvinistic, still pseudo-silly with a hint of self-deprecating cleverness, and still incredibly talented despite what the critics say about him. The production isn't nearly as good as it has been previously, but Cam is the star of this show and his rhymes are sharper than they have been in years. Despite the occasional odd production choice and sometimes low-budget feel, this is a more solid, more overall satisfying listen than the rather unsatisfying Killa Season of three years ago. Cam'ron fans definitely owe it to themselves to pick this up and support the man. He deserves it on this one.

8/10