The date was March 25, 2003, I’m in high school and I remember asking SwagGordon “can you take me to Target to pick up some albums?”, he agreed and it was on. That day in school, I could barely pay attention because all I could think was “this Dipset and Hot Boyz album gon’ be crazy.” During lunch, I got in an argument with a friend who hated Diplomats and the current Cam’ron style. I can remember his argument clearly “Cam aint been nice since S.D.E., that Come Home With Me was wack”. Haha shout to Tonio.

Who I Am

School is finally over and we head to Target and I scoop “Diplomatic Immunity” and the Hot Boys’ “Let Em Burn” album. Once I got home, I actually listened to the Hot Boys CD first (I was a huge Hot Boys fan), it was decent, not great like the previous albums. So I broke the plastic on the Dipset cd and put in Disc 1 of the double disc set. Immediately, I thought what the f&&k is this? I cant even understand what they are saying because of the loud voices in the samples. I thought it sounded sloppy. Songs like “More Than Music”, “Real Ni%%as” and “Beautiful Noise” initially got skipped by me. I thought “Gangsta” sounded exactly like its name, that joint was hard. Juelz Santana back then was the hungriest MC out and Cam let him do his thing. This was when Jim Jones sounded best to me, he was just raw with his verses. From Disc 1, my favorites were “Who I Am”, “Ground Zero” and “Dipset Anthem”.

Once I got to Disc 2, I knew all of those songs word for word pretty much. They were songs that were on all those previous Dipset mixtapes. These versions were mastered and had better quality though. “I Love You” was a totally different beat than the original. I guess the sample didnt get cleared but the groove was the same, just the voices in the beat were different. Also, Juelz Santana’s verse changed when he said “Muhammed Atta” to now “Muhammed Ali”, that was a whole different situation though. All of Disc 2 was nothing but heat, “Im Ready” was and is still my favorite Diplomats track and beat. The “Bout It Bout It Pt.3” was a cool remake. All you can do is think of Akeem and Simmy when you hear “What’s Really Good?”, love that sample. I liked all of Disc 2 and it has always been my favorite of the 2 discs.

I’m Ready

The production on both discs was mostly handled by The Heatmakerz. They were part of the reason Diplomats was the hottest group back then in my opinion. Everyone loved the Heatmakerz beats with their deep basslines, soul samples and chipmunk sounding voices. They provided the Diplomats with so many hot beats over a 2-3 year time frame.

DJ Enuff Freestyle

Today, Diplomatic Immunity is one of my favorite albums to listen to. I’ve come to appreciate all of Disc 1 and 2. Those were the good days, they were at their peak, it really was beautiful music as Juelz use to say.