Back in the mid-2000s, hip-hop fans were buzzing with anticipation for a collab project between Juelz Santana and Lil Wayne. Despite the excitement, the highly anticipated mixtape ‘I Can’t Feel My Face’ was mysteriously shelved, leaving fans wondering why it never dropped.
In a recent episode of his ‘Talk With Flee’ show, Cam’ron shared insider details on why the album was never released. The narrative had been that Cam’ron himself blocked the release, but he clarified it was a matter of ‘not being on the same page’ at the time. ‘Lil Wayne wasn’t the super superstar,’ he explained, noting that Wayne’s eventual album releases, like ‘Tha Carter,’ came after that period.
The crux of the problem, according to Cam’ron, was a business disagreement between music giants. Def Jam, representing Juelz Santana, found themselves at odds with Universal, home to Lil Wayne, mainly over who would reap the album’s profits. Universal had demanded an enormous 95% of the profits since Wayne hadn’t submitted his work yet. This left a measly 5% to be divided between Def Jam and the artists.
Steve Garley, then head lawyer for Def Jam, had no choice but to shut down the project under those terms. As Cam’ron recalls, Garley told him, ‘We love you and all that – but we’re not doing that.’ Def Jam couldn’t approve the project without a better share of the pie, especially since Wayne hadn’t handed in his necessary album.
Juelz Santana echoed a similar sentiment in a 2022 interview, where he called it an issue of ‘politics.’ He elaborated, ‘We did a bunch of records together. Politics-wise, we didn’t get to put the album out on a major label because there was too much politics at the time.’ The complications included not just Universal and Def Jam, but also Cash Money and Diplomats.
Moreover, the era’s music industry hurdles were different from today. ‘Back then, it was never about the artists,’ Juelz shared. ‘We didn’t have the end-all control. That’s why now you can have collaborations like Durk and Lil Baby or Drake and Future.’ This statement highlighted the complicated mechanics of the music biz back then, which kept the ‘I Can’t Feel My Face’ project from launching.
In the end, the mythical mixtape ‘I Can’t Feel My Face’ faded into the annals of hip-hop lore, but not without leaving a lasting impression. The story behind its non-release reveals a lot about the music industry’s complexities and the challenges artists faced in producing collaborative works back in the day.
