Pitchfork

Before BET cancelled Rap City, unbearable goofball host Q45 spent an entire episode wandering around Harlem asking random passers-by if they'd seen Cam'ron anywhere. This was more than a year ago, and other than a few brief glimpses (including the better-than-anyone-realized 2007 mixtape Public Enemy #1), the absurdist drug-rap prince has remained totally missing in action ever since a quick early-2007 feud with 50 Cent that can't have gone the way he hoped.

In the time since his last studio album, 2006's Killa Season, Cam's once-loyal Dipset crew has abandoned him completely and seems to be doing pretty well. Lil Wayne has taken a version of his free-associative nonsense-rap to heights of popularity that Cam himself has never touched. And the world has been a much less interesting place without him.

So I couldn't be happier to report that Cam now looks to be coming back. Earlier this week, we Forkcasted his really great and empathetic "I Hate My Job" video, a recession-topical dedication to those of us who actually have to go to work, or, worse, find new jobs. It has a gorgeous little piano-lope of a beat and Cam's signature weirdo charm is in full effect. ("Brand-new clothes? Nah, you'd rather see me nekked / Yo, check it, I got my check, now I'm feeling disrespected.") Next month, he'll appear on the cover of XXL. And now Crime Pays, Cam's long-overdue comeback album, has a release date: April 21 on Asylum.

Everyone who pays attention to this stuff knows that major-label rap release dates aren't to be trusted, and I'd be shocked if this thing actually came out on time. But I'm just amped that Crime Pays exists in some form somewhere and maybe eventually we'll get to hear it.