CNN’s Abby Phillip Laughs Off Viral Cam’ron Interview: ‘It Was Ridiculous’

It’s probably safe to assume Cam’ron won’t be invited back to CNN’s NewsNight With Abby Phillip.

The New York rapper, born Cameron Giles, appeared on the cable news show in May 2024 to discuss Sean “Diddy” Combs’ legal troubles. But when Phillip asked how Combs treated his artists at Bad Boy Records, the interview descended into chaos.

An annoyed Cam’ron grimaced, took a shot of his “pink horsepower” supplement drink, and said he was “gonna go get some cheeks” — meaning have sex. Side note, Cam’ron hosts a podcast with former Bad Boy Records artist Mase, who accused Combs of “robbing” him of his royalties.

Related: CNN Interview With Rapper Cam’ron Goes Off The Rails

Phillip is now laughing off her awkward exchange with Cam’ron, and says it was “ridiculous.”

The CNN anchor sat down on the Tuesday, Oct. 28 episode of “The Breakfast Club” to discuss her new book A Dream Deferred: Jesse Jackson and the Fight for Black Political Power, out today.

At the end of the interview, Charlamagne tha God brought up her viral conversation with Cam’ron.

“I knew you were going to bring this up,” Phillip said.

Charlamagne asked if she knew what Cam’ron was talking about when he mentioned “cheeks.”

“Obviously, I knew that we needed to end the interview,” Phillip said while laughing.

“We were up against the end of the show and we had to get to a certain time,” she explained. “So, I had to land that plane and I did. And look, it was ridiculous, but as we know, that was the point.”

She said the person who transcribed the interview struggled to figure out what Cam’ron was saying.

“We all were like, ‘What just happened?’ I mean, whatever. I’m not going to give this much more oxygen because I know that’s part of the point. I know he was here a little while ago talking about it,” she said.

“The Breakfast Club” hosts said Cam’ron told them the CNN interview was one of his favorite TV appearances.

“He said it wasn’t personally anything with you. He just felt like the network only hits him up for things that aren’t about what he does outside of all of that,” Loren LoRosa explained.

Phillip then revealed CNN did not approach the rapper, his team approached the network.

“All I will say is that we were told by his team that he wanted to talk about this, not the other way around,” she said. “We don’t book people about things they don’t want to talk about. ”

Abby Phillip spoke with “The Breakfast Club” for over an hour. She also discussed politics, the pressures Black politicians like Barack Obama face, and why Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign failed. The full interview is here.