Drink The Punch Again: Rapper CEO and Harlem Kingpin Jim Jones continues to do this thing-thing. He’s got liquid cash on smash. Sip his juice, goose.
words: Lord SHR
photos: Vincent Skeltis
Alright, there’s the other Jim Jones. A lot of you have no idea who I’m talkin’ about. The other Jim Jones was a white dude who was a preacher who got mad love in the ‘hood. This is back in the late 1960s and into the ’70s. My man stepped from a humble situation in the South to a full blown commune in Northern California. Homeboy was definitely controversial. Focused, yes, but deep in controversial game. So much so that dude relocated the bulk of his parish to Guyana—a rather underdeveloped, uncivilized part of Guyana.
Anyway, folks back home started to get funny feelings about what Jim Jones the preacher was getting into down in the jungle. So folks in Northern Cal reached out to the lawmakers, the idea being that Jim Jones needed to be investigated; they wanted their family members home with them. Back in the States, away from the wild snakes and poison roots. Some officials went down there to see what was good. They walked away thinking that all was good, but on their way outta the settlement, they asked folks if they were cool, and basically said, Yo, if you wanna bounce with us, you can bounce with us. A few people stepped up and said they wanted to be ghost.
A funny thing happened on the way to the landing strip: Jones’ crew started letting off shots at the governmental big willies, the folks who wanted to be out, camera men and pilots…Jones was mad paranoid. Dude had a strange illness and was on mad meds, too. The dude seemingly had AIDS, and this is before the disease was officially acknowledged by the government. Duke had nothing and everything to lose. He thought the Central Intelligence Agency was out to get him. You’ve heard the term “don’t drink the punch,” no? Well, that comes from the people of the People’s Temple: Jones ordered his followers to drink the punch—AKA cyanide-laced Kool-Aid. It was the largest mass suicide in modern history. He was the wrong Jim Jones to fuck with.
The right Jim Jones to check for is from Harlem. He raps. He CEOs. He thugs it out. He has his own line of clothes—Nostic. He’s one of the founding members of the legendary Dipset—better known as the Diplomats. He’s known fellow Dipsetter Cameron “Killa Cam” Giles since back when they was shorties. These days, Cam and Jimmy ain’t really keepin’ it tight—I’m speakin’ on their friendship. Cam is a wildly popular MC. He’s recently gone head-to-head with Fiddy Cent. But since that battle, Killa has been dead—no word anywhere on where he’s at. There was a video in which he’s standing in front of a very modest swimming pool talking crazy trash, but there’s been no word from duke since (dude must be recording three album’s worth of flames). Jim Jones, on the other hand, has been easy to find. His song “We Fly High (Ballliiiin’)” was an unexpected hit. Unexpected in that folks weren’t expecting much from the kid on the rap side of things. “Ballliiiin’” is killa though—killa dilla for ’rilla. The dude is much more than one song—he’s got new music coming. He’s been doing his thing on Koch records—a place that Fiddy Cent once called a “graveyard” for MCs. Jim Jones must be the leader of a zombie race though, because his Koch movements are alive and well and profitable. His label BG Records will extend his moves even further.
Right after this interview was conducted, the word was that Jim Jones was gonna sign up with Fiddy. Not official as of this writing, but Fiddy and the Capo have lots of respect for one another. Hipsters love Jim Jones, thugs love Jim Jones. Jim Jones’ mother loves Jim Jones. And why not. He’s Sky High, blood.
Mr. Jones, you’re mad diesel these days. Talk about your fitness regiment.
I work out ’bout five or six times a week. I go hard.
Yeah, you’re mad diesel, son. You poppin’ out up top like you need a bra or something.
It’s always good to stay in shape, it helps you live a little bit longer and keeps the haters off your back in case you gotta get into a little scuffle. The average person can’t fight past two minutes, I think I got ’em beat on stamina. It’s part of the game. You gotta stay physically fit—it helps your mind, too. It helps you become a good thinker, it shows you patience, poise, humility, know what I mean?
How does that cut into your greenery intake?
Oh, you know the trees is my habit! The dudes that I work out with don’t know how I do it. It’s part of my lifestyle, I gotta get it in regardless. I guess it’s being militant minded, you could set your discipline for what you want in life. I’m selling a lifestyle here and I know the ladies do like a man with a good body, a nice firm body so, you know, I’m toning up. I’ve seen it done before. I’ve seen L.L. do it, 50 Cent do it. I seen people do it, and they made a lot of money just from their appearance alone.
Speaking of 50 Cent, he’s said a lot of positive stuff about you. Which is surprising when you consider the beef that surrounds your camp.
Shouts to 50, I respect his hustle and his grind. He’s came and he’s changed the game. I don’t know if he did it single handedly, but he did it all on his own and he did it from a New Yorker’s perspective. He branched out, he used that Interscope and that Eminem to a T; you couldn’t have done his blueprint any better.
Fiddy was specifically talking in terms of Dipset and your position within that camp and where you should be. What’s the status of Dipset right now? Seems like no one is getting along with Cam’ron…Like, what’s good with Cam?
I actually couldn’t tell you what’s good with Cam right now. Diplomats still sustains, you know? Them birds still fly high. Shouts to Juelz Santana, Dipset Byrd Gang. Dipset, we still a family, we still hold each other down. There’s a little bit of turmoil, but that don’t stop the money. Where I’m from, I guess controversy sells, so fuck it, I’m still going hard. I literally come from the streets, I came up from nothing. I been on this game 11 or 12 years and people knew who I stood by, who I stood behind and put my life on the line for—that’s for the sake of this Byrd and the Diplomats to get where we are today, where each man can stand on they own and if they do happen to have a difference and they can’t stand next to each other or be seen in the same place or whatever, it may be everybody still stands on they own and everybody still making a living, we can’t stop that for nothing. We each got our own lane and them checks still gonna come. Yeah, the money might be a little bit more if we did it together…
So you haven’t talked to Cam in a minute?
I haven’t spoken to Cam in a minute, a long minute. Hey, you know, that’s life, man.
You know what I’ve noticed about you cats? I’ve noticed that y’all are all down with your moms. I read the interview with your mom in Don Diva; she was dropping some gangsta-ass nuggets.
She showed me my hustle, my grind. She was my mother, my father, my friend, my girlfriend she is everything to me. You know, coming up, watching her lifestyle and how fast she was living and how much she still loved me and my sisters…she been through some hell fire shit. Shit is very cliché at this point, but it’s so real—what I’ve been through and seen through my momma’s eyes, and the pain I’ve felt due to the ups and downs of the game. It’s like, Whew! That was that time of disco lights, camera, action and everything that goes along with getting money off cocaine. Cocaine was the drug of choice [back then], just like how I’m hooked on this weed right now. And we could never talk bad about that time or about people using it ’cause that was the social drug. The flip side is when you get hooked on a strong drug like that everything slowly starts to deteriorate and you really start to see what life is about.
She worked in the club game, right?
The club was called Broadway International. Everybody came through there. I met Kurtis Blow there. My moms collected money at the door, she was at the bar, she was getting all types of money. They had the crazy unisex, Scarface looking bathroom and everybody in there was sniffing up. Niggas was snorting up and all that in that unisex bathroom—it looked like that Miami Vice-type shit. If you had a cell phone back then, you was doing some dumb shit.
So what year is this like?
I was ’bout six. Kids grow up so fast today, but they don’t know we grew up so fast back then. This is when the real break dancers first started. My mom was so much of a hot girl she had me coming up so fast. I seen barrels of money, I seen barrels of coke…when you’re so young you’re not really realizing, you’re oblivious to what’s really going on. Like for Christmas, they broke the firing pins on guns, and, you know, when you go to Toys ‘R Us and you’re like, “I want that [toy gun].” They’re like, “Nah, I got something better for you,” and they’re breaking off firing pins for guns and all that giving it to a little nigga, smell me? I’m looking back now like everything is a movie in my life—it’s crazy, the museum I got in my head.
But you know, you love your momma so much you go through anything and you’ll be with her anywhere. I’d run outta school to go be with my momma; she taught me how to take the train by myself since the age of eight. I’m leaving school and going to the Bronx, going to literal crack houses, like old brownstones. Shit, you couldn’t even walk on the floor ’cause it was so much rats. Even though she had the habit, she still was a queen, she was clean, she always made sure I was fed. It wasn’t a habit to where a nigga was a bum, there was nothing wrong with my family. God bless my grandma, she was the one that kept everything strong.
So how did your moms beat it?
Cold turkey. One day she just…my grandmother passed and it just clicked on her like, This is where life starts. She’s a strong lady. She’s my model.
Well one thing you understand is the crack game, right? And if the rap game is similar to the crack game, the rap game ain’t the same anymore with these record sales going away like JFK. As a supreme hustler how do you adjust to what’s going on with all this shit?
I just did a gold record off of Koch, smell me? I’m over three million ring tones. I did all types of shit this year, on an indie. That’s with a strong team and we went hard, like the Spartans, literally. So few went up against so many and we beat and we won. And the arrows are still pointed at us. It’s so political and shit.
What do you mean arrows are still pointing at you?
You know, at the end of the day, it’s so political. Like, they can’t allow Koch to shake the game up like that, it’s only but so much they gonna allow me to get as far as being on a label like Koch.
But who is regulating the game like that?
I wish I knew him, I’d go holla at him like, Damn, you gotta let me eat, let my thing, go double or triple like everyone else. But it’s so political that these monster major labels, they got a hold on the game like it’s that serious. That’s when the money comes into play.
So you should of sold more, but the bigger labels have been fucking with your sales?
I’m not saying I should have sold way more records, but I had an opportunity to sell way more records, but due to the majors having whole control over the game they not allowing independents to get what majors get as far as records sold. You understand? I probably had the number one song of the year last year, statistically, shit but then again you come around I still don’t get nominated for no VMA’s, no BET’s—’cause it’s so political. You’re dealing with a song that got 13,000 spins at one point last year, how could it not get nominated for anything, know what I mean? Ya dig? We got a lot of majors stepping to me with a lot of big money—which I can appreciate, ’cause the money do run the world. I don’t know. We might shake the tables this year, we might shock the world [laughs].
So rap beefs you don’t have anymore? It’s business it’s not personal? Tru Life?
Aww, Tru Life, you know, man that’s simplistic shit. He don’t really count or matter. If you could name one of his verses, or one of his memorable moments or something that he’s creditable for in this game then we should start talking ’bout him. But I can’t even hear that, ya mean? I’m Helen Keller to that, deaf, dumb and blind. That shit don’t phase me, so he gotta get his weight up a little bit. Them niggas is dweebs.
So talk about all the enterprises you have poppin’ off.
We got the Nostic clothing line—shouts to my mother—which has been doing exceptionally well. I heard that we just raked in a few million at Magic [clothing trade show]. Everybody knows I’ve done liquor [Sizzurp]; I’m still in a little bit of litigation to get all that straight. Me and Juelz started a belt line. I got a label called BG records—which we about to do a compilation album. BG Dipset consists of everybody, minus one person, but that’s a minor set back.
How is all of that gonna shake up when Cam’ron reemerges—he’s gonna have to reemerge at some point. What do you think is gonna happen?
Hell if I know. I know I’m about to shake the world, go back in get this music back poppin’ and do what I do and keep going and hold my niggas down—that’s all I can do. I can’t worry about someone that ain’t riding the wave, man, who’s tryin’ to disrupt what we tryin’ to do.
Talk about Byrd Gang, what’s the history on that?
Byrd Gang is just an abbreviation for Dipset it’s always been another avenue to get money. At the present it’s a little confusion so, I chose to take the Byrd Gang and run with it as far as for me to make my money, as far as Jim Jones creating something where I don’t have to come to a medium with anybody else, my own ideas as far as music is concerned, as far as how I groom my artists and things like that. People look at the initials BG and they assume a lot of things, but everybody knows what I’ve been affiliated since the beginning of this game; we really don’t have to say it, but if you don’t [know] then you really need to catch up on your history.
Well, you’re wearing blue right now.
Yeah I’m wearing a Yankee fitted, smell me? Ya dig? Why not? It’s New York. I’m color blind at this point. It’s in my heart. People know what I represent and where I come from. I come from the projects. With the gang activity, kids are running around looking for something to get attached to. The power and fear you instill in other people becomes a bit of a rush at a young age; everybody wants to be a rebel and things like that. There’s nothing wrong with claiming something if you’re pretty much gonna do the right thing about it. We claiming these things and going at each others necks and some of these kids grew up with each other. It’s a crazy cycle we going through. Me, myself I look back, sometimes I wake up from sweaty dreams, thinking about the things that I went through as far as what I’ve been affiliated with, the things I’ve done. I’ve been able to escape, coming out unscathed and I look at other people that didn’t have as much luck as I did. I tell people I count my blessings all the time ’cause I was living this scary life.
Dipset gets love in the ’hood, but y’all also got love from just white hipsters, too.
That’s that DipSkate movement we got going on, that added to. I have so many white boys just running down up on me, just as far as that whole culture—we blend with the X Games and just the radical life the white boys like to live. Everybody loves a badass, everybody wants to be that baddest of the bad or the coolest of the cool and for so many people this is what the Diplomats embody, ya mean? Rebels, nawmean? We got a cause though. I grew up dressing like a white boy slash that hustle and flow. I’m pretty much the person that started that movement as far as hood niggas really starting to get in and not be afraid to dress in shit your size and little slash rock and roll shit. Niggas like Pharrell do they shit, Kanye do they shit, but this is some hard nigga shit. Like killers and murderers do this shit we doing right here, keep a pocket full of money bulging so you could see it, fly belts that cost $800 to a G, mean sneakers, jeans costing six or seven hundred; niggas running around here, $6,000 an outfit. But this is what I do. My momma been putting me in fly shit, I don’t know nothing else but.
