WEBVTT - INTERVIEW: Jim Jones On Staying Relevant, Putting People On, Repping Harlem, Kanye, Cam'ron + More 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:02.440 Wake that ass up in the morning. 0:00:02.600 --> 0:00:06.600 The Breakfast Club, Morning everybody, it's the e j env 0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:09.520 just hilarious. Charlamagne the guy. We are the Breakfast Club 0:00:09.640 --> 0:00:11.600 just as out today. Lor l Rosa is feeling in 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:14.080 and we got a special guest in the building. His 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:16.919 album is out this Friday. At the Church Steps. You 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:19.400 done did it again, man, cap Old, ladies and gentlemen. 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:22.000 Jim Jones, what with you'll welcome? How are you feeling? 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:23.680 I'm feeling pretty good. I can't complain. 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:25.040 Man, you make some good ass music. 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:27.600 I done told you this a million times, but at 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:29.600 some point you would think there'd be some type of 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:32.200 fall off or something, but it just has not been 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:35.280 at all. Like at the Church Steps is a phenomenal, 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:36.560 phenomenal body of work. 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:37.800 Man, God is good. 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:39.919 So let's let's get into the mind frame. 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:41.839 Because we were talking behind the scenes and we was like, 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:43.800 he knows how to make music. 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:45.600 Yes, you know what I was comparing it to. I 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:48.360 was comparing it to Rick Ross, Like Rick Ross just music. 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:50.640 We got a great ear and he always got fire 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:51.920 and you you the same way. 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:54.800 Thank you, man. I appreciate that. That's big. That's big. 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:56.640 That's big. I was I wash the whole world to 0:00:56.680 --> 0:00:57.200 see it like. 0:00:57.160 --> 0:01:00.000 That, And why why don't you think they see it 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:00.320 like that? 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:02.080 I don't know, man. You know, I always been an 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:05.240 independent artist. I didn't have most of the promo that 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:07.360 most of the major artists have and things like that. 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:09.560 You're going to go. But it feels good to be 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:11.640 where I'm at right now. I think I'm in a 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:14.479 unique place for how long I've been in the game 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:18.200 and to be able to navigate with the youngsters and 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:20.640 still have my core fair base and and some new 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:23.680 so it's dope. I mean, I'm engaged. I'm embracing the 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:28.080 new wave of marketing through technology and digital stuff like that. 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:31.120 So you know, it's giving me a real jump on 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:32.160 what I got going on. 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:33.000 And what keeps you there? 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:33.240 Is it? 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:35.680 Is it your son? Is it being outside? 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:38.840 Because Jim sends Meet Records a lot throughout the year, 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:42.880 and like Charlamagne said, it always sounds relevant. It's not 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:45.320 like it's not relevant even if it's an older, little 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:48.360 classic field, but it also has a classic field. So 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:49.559 what keeps you in that zone? 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:52.560 I'm a classic hustler, I mean, I mean, but if 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:54.760 I don't live life, then I wouldn't be able to 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:58.160 continue to do my music the way my hustle is 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:00.320 set up and things like that. As far as going 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:03.080 outside of getting the money feed my family is, it 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:05.600 still has me outside, So that's a big reflection on 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:08.520 the music. And then you know, I have artists, they 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:11.000 all younger than me, so I get to see how 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:13.360 they live in and I live vicariously through them. So 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:15.040 it's a lot going on. And then you know, I 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:17.200 love the younger generation and people that's coming up. I 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:18.720 always like to give them a help of hand. So 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:22.000 in turn it's a full service. We help each ovel 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:24.200 our way. Hand watch the other, both hand watch the face. 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:26.240 But the urgency of music for me is like, you know, 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:29.680 besides everything else. When you're a person that comes from rap, 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:33.000 ain't nothing like having a hit record that helps everything 0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:35.760 that's out tremendously, And when you got that cool behind you, 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:38.080 it's like none you can't do. And the business stuff 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:40.800 coming company starts. I mean, so it always starts with 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:42.919 the music. And you can ask anybody who does music. 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:45.280 It's harder to make like the records you got on 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:47.000 like the at the Church steps Aultum, like the Joe 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:49.920 Mo and the Genesis, just those dope street records. It's 0:02:49.919 --> 0:02:52.960 harder to make those are a hit single, like a. 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:58.920 Ball hit single, like a Balling because the records that 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:00.639 you hear is a reflection of things that are really 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:02.320 going through if you listen to the music and things 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:03.799 like that, like you know what I mean. So it's 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:06.360 like it's very easy for me to talk about actual, 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:08.360 real things that you know, I mean, But you got 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:10.920 them records that you need for getting lit in the 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:13.079 club and things like that. Sometimes those are the hardest 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:15.040 records for me to kind of produce. 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:16.760 You know, do you chase Balling though? 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:18.960 Do you chase that record, try to make a bigger record, 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:20.959 or do you just make records to say if it 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:22.120 connected connected. 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:27.440 Would after the successive Balling, I used to chase Balling, damn, 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:31.360 like I gotta findle I mean. And then slowly but 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:33.239 surely I got out of that phase of just trying 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:35.720 to chase Balling and make music that I continue to 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:37.880 make money. I mean, And I do believe I hit 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:40.320 to come, and a few hits came since Balling. 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:42.560 You had one, But to your point, I guess you 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:44.840 didn't have the label behind it, the joint And then 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:49.960 and then away, Yes, I should have been out of 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:50.360 here and. 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:53.120 Then so I show you how it goes. So Wayne 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:54.800 had put a record out similar to that, like a 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:56.560 little bit after that, where he was singing and stuff, 0:03:56.560 --> 0:03:59.360 and I was like, but it's the support sometimes and 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:01.480 you know just how the game go. But yeah, I 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:03.840 have some dope records that I'm proud of. Whether they 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:06.560 ain't get the platinum success or the success that I wanted, 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:08.720 but I'm definitely proud of all my music to still 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:11.040 be here coming up to the Breakfast club all these 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:13.520 years later from where I started, it's definitely incredible. 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:15.640 I was talking to Lauren before you got a pair. 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:18.120 We was talking about an interview you did and you 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:20.520 said you spent twenty million dollars the time of ball 0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:22.440 and you ran through twenty million. Yeah, And I was, 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:24.640 and I was counting your pockets. I was like, Jim 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:27.560 loves calls, but he ain't love calls like that. Right then, 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:30.160 I said, Jim loves houses, but here you love houses 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:33.840 like that. Jim has jewelry, but not twenty million dollars worth. 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:36.520 Where did you spend the twenty million dollars just. 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:40.720 Just spending and living? Like my credit cars sometimes like 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:43.640 one hundred and twenty thousand dollars a month, you heard. 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:45.000 And I ain't got nothing to do with the every 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:46.680 day expensive So you know, we deal with a lot 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:47.760 of cash and stuff like that. 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:49.240 So I know it was a lot of PJ he 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:51.200 was on. He was PJ king at one time. 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:53.320 This is what I'm trying to say. So if you 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:56.560 jumping on the jet all these times, and your jet 0:04:56.640 --> 0:05:00.560 build some time might be half a million month just 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:03.039 because you trying to get place, it's all added up. 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:04.480 Is not like I spent it like it was just 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:06.880 the accumulation during the ball of the error. Through those 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:09.360 few years where I was getting money, I was getting 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:11.279 and I was blowing it. And as I looked back 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:13.720 thinking about the money that was spending, came on to 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:17.279 about twenty years routine the deal money to show money 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:21.240 to all money feature money, like I'm burning through that shit, 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:23.320 you know what I mean. So I ain't got twenty 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:25.560 million dollars to show for it, but I definitely spent 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:27.080 it on the land and shit like that, you know 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:27.440 what I mean. 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:29.800 I know you said in the same interview you don't 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:32.680 regret anything, but there were things that you probably would 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:34.680 have done differently, or just just things you would have 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:37.160 done at that time that you didn't do. What were 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:38.960 some of those things now when you're looking back, like, yo, 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:40.200 I could have put I could have. 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:43.360 Did this, I could have been way more financially responsible 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:45.440 than I was. But I got this thing there that 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:48.000 you don't know till you grow. I was very young 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:50.560 and dumb at that time, and the experience was worth it. 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:52.520 But as I'm older than I'm thinking back, like, damn 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:55.400 if we did have some people in my corner or 0:05:55.720 --> 0:05:57.840 grew up a little bit different where we were tall 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:00.479 financial literacy as opposed to coming up in the hood, 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:02.120 and we were taught to get that money, Go get 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:03.479 the car, go get it, you know what I mean. 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:05.360 I'm a product of the projects you did. Like so 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:07.560 everything I seen is everything I wanted. And I got 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:10.280 that money and I emulated what I seen outside. We 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:13.160 wasn't taught to, oh, by real estate. We wasn't taught to, oh, 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:16.040 get savings. We wasn't taught none of that. We was 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:18.200 taught to save what you cared in the shoe boxing 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:20.080 style out on everybody else, you know what I mean. 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:21.720 And that was the mentality I had and it took 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:24.320 me to go through a lot to learn any bit 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:27.440 of financial literacy, like to the point where I part 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:30.120 of the ways with my account. And ever since I've 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:32.640 done that years ago, it was like, was me really 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:36.200 gaining control of the moneys that I had because I 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:37.960 actually had to see it when I had an account 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:39.760 and I never saw the money. I just was spending 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:40.920 the money until I was in debt. 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:43.200 I was talking to somebody about that yesterday actually, and 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:45.120 they were seeing that they can't wait to wait to 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:46.920 get to the point where they're making enough money where 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:48.960 they could just throw people to manage you real quick. 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:49.920 And I was like, I don't know, I kind of 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:51.400 want to see mine and feel this. I know where 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:51.720 it's going. 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:52.719 I know where I'm messing up. 0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:56.720 Nobody to pay your bills, just me being ended up 0:06:56.760 --> 0:06:58.800 on a rock bottom, and how didn't make a decision 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:02.119 like yo, moving forward? You got to do something different 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:05.240 because what you've been doing is not working for you now. 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:07.839 Having a business manager and having account in two different things. 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:11.360 Sometimes account access a business manager, but a business manager 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:13.600 is really supposed to help you make some money with 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:15.280 the money that you have, and things like that. You 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:17.160 know what I mean and then count. It helps you 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:20.679 just pretty much pay your bills and keep your taxes 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:22.160 and orders and things like that, you know what I mean. 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:25.040 And I didn't know the difference between the two, and 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:27.400 I mean, it's just but I learned, you know what 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:29.080 I mean, and I'm here. God is good. I was 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:31.840 able to bounce back. I was dealing with some scary times, 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:33.640 but I always had a hustle and spirit. I know 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:35.559 how to make money, what I mean, but I didn't 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:38.760 know how to make business. So now I've learned how 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:41.240 to make business so that these business can make me money. 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:44.360 So I'm in a whole different status feeling life right now, 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:45.480 and I feel real good about it. 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:48.000 But your debut album is all my Way to Church, 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:49.920 All my way to church. This album is at the church. 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:52.480 Twenty years later, I feel I'm that much closer to 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:54.760 getting my life totally together, you know what I mean. 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:56.680 And we can't do that without having God in my life. 0:07:56.720 --> 0:08:02.720 When you go into church, thought. 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:04.640 Close to it. 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:06.320 I'm very close. So I mean I grew up in 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:08.440 the church, I mean for all my life when I 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:11.120 was younger, Sunday school, all night, pray me and all 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:13.240 that type of stuff. So I'm a golfer it, man. 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:15.640 I mean, I have very good morals, a very great 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:17.800 moral compass, and that's why I believe that I'm still 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:20.200 able to be here in good favor and things like that. 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:23.120 Laurie, tell him what you said. I like the conversations 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:24.840 people have about music when you they not in front 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:26.800 of you. Tell them what you said. You didn't know 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:27.400 about Jim. 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:30.400 I was about to go there from the order of 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:32.360 how you put this project together. I didn't know that 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:34.800 you were like emotional as emotional as you said. 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:35.400 Yeah. 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:36.640 I think it's like and I don't think that's a 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:37.000 bad thing. 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:38.679 I think it's like when I think about you, I 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:42.520 think about like Jim Jones tough you don't play with him, 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:44.559 and I think about the big records. I don't think 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:46.760 I've ever really sat and digested a full project, and 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:49.160 I did that and preparing for this, and I was like, man, 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:51.120 you put a lot out there, you talk about how 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:52.960 you feel and you take your time with it, where 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:54.679 like I really felt it. I'm like, Wow, he was 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:56.640 really going through some things. And then by the time 0:08:56.679 --> 0:08:58.560 we got the church steps, it's like, Okay, now he's 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:00.640 coming up out of it and know that you were 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:01.400 like that in your music. 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:03.760 You know anything about cancers? 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:05.240 What I tell you, what I think. 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:07.400 I learned today. 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:09.760 That's that's who I am. All of my music, I 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:12.080 pretty much will all my emotions on my sleeve, which 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:15.439 I've gotten better at. Like I've my decision making used 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:19.000 to be all about an emotional decision, you know. I mean, 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:21.160 I make the wrong choices a lot of life. And 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:24.600 I've gotten very good with me keeping a level ahead 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:26.920 and not letting the little things get to me and 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:29.160 things like that, things that I can't do nothing about, 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:31.160 you know what I mean. So I'm proud of myself 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:33.000 for doing so, because there was a time where I 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:35.480 will react to every little thing and put myself in 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:38.360 all types of trouble for no reason, and you know 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:40.800 I would never benefit from it. I'll be like shooting 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:42.800 myself in the foot every time I had something good 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:43.120 going on? 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:44.400 Is it therapeutic for you? 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:44.640 Didn't? 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:47.240 Because when you hear the music, you literally hear you 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:49.640 expressing your life to music. I feel like if you 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:53.280 listen to this album, whatever questions they have, you answer 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:53.760 them in some. 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:56.079 Way, shape or form one hundred percent. That's what this 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:58.120 album turned into. Be Remember I was doing this album 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:00.480 for eighteen months. So this album changed that actions like 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:02.679 three four times. And I mean it was a core 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:04.760 body of work that I always loved, like records, but 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:08.120 as I was living life and going through certain situations, 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:09.960 the music would change and things like that. And as 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:13.560 we all seen everything that transpired in the media recently 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:15.400 and things like that. So as I get I was 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:18.040 able to get a bit of that emotion also and 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:20.560 everything is that answered some questions that people. I mean, 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:21.880 so it was good. It was good for the music. 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:23.040 It was good for my soul, you know. I mean 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:25.640 I needed that. I needed that. I needed somebody to 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:27.439 poke me. I mean, so I could wake up and 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:30.840 get back on my get back in my bag. 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:33.240 It seemed like the media questioned you at one time 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:37.599 about your role in dipsets and diplomatic How did that 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:38.079 affect you? 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:38.280 Right? 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:42.160 Because I mean everybody who's in New York or around 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:44.880 the country seen the war what your role was, or 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:45.800 thought what your role was. 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:48.720 So how did how did you handle let How did 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:49.360 that make you feel? 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:51.920 I mean, it was crazy. When I woke up, so 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:55.600 was Chris. She was like, yo, listen, put your phone down, 0:10:56.960 --> 0:11:01.880 breathe for five minutes, internalize it, think about it, and 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:05.680 don't overreact. It's what people want you to do. First off, 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:12.920 and overreacted in the house, okay, And then I got 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:14.360 over it, you know what I mean. I just thought 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:16.559 about the playing feeling, what was really astakeing what we're 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:18.240 doing here and things like that, and what people have 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:20.640 in their favor and when it comes to the media 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:22.800 and how these media games, and plus it's a playbook 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:24.800 from our playbook that we created. You're not gonna trick 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:27.599 me with a play that I've created. I mean, like, 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:30.160 I know this play all right, cool, But as far 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:32.199 as what people spewing and things like that, you know, 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:35.520 I mean, I got this thing you I mean a lot. 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:38.400 I can't tell the truth you heard, and time don't lie, 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:40.520 so everything we will reveal itself in time. But I 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:43.679 do believe this is a story that everybody's known for 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:45.800 so many years. The only people that don't really know 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:49.560 the story are the New Millennials and Gen Z generation. 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:51.920 But besides that, the hip hop culture know well. My 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:54.880 position is in a diplomass. But everything started from pretty 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:56.920 much my dynamic. And not to say it started like that, 0:11:57.040 --> 0:11:59.120 I mean when the success started. Everything came out of 0:11:59.160 --> 0:12:03.079 my grandmother house age. I mean, I wasn't I was it? 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:10.079 You heard like if I was, I was the denominated 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:12.800 in between everybody, Like if we didn't have that little 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:15.160 stuff that I don't believe that they would have went 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:16.760 in the direction they went. Not to say, and they 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:18.600 wasn't rapping before I met them, Not to say, none 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:20.120 of this type of shit. But all the things that 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:22.079 he was saying was pretty much foolish and shit like that. 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:24.280 It's all jokes to me. But I do know what 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:26.400 I what I've did. I think everybody know what I've did. 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:30.800 I mean everybody who hallm knew me. My name is 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:33.360 Joan way before my name was Jim Jones. You know 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:35.120 what I mean, Like I really have a name of 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:37.480 the I mean shouts, the Halem, shouts of my block, shots, 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:39.720 the twelfth Street, shouts of the thirteenth Street, Lenox Side, 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:44.320 Foster P's t peas, uptown, downtown, east Side, west side. 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:45.400 You know how this thing goes. 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:48.480 And I think another question people always ask, and as 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:52.120 many years as I've we interviewed you, I don't think 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:55.960 people ever know where was the I guess the breaking diplomats, right, 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:58.480 because you guys were tight, Like, this wasn't just me 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:00.600 doing this. Y'all were in the group. Y'all were family. 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:04.040 This wasn't a rap group. Like there was Cam the rapper, 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:07.439 Joel's the rapper and freaking and Jim was kind of, 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:10.040 in my opinion, was the you know, the muscleman. They 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:12.319 would have the duteman right, they would have wait to 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:14.120 make sure things happened. They were gonna make sure the 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:16.880 record got spun, they were gonna get the clearances, they 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:18.640 were gonna make sure everything was in order. 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:22.439 That's what that's how, that's what you see. But it 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:25.079 started from I, me and Cam being broken my grandmother 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:29.160 house with no money, heard having to hustle. You know, 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:32.079 I was in the streets. He was. I was figuring 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:34.360 out how to get to it. And he had his craft, 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:37.040 which was the music, and he ended up striking gold 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:40.960 with the craft. But it all started with us having 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:42.640 nothing happening to figure it out. Shot, it's the six 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:44.480 figured Digger. A lot of people don't mention his name, 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:47.240 but I don't think it'd be no diplomats without six 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:51.959 figured Digger. He was the uh first person that was 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:54.120 like he was the part of the original COOC. When 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:57.760 it came to Bloodshed, Cameron and six Figured Digger and 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:02.199 then R I P. Blood passed away. Cam had got 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:05.320 his first deal and six Figured Digga was his producer naturally, 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:07.679 and they got Platinum, Hiss together and things like that. 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:11.679 And this separation was there was a separation with Cam 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:14.520 and him before there was any other separation between the diplomas, 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:16.080 before he got the deal. And that's a whole other 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:19.400 side of the story. When we were offered millions of 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:23.480 dollars at one label and somebody didn't take it because 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:26.320 power struggles, which I knew nothing about. I found this 0:14:26.400 --> 0:14:28.000 out later on, and shit like that. That we could 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:30.200 all had way much more money at signing, But I 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:32.120 wasn't signed to the label in the beginning anyway. He 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:33.560 just gave me a check who was with signed. So 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:35.200 there's a whole lot of shit. But six Figure Digga 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:37.720 is a prominent piece to the whole Diplomat success. I 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:39.400 don't believe that none of us would be with Hi 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:42.520 as a diplomat if six figure wasn't inside of that 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:45.480 that that dynamic, and I do believe that people need 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:47.200 to sit down and interview him and get his view 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:49.880 on how everything goes. And I mean he's pretty successful. 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:52.520 He ended up on platinum records fifty all types of people, 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:54.280 so he got a great catalog and stuff like that. 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:57.800 But yeah, he's a very very prominent piece to this 0:14:57.880 --> 0:14:58.400 whole story. 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:00.680 When did the break? When did the er happened? 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:03.680 Where I started splitting apart because I know everybody started 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:05.560 doing their own thing. You started doing music, You all 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:08.720 started doing music, and Cam started doing miss witted it 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.240 break where it seems like they can't come back together. 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:14.080 M I did it. 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:16.360 When I listen to the album, I hear you still 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:18.000 referencing as your brother, and you explain all of this, 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:20.720 you talk about the apartment, and you talk about bloodshed, 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:22.080 you talk about all of this on the album, But 0:15:22.160 --> 0:15:24.720 it still seems like that's your that's your brother. 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:26.720 I mean, once you got her brother, he's always your brother, 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:29.640 no matter what I mean, Like, doesn't mean that you 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:32.720 got the same brotherly love that you wasn't mean that 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:34.720 you're going to hang out like brothers, Like I mean, 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:36.760 I know brothers that trying to kill each other, you 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:37.200 know what I mean. 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:39.560 I think it's on make it out. 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:41.400 You say, if so, if it is, what it is 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:44.520 is so be it, and I'm not sound number three 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:47.000 and then number four on Make It Out, you say 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:50.120 you talk about wanted to put it behind you brothers 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:50.720 and two brothers. 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:51.200 That's lost. 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:54.400 You didn't just say it is what it is, so 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:55.960 be it. It was more to it after that, I know. 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:57.680 But I just I specifically grab. 0:15:57.680 --> 0:16:02.680