We always knew Jim Jones would drop a solo joint. It was just a matter of time. First he appeared on Cam’ron’s CDs and in his videos, followed by some real shine time on the Diplomats CD. And always, staying true to their intense Diplomat work ethic, he’s been grindin’ on mixtapes and radio shows, all the while gearing up to drop his dolo debut, On The Way To The Church. Sitting inside his new label, Koch Records, in lower Manhattan, New York’s Rider Man waxes poetic about holding an umbrella in the rain, the #1 reason for the Diplomats’ success and the real reason he believes that Mase returned to rap.
Why did you choose Koch Records to distribute your debut?
I tried to get some deals with some majors, Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam and shit, and I had a price in my mind that I was worth, I thought I deserved. Because I’ve been in this game so long and this craft that I’ve acquired in this game along with me knowing how to do music. They wasn’t feeling that. With that, I had to sit back and turn to the same blueprint we used to get our label. I started going hard in the streets with myself, mixtapes, freestyles, DJs everywhere, taking trips around the country by myself. Cam was like, “Man, we need to go get some of that money like Lil’ Jon and them be doing. Let’s go get some of that paper.” He said you got to look at it like, first week you sold 100,000 records on Diplomats. You good for at least 50,000 records at the minimum. Now look, I’m over 100,000 good at the minimum first week. I’m cool with that, because with the money I’m getting if I sell a gold album, a nigga on a major gotta sell five million albums to even talk to me about some paper. It’s all about paper at the end of the day. That’s one thing about the game, they’ll make you famous before they make you rich. In the hood, they say, “They’ll get you high before they’ll feed you.” You smell me?
But Koch isn’t known for pushing their artists to platinum status.
Koch is an independent, and me coming from a major and having a label on a major, I have that mindset so it all works out. They were very open=minded here. They do need to get a better blueprint. I’m one of the first new artists and this is my first album, with a buzz. For them it’s totally different. And that’s why I’m here and I bring a strong team with me. At the same time, they can learn from us and we can learn from them. It works hand in hand. A lot of things they do here we have no knowledge of, since we’re used to dealing with the majors. We might feel that it’s tedious, but now we here so we have to put that legwork in. At the same time, the shit that we do from a major point of view that they can’t grasp or they don’t know how to do, I’ve got a team that’s gonna show them how to do that. It can only make them stronger as a label.
Who are you trying to reach with this album?
I ain’t no preacher. The only message at the end of the day that I want to portray is that I’m still on my way to church. Everybody that I know, we from the hood, they still on their way to church, too. You smell me? At the end of the day, we all want to be at a safe and sanctified place, whether you’re a religious person and you believe in God, or you believe in anything else, you want to get to the highest place of living or you want your soul to be there. Besides that, I’m from the hood. Everything I talk about surrounds that. It’s all about the hustle and the struggle. We say we hopeless because there’s pretty much nothing left for us to do. Most of us have been locked up before. Most of ‘em hard-headed, probably dropped out of school to get a job, makes it that much harder. They not opting to give us no jobs. Some of us that do choose to go to school, it still don’t work out for us. So at the end of the day we still hopeless. Like man, we stuck under a black cloud. God granted me his love, he gave me an umbrella under this black cloud so it’s not raining on me. I’m not directly in the rain, but I’m still in the rain. You understand? Like my shoes is getting wet from that water splashing on the floor. For the couple of people that I can save that can get up under the umbrella with me, I’m going to do that. I ain’t trippin’. I don’t need to be under this umbrella by myself. That’s what it’s all about at the end of the day for me. I don’t want nobody to be scared or nervous but that’s what’s up. My niggas ain’t got nothing left to do. And for them, I just tell them just be careful what you doing cause they’re trying to bury us. Put us in jail. Where we live and us being so dormant and so ambitious, we killing each other to make a dollar. Some of us trying to pay the rent, some of us trying to floss. But shit, why can’t some of us make some money?
What’s the Diplomats’ secret to success?
The #1 thing that made us so successful or kept us in this game is that we didn’t compromise ourselves in nothing we did in any term or deal we took. We didn’t sell our souls, not for the bullshit, not for a chance at ultimate fame. If it comes, it comes. But we gonna do it the way we want to do it. We not gonna fail because the way someone else wanted us to do it. Nah, if we fail and it’s on our own terms, we gonna be content with that because it’s all about us.
I heard you are called New York’s Rider Man because your songs are perfect for cruising. Your songs come out like anthems. Do you look for those types of beats?
I don’t really think I’m gifted because it’s not as easy for me as it comes for other people. Every word I put in there is so dear to my heart. I’m not talking no bullshit. I’m not blowing no smoke up your ass. Everything I spit about is something that I lived through or the people that I’m with on a daily basis lived through so it’s dear to my heart and I feel like I lived through it. It’s life and it makes people just relate to that. And that’s all I know how to do. As far as my ear for the beat, I don’t care if you was a bum on the street and you gave me a beat CD and I listen to it and I’m feeling it, I’m like, I need that. Loop it up. My album has about eight 2 tracks. Cause I couldn’t find the producers. Well, we got it down to two now. “Certified Gangstas” is a 2-track. It’s looped up. My man had the beat on his CD. I don’t have a gift for that. It’s crazy because I didn’t know how to rap. Mase showed me how to rap. I used to bullshit and freestyle in high school walking through the hallway, but Mase sat down and showed me how to do it one day. I knew I had a lot of things in my heart that I wanted to say over living so hard but I didn’t know how to put it out there. Then when I did, I wasn’t doin’ it right. Then Cam was like, “Man, Jim, you live so hard and the shit you do, if you can just spit it the way you live, people are going to fall in love with you because you just that type of person and everything you do people can relate to.” I started to get the hang of what he was talking about. Getting deeper in the game it becomes more emotional and personal with you because it’s not just a business anymore as far as us, it’s a way of life. It’s mixed with everything. Sorry to say but the drug game and the rap game are now one. It’s street life. It’s hard like that.
What do you look for in new artists that you sign to your label?
I look for the hunger in the person. And the talent you just can’t deny it. There’s a halo over their head. Un Casa, I remember him freestyling for me and Cam when we used to go up to 145th Street to buy sneakers years ago. Cam was like, “That kid got a problem.” We said, when we get our shit together, we gonna come back for him. Juelz found Bezel. That kid is a fuckin’ monster. I don’t think anyone want to do the one-on-one with him. Juelz, that’s self-explanatory. When the talent comes to us, we know we need it.
How is your new alcoholic beverage Sizzurp doing in the South?
Everybody’s taking to it. It’s doing way better than I ever thought, period. Liquor is a funny thing. You gotta get it legalized in every state, one by one. Now we got about 30 states under our belt. The demand got so much we couldn’t meet the supply. We had to get a whole new distillery so we could start pumping out twice as much. The word Sizzurp, I coined it from the South. Pretty much Houston is where I got the word from. I was presented with the opportunity and I was like, I want to sip on some Sizzurp. The Three 6 Mafia song came in my head.
What’s next for Jim Jones?
I inked a clothing deal just today. It’s gonna blow the socks off niggas, you smell me? Myself, the music is a lovely thing. I would like to continue doing it for like two more years. But I’m not really into being in my 30s and still rapping. Rap is like a fraternity. You can be stuck in it for life but I can’t be doing this music for life. It’s like high school or something. My four years are up. With this recent venture of Sizzurp and clothes, I realized this music is my liaison to do pretty much whatever the fuck I want to do. There’s a whole lot of other shit I’d love to be doing. There’s a big world out there and I’m not trying to be stuck in one phase. I would love to do movies and get political, and see as much walks of life as I can in this world. Travel hella hard with my family, my son. I ain’t trying to be stuck in this paradox. I have a 10-year plan. After ten years I’m cool. Ya dig? For real.
You mentioned Mase before. Why do you think he’s back to rap?
I don’t know why Mase came back for. Probably came back to just piss me off. I ain’t got nothing to say about the young man. Let him do him. This game is a hustle. You smell me? But I thought he was just preaching. I thought he was just a reverend. Smell me? So he must have back slid. Something must have happened in his life. But I don’t know what to say about that young man. That’s not one of the people I want to talk about right now.
