There is no shortage of studio gangsters in the five boroughs, but spend five minutes with Jim Jones and you know he is real. The streets are in his blood, but at the same time Dipset’s Fonzarelli is utterly cool and does not get worked up about little shit. For someone whose Nextel chirps every 10 seconds, Jones seems to be having the time of his life, enjoying the success of his first big club single “Baby Girl,” directing videos for Diplomats and State Property, and holding down a desk jobs as C.E.O. of Diplomats Records and Director of Black Music at Warner. In his words, the new solo CD “Harlem: Diary of a Summer,” which features P Diddy, Paul Wall, Trey Songz and most of the Diplomats, is about more “money more problems” after his debut CD’s “survival of the fittest.” The Kufi Slapper raps about his criminal exploits, declares his loyalty to his set, talks greasy on other rappers, and laments the difficulties of balancing his career with his loved ones. But we’re not here to talk about any of that. We want to talk about his clothes.

DJ Ayres: You wear tight clothes for a cat from Harlem when everyone up there is in the XXXL tall tees.

Jim Jones: I'm a rock star baby! You can't tell? I get money like a rock star. Remember that.

Is that how you walked around before you were a rock star?

I was always a rock star. I was always a fly nigga. For the most part if you look at the videos now, the whole game is dressing like me. Everybody got the chain hanging from they pants. It's all love. I ain't mad at people being fly. The ladies love it.

So let's say I'm gonna move up to Harlem, and I need a Dipset makeover. What are you gonna do for me?

Let's see what you rocking. You wearing it nigga, you good nigga, you don't see what I got on? You straight, nigga! Fuck wrong with you man! I never bought that [oversized] shit. I used to buy Polo, Nautica, all that type shit. I was into the couture type clothing and the preppy type clothing and I put the hood twist on it, yanahmean? I'm my own little thug. The black James Dean.

I wonder if the preppy clothes didn't rub off on Kanye a little bit.

Man Kanye's spaced out. He don't... man that ain't the same type of shit. That shit ain't right, what he be wearing. That shit borderline homo. I can still fit twenty, thirty thousand in one jeans pocket. Kanye can't fit two singles in his pocket.

How did you land on your feet after the Rocafella fallout?

We moved the Roc! You smell me? We the Bird Gang, we fly high! A rock may be tall but it can't fly as high as bird nigga!

Who is on the Kufi list?

Ha ha! I put the Kufi list up, I was offending the Muslim brothers. But you know, whoever talks slick, or want to get some heart, you know.

Max B is on a couple joints on your new CD. Where did he come from?

He is the newest member of Dipset Byrdgang. He's from Harlem and he's the truth. I'll put my money on him. I knew him from the street. I didn't know he could rap like that until he came home. He was locked up for seven years.

You hear about crews who forget about someone once he is locked up, but Zeke seems really prominent as a Diplomat. Why do you think that is?

Zeke is part owner of this whole Diplomat thing. He's family. This ain't no bullshit we running here, this is life. We don't forget about our Comrades and our brothers. We can't do that.

You got Paul Wall on your album. Have you spent time in Houston?

I used to live in Houston. I had a club in Houston called Dipset about two years ago. It held 3000 people.

Whoa. Who out of Houston is gonna blow up that people aren't up on yet?

All the people from Houston that I knew that was doing music is out already. Slim Thug, Mike Jones, Paul Wall, Lil Flip, those are all the people that I deal with when I was in Houston.

Are you getting on any of their shit?

If they want me on it, why not?

Are we going to see Dipset chopped and screwed?

I just did a chopped and screwed deal for my album. That is coming out hopefully before Christmas.

Do you ever do songs for mixtapes that you can't clear, that you wish you could get to a wider audience?

A lot of songs you wish you could be able to put it out there like that, but unfortunately sometimes it be samples and sometimes it be another persons beat. You gotta keep making that hot shit. My song Around My Way, they told me I couldn't have on my first album.

I'm writing for a HHC Magazine in the UK, and there is the infamous video on the internet of you, Cam and Juelz riding around with Tim Westwood, from the strip club to the show.

[Smiles] I never seen that video. I remember when we was in London! I gotta see that. We've known Tim Westwood for years. Yeah, Tim Westwood is a funny guy. We're from New York, so that accent is funny, but he got a lot of jokes and shit. He's a good dude. I fuck with Tim. He's got some funny shit going on. At the same time he cool and that's why I fuck with him. London is cool. It's always great out there.

Are there artists you fuck with from London?

We have a group out there called SAS. I met them in New York briefly. We seen them in London, and they said they could rap so I said meet me and Cam at the hotel and if yall can rap we'll put yall on, and them niggas was nice.

Does it really happen just like that?

Sometimes. That's how Cam got signed.

Why is Dipset the hottest crew in NY but less so out of town?

It's different. The hood love us, so we good. There's love everywhere we go, as soon as we touch down. Sales don't really mean nothing to what we doing. We have a movement. A way of life. It's organic, you dig?

For more on Jim Jones hit up www.capostatus.com

Words by DJ Ayres (www.djayres.com). Photo by Joe Conzo (www.joeconzo.com).


Copyright Hip-Hop Connection Magazine 2005