Jim Jones: Jay-Z's Swag is Terrible

Jim Jones graces the cover of Complex. In this interview as always he had some very colorful things to say. Just peep it for yourself:

Via Complex

You have a guest role on the Starz show Crash. What else are you getting into for ’09?
Jim Jones: Well, the sky’s the limit, man. There are so many things I want to do. We just started a comedy division together: me, Dame and Mike Epps. We’re getting ready to do the big concert with Epps, and we got a soundtrack to the comedy show. It’s called From Hollywood to Harlem—it should be really funny. Mike Epps is brilliant. I want to explore the movie world through comedy and try to get in that way. Not too many people know me in Hollywood, and that’s the place I need to be. I need everybody to know me.

Speaking of attention, Max B has been going hard at you lately. He even has a site for it, fuckjimjones.com. How do you feel about that?
Jim Jones: It’s cool. Anything he tries to do, I can either shut it down or get paid for it. I own him, all his publishing, all his contracts. He sold me his publishing to get out of jail. He called me crying on the phone saying, “If you bail me out, I’ll sell you all my publishing and do whatever I got to do.” He damn near said, “I’d suck your dick like a crackhead to get out of jail.” [Laughs.] So you can imagine how frustrated I am, the way I’m living. I got 50 grand in my book bag, and we ain’t even at a video shoot.

Meanwhile, your relationship with Cam’ron is at a standstill. It seems like that souring has had the most effect on you.
Jim Jones: It’s definitely hard, because that’s my nigga, that’s my brother. We rolled together for a very long time, and there are things I remember we said that we would never do. And now that we’ve got so much success, we’re doing all the things we watched people do and said that wouldn’t be us. It’s the ego; it has to be. This is a question I’ve asked myself over and over again. That’s the only way I see it. Amongst everything else, there was a couple things said on my part, but I can do that if I want to. Above all, I kept it fair; I could really expose shit, but that’s not what I’m here for. Once your ego becomes bigger than money, you can’t get anywhere. It’s a sad thing—we’ve built so much. Everywhere around the world, people know the Diplomats as a strong entity. And it’s at a halt due to the fact we’ve been going back and forth through this minute bullshit.

He finally came out and said that he couldn’t rock with you because you appeared onstage with 50, kind of questioning your loyalty.
Jim Jones: He’s questioning my loyalty? He was questioning himself. At that point in time when I did [appear onstage with 50], I was doing all business. I was doing what was best for Jimmy, what was best for my career. It was in my best interest to do publicity stunts and get hype. He was nowhere to be found, so who is he to be questioning what I was doing? He couldn’t do that from the get-go because I helped start all this. What went on between him and 50 was a mockery—that was niggas making jokes. That was a YouTube snap battle. It was nothing remotely physical about that battle. I can’t indulge in fun and jokes that’s like wrestling.

In the documentary, there’s mention that Jay-Z stole the beat for “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” from you and Cam, that Kanye agreed to give the beat to you guys. What’s the story behind that?
Jim Jones: Kanye came to our studio session at Sony, and he was playing some beats back when we were all signed to Rocafella. Cam was about to come out with Come Home With Me, so we told Kanye we wanted to buy the song “H to the Izzo.” It was an understanding we had between us and Kanye because we were all under the same label. So then, I’ll never forget it, we’re at Cam’s house and this hip-hop award show comes on [BET Awards, 2001], and Cam and I are watching it on his couch, and we’re like, “Next year we’re gonna be up there.” So they announce that Jay-Z is about to perform his new single off The Blueprint, and the dude comes out with the “H to the Izzo” beat. Cam and I look at each other like, Oh, we’re going to kill Kanye. Oh my God, when we catch this nigga,we’re going to do something terrible to him. And that’s how Cam ended up getting the “Down and Out” beat. Kanye gave it to him free of charge as payback.

You hear it all the time, but NY rap is still not back to being at the forefront of rap. Who else would you enlist to bring the game back?
Jim Jones: Without my own personal hatred—I got to put all my feelings aside—to bring NY back properly, I would definitely put the Lox as a whole. Definitely 50. I fuck with 50, and beyond everything we got a mutual understanding. I think we think alike in some ill twisted way. But, it’s still aggressive competition above all, because we all trying to eat out the same pot.

So even with personal hatred aside, Nas and Jay are still not on the roster?
Jim Jones: To bring New York back? Shit, why they ain’t bring it back already? It would’ve been back. I didn’t even think about them. The integrity of their music right now is not where we come from any more. Nas is still stuck in Africa, and Jay is talking about way too much money and Merrill Lynch talk and shit like that.

Jim, do you have any theories?
Jim Jones: Jay-Z never sells as much as Kanye. Jay-Z wishes he could sell as many records as Kanye. So he’s only beating him with terrible swag. Like over there, their swag is terrible. They having a terrible swag contest. It’s really bad over there.

You warned Kanye to keep your name out of his mouth after he said some things about you and Juelz closing Summer Jam. Would you ever fully go at him?
Jim Jones: Kanye?! I like making jokes about him, but Kanye is somebody you can just punch his chest old-school style, cave his chest in and shit like that. Like don’t ever, ever, ever talk about me again in your life! It’s just a joke to me. I’m just having fun. I heard him ranting and raving about my name and shit. How would I look having an issue with Kanye? I’d love to work with him. I need a beat from him. I think that’s why I’m most mad. Matter fact, I’ma fuck you up if you don’t give me a beat! [Laughs.]

Mediaoutrage- We actually get a real kick out of Jim Jones’ interviews. He’s hilarious, a little delusional but still funny as hell.