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here street savvy meets executive ambition, you’ll find Jim Jones. Not your standard suit-clad executive, the Harlem native is mapping new territory, taking Hip-Hop to places it’s never been before. Not satisfied with only the success of his Diplomats imprint, Jim Jones has launched new ventures. After nearly two weeks of missing Jones, Ozone finally got ahold of him to find out what he has to say about Jay-Z, Katt Williams, and how he has the entire country “Baaaallin’.” Tell us what’s good with the Byrdgang movement. It’s no different from the Diplomats movement, it’s a subsidiary of Diplomats Records. It’s just a new avenue for us to make more money, we got a lot of talented people that we trying to get out and we trying to sell these records. Is there any difference between Byrdgang and Dipset in terms of labels? There’s really no difference except that I own Bydrgang solely because I got a lot of things I wanna do while Diplomats is owned by me and Cam’Ron so we have to have a meeting before we can do something with that. I wanted to do a little something different, this is like a little experiment I had in mind and it came to be real big for the Diplomats in general. Everything’s a bonus for Diplomats. We do business with Asylum and we’ll be at a couple other places as well. What are you going to do different with Bydrgang than you did with Dipset? I don’t think I’ll be doing much different. The template that we set for Diplomats is a beautiful template, the blueprint is crazy. I wouldn’t do anything different, I’m just trying to bring up a new generation of people that’s doing music. You recently created Dipskate. I’m a fan of the extreme sports. These young kids do amazing things with them skates. I’ve been watching Tony Hawk make a lot of money with these extreme sports and I wanted to venture into something new. I’m just sponsoring a skate team, by no means am I claiming to be a skater. Exactly what goes into sponsoring a skate team? Money. [laughing] Plus the integrity, the promotions, the plugs, everything. You gotta build the brand so the promotions is everything and Diplomats is the Eagle that’s gonna make it fly. How is running a skate team similar to running a label? We trying to make things bigger than people know what it is, that’s what the music is about. With skating and this whole new thing that’s come about it’s the same, it’s crazy. Dipskate can become so big. No one has really built a marriage between music and extreme sports and that’s where I come in. I got a knack for doing things like that. It’s gonna take a minute but once I find the blueprint, it’s on. We gonna take all the money out that. You and Juelz Santana started a belt company too. Yea, me and Juelz are part of it and we’re partnering with BB Simon, exclusive belt company. Right now we’re doing the skeleton thing, the rock star thing. If you have seen our videos or seen us in the magazines you understand our swagger. We’ve been down with BB Simon belts for years and we got a chance to meet the owner and we talked about a belt line and how it’ll be beneficial for both of us. People loving what we doing right now so we gotta capitalize. How much does a belt run for? Anywhere from $700 to $2,500. You and Jay-Z are going back and forth with each other. Did you expect him to come back with a remix to “We Fly High”? Naw, I didn’t expect it but when he did that it made me feel happy because I know all the work I put into it. He bit the bullet and I was the person who shot the gun [laughing]. Doing the remix was more beneficial to me than it was to him because I actually remixed it and both of them are registered with BDS so I get spins for both of them. Shouts to Jay, I appreciate you looking out. BDS goes by the beat and it has to be the beat for at least two minutes and then it counts as a spin. Jay went over the beat and left the hook so that was his first mistake and it helps me. When he did the remix I got 1,000 spins that weekend. [laughing] Do you think that was an oversight on his part? Yea, a major overlook. He didn’t expect me to do what I did. He expected me to go crazy and lose my mind but I respect the old head. He a little bit old in the game, he tryna get some flame back under his old ass. Old motherfucker.
Rumor has it Jay has a mixtape in the works. If he comes out with a whole mixtape aimed at Jim Jones, you know how beautiful that would be? He comes out with a mixtape and I’d have the whole Diplomats squad firing at his ass. We got too much music, he don’t want that. There’s no one there to help him. Who’s he gonna get? [Memphis] Bleek? I know who I’m gonna get. I’m gonna get Killa Cam, Juelz Santana, Max B, JR Writer, Stack Bundles, 40 Cal, Hell Rell, I got loaded missiles. You also had your differences with Nas. I’m not worried about Nas’ little punk ass, I’ll still slap his kufi off the top of his head. Nas and me is on two different levels. He could never fuck with me; he still can’t fuck with me. He needs to worry about his music and the album that’s about to come out. These niggas better leave me the fuck alone cause I’m not in their league and they know that. That’s why they keep to music, they wouldn’t dare venture into anything else besides music because I’d swallow them whole, no homo. I’m like the Loch Ness monster. Where does the beef with you and Jay stem from? We been signed to Roc-A-Fella so you can imagine where that come from. There was a time where we had to be in the same room with each other. Them niggas could never fuck with me, I already put hands on a couple of them. Wherever I’m at I make it my home, you can’t do anything about it. I always got the upper hand. Max B is all over your album. Yea, shout out to Max B, free Max B. Max B will be home real soon, he got himself caught up with some bullshit but we gonna rectify the shit. Boy gonna be on the streets on bail with a story to tell.
my diss] was to response “[jay-z’s more beneficial to me] actually was to him... i got [bds.” of them than it spins for both Freekey Zekey is back home now. Yup, Freekey Zekey’s home. He was just at a show with me in Baltimore, we went crazy. He looking like he-man, dawg. Shout to Zekey, he’s the President of Diplomat Records, business is everything to us. This music business is 90% business and 10% talent but you need the talent to get the business. You don’t think you can’t come in on the business end and then build the talent? I mean you can but it’s a little different unless you’re around someone who has the talent and you did the business. It’s like with me when I came in and Cam was the talent and I was the business. I was always a major player and a major figure. We have swag, so you can’t deny that nowhere. All my life I don’t care who was in the room, when I was in the room everyone knew I was there. Even when I was nowhere near famous all the famous people knew who I was. It seems like Diddy did it the same way. Exactly. Diddy had access to a whole label, the whole machine. He knew the plan, he knew the blueprint. He just flipped it. I took a little bit of his past. Shout out to Diddy. The “We Fly High” remix coming out soon. We got Diddy, T.I., Baby, Juelz, and Young Dro on the remix. We just finished that in ATL. When people see that video they gonna go crazy, tell Jay to eat his heart out on that one. Remixes are getting more collaborative these days with the “One Blood” remix and so on. Since I remember remixes have always been a major thing. You can remember the “Benjamins” remix and how big that was. Remixes show versatility and show that you want other people to shine as well. You put up really large numbers with your first week. I did 108,000 units on my album in the first week, a lot of people say that’s unheard of on Koch. I’m on my way to a gold album and if I put my work in I could be on my way to something even bigger. A lot of people have not been getting the sales figures even with large scale promotions and branding, so what sets you apart from them? I’m a part of a movement, the Diplomats. We create opportunities for people. We’re giving people jobs, we put roofs over people’s heads, we’re 95