Jim Jones (Rapper)

The Best Dipset Songs Ever

Time flies especially when one of your aliases is "The Fly Boys." It's been 10 years since the Cam'ron, Jim Jones, Juelz Santana and the rest of that "hooligan gang" the Diplomats (a collective of Harlem hustlers and goons) released their double disc effort, Diplomatic Immunity. Since then they've g ... More >>

BUILT THIS CITY

Cam, Juelz, Jimmy, and Zeke remember the good times

Rap Songs That Sample Shuggie Otis

Cult funkateer Shuggie Otis plays the Highline tonight. Despite his talent as a multi-instrumentalist and savvy singer-songwriter, Otis's career never quite went mainstream back in the '70s, but his legacy has been well served thanks to a judiciously reissued back catalogue and a series of rap types ... More >>

Live: Drake Brings Dipset, Busta Rhymes, A$AP Rocky, And More To Jones Beach

Drake w/ J. Cole, Waka Flocka Flame, Meek Mill, 2 Chainz, French Montana Nikon Theater at Jones Beach Saturday, June 16 Better than: That other suburban rap mega-show. Well over halfway through his set, having already given the crowd a festival's worth of openers and played everything but his bigg ... More >>

10 Curren$y Songs That Prove He's More Than Just A Weed Rapper

After a couple of failed attempts at riding under someone else's banner (No Limit, Cash Money), Curren$y ventured out on his own and struck gold, amassing hundreds of thousands of loyal followers and lighting (pardon the pun) the way for rappers like Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller to carve out their own ... More >>

Sound Of The City's March Madness Begins With An Uptown Faceoff Between Diddy (4) And Dipset (13)

The Round of 64 for Sound of the City's own version of March Madness—in which we determine the quintessential New York musician—launches this morning with a series of polls. Up first: Harlem's quintessential hip-hop cadre, Dipset, takes on the genre's megamogul, Diddy. Check out the argu ... More >>

Jim Jones Masterminds the Vampire Life

Watch the Jones

Q&A: 2 Chainz On Giving Back, Being Independent, And Fitting Work Into Every Hour Of His Day

​What's in a name? The storied quote would imply that a rapper by any other name is still just as [fill in the blank], but 2 Chainz, the Playaz Circle member who was better known as Tity Boi until fairly recently, might have a different perspective. Since switching nom de plumes, the Georgia ... More >>

Live: Brucie B And Slick Rick Stir Up Memories At Crotona Park

Slick Rick w/ DJ Brucie B Crotona Park Tuesday, July 12 Better than: Any other reunion, formal or not, that I've been to. When I crossed the Cross Bronx Expressway and arrived outside the makeshift stage that was about to support two of hip-hop's G.O.A.T.s, I realized I had arrived too late. No, ... More >>

Live: Rick Ross Lives Out His Dreams At Summer Jam

​Hot 97 Summer Jam New Meadowlands Stadium Sunday, June 5 Better than: Sitting at home and moping like 50 Cent. Rick Ross closed out Summer Jam. Just so there's no revisionist history here, let's remember how incredible that statement is. Three years ago, Ross was the punching bag of hip-h ... More >>

Live: Diddy Has A Family Reunion At The Hammerstein Ballroom

Diddy-Dirty Money, Tyga, Lloyd Hammerstein Ballroom Friday, April 22 Better Than: That time Diddy's son took Nicki Minaj to his 16th birthday party. "Diddy's not so much my thing," said a friend as we waited amid hundreds of fans and at least ten gigantic spinning cardboard cutouts of Ciroc bott ... More >>

Q&A: Incarcerated Rapper Max B on His 40-Year Jail Sentence and His New Record Vigilante Season

"They found me guilty as an accomplice to murder and a co-conspirator for felony murder and robbery, which they had no proof of whatsoever." Max B is talking on the phone from Bergen County Prison in New Jersey, where he's serving out a 40-year sentence for these charges. The offenses relate to an ... More >>

Ariel Panero Memorial Show, Featuring Tough Knuckles, Class Actress, and Tony Castles, Set For February 4-5 at Death By Audio

​It was just a month ago that NYC lost Ariel Panero, the audacious 25-year-old promoter and musician known for throwing shows Damon Dash's basement in Tribeca, performing in the band Tough Knuckles, managing Grooms, and generally being a warm and ubiquitous presence in the local DIY scene. Fri ... More >>

2010: The Year In Music Photos

​The year in music, circa 2010, started at the Cake Shop, with a shred-down to the New Year courtesy of Siren Festival MVP-to-be Marissa Paternoster and her band Screaming Females. After a tour through the NYE fetes of the Lower East Side and Williamsburg, that night ended amidst a marathon sh ... More >>

Live: Dipset Stage An Egalitarian Reunion Show at Hammerstein Ballroom

Ay! All photos by Jesse Serwer​The Diplomats Hammerstein Ballroom Friday, November 27 Better Than: Byrd Gang, Skull Gang, Purple City, U.N., Dipset West It seems a little silly, really, this Dipset revival. When times grew lean for the Cam'ron-led crew a few years back, the support staff--f ... More >>

Dipset Reunites, and Vado Ascends

Harlem's finest are back, but Cam'ron's new protégé might steal the spotlight

The Ten Best Quotes From Kanye West's Epic Hot 97 Interview With Funkmaster Flex

Left to right: Pusha T, Funkmaster Flex, Kanye West. Photo via In Flex We Trust​It is a measure of Kanye West's proximity to the heart of the zeitgeist that even on the day after a disastrous midterm election, his name is front and center in the news cycle. The Internet is aflame today with th ... More >>

Week in Review: You Rejected the Youth

Goodbye to all that. Photo by Sam Horine.​In the week one of our team successfully transitioned into the "expert" phase of her juggalo fascination, the rest of us just kind of got silly. Hence: the top ten songs named "Fuck You" or the immediate equivalent; Jay-Z's ten most shameful rock and r ... More >>

Watch Dipset's Jim Jones Perform An Extremely Awkward Set at Death By Audio

Photo of Jim Jones covering "Six Pack" at Death By Audio by Rebecca Smeyne.​Three weeks ago, Dipset capo Jim Jones pulled up at Williamsburg's Death By Audio at around 1:15 a.m. on a Friday night, unfolded his lanky frame out of the passenger seat, strolled through a crowd of befuddled punk ro ... More >>

Dipset's Jim Jones and Dame Dash Crashed Das Racist's Show at Death By Audio on Friday Night

Jim Jones gives punk rock the gas face. All photos by Rebecca Smeyne.​These are strange, wonderful times for hip-hop fans in New York. Former Roc-a-Fella mogul and Jay-Z cohort Damon Dash is running a modern day version of Warhol's factory out of a rented loft in Tribeca. Curren$y kills time a ... More >>

Live: Joell Ortiz and Jay Electronica Command A Tough Crowd At Highline Ballroom

Possibly more people onstage than in the crowd here. Joell Ortiz/Jay Electronica Highline Ballroom Tuesday, June 30 After basically booing both CyHi Da Prynce (who I--and I guess only I--actually like) and Big Krit off the stage, an extra hard NYC crowd made it clear that they weren't going to ma ... More >>

The Dipset Reunion Is Nigh, If This Footage Of Everyone Hanging Out At A Construction Site (?!) Is To Be Believed

So in large part the above video consists, hilariously, of Cam'ron, Juelz Santana, Jim Jones, and Freekey Zekey pulling up and getting out of their respective cars really ominously, and yet it shows the four founding members of Harlem's finest slightly esoteric hip-hop clique standing together and ... More >>

Gucci Mane Is Eating Really Well In Prison, If The Cover Of His Upcoming Burrrprint 2 Mixtape Is Any Indication

​From Rap Radar comes news of the next Gucci missive, out April 13, which promises to be anot--man look at that spread! Three bottles! Such tastefully arranged carrots! And I hear Fulton County Jail's lobster is excellent! Tough TV-viewing angles though. Some PR info on this eagerly awaited se ... More >>

The Black Keys and Damon Dash Get to Know Each Other on BlakRoc

The Curious Case of Tobb Cobain

We'd heard about it, but we didn't believe it. But the man with the worst name in rap exists--this is his faux-Drake hook on Jim Jones and Juelz Santana's "Forever" remix. The song's not bad, otherwise: Jim Jones is such an entertainingly terrible guy that he actually goes out of his way here to c ... More >>

Rap Sheet: Method Man Arraigned in Staten Island, Jim Jones Pleads Out in Manhattan

​Today "with obscene gesture, Method Man brushes past photographers at court," says the Staten Island Advance. The member of Staten Island's Wu-Tang Clan was there to be arraigned for tax evasion. The Advance further reports MM "used an 'Ultimate X-Men' graphic novel to shield his face" as he ... More >>

Week in Review: All I Have Left Are My Memories and This Copy of The Razor's Edge Signed by Asher Roth

Photo of Jim Jones taunting hipsters by Rebecca Smeyne​ In the week Jim Jones put ten thousand dollars on a three-on-three basketball tournament sponsored by Converse and barred to the media, we got up in there anyway, and brought you the hilarious play-by-play. Take that, shoe company. Gera ... More >>

Live from the Converse Band of Ballers: Mad Decent Loses, Fool's Gold Wins, and Jim Jones Takes Home A Golden (Spraypainted) Trophy

all photos by Puja PatelThe Brooklyn Crew's aggressive (and we suspect, inebriated) group of fans Converse Band of Ballers Wednesday, August 12 Yesterday's Converse Band of Ballers was as much of a shit-talking contest as it was a three-on-three tournament. The invite-only event went down at the C ... More >>

Jim Jones Bet Ten Thousand Dollars on That Converse Band of Ballers Event in Progress Right Now

Wow, so following this Converse Band of Ballers event on Twitter is kind of like watching baseball games on mlb.com or something. To recap: Jim Jones rode in on a skateboard, in order to "to taunt the hipsters." He's apparently playing every game with ten grand in his front pocket? And shooting ai ... More >>

Our Money Is Pretty Firmly on Jim Jones's Squad in This Converse Band of Ballers Thing

​OK, let's give this a shot--on Wednesday, at an undisclosed NYC location, presumably an undisclosed basketball location, there will be a three-on-three tournament in which it seems probable that these acts over here on the left will actually participate, like they'll play, using basketballs, ... More >>

Summer Jam 2009: One Man's Twitter-Based Narrative

Yes, our fair blog's most avid Summer Jam enthusiast is long gone. But Hot 97's annual fete/debacle raged on last night at Giants Stadium, and friend of SOTC/Vibe guru Sean Fennessey was there to bemusedly take it all in, including yes, Jay-Z's live debut of his Auto-Tune riposte and thrilling com ... More >>

News Roundup: Krist Novoselic, Drake, Black Keys, Iggy Pop

--Krist Novoselic is running for public clerk in Washington as a member of the Grunge Grange Party, a community service-driven group that was popular among farmers in the 1870s. Novoselic, who is the chairman of the Wahkiakum County Democratic Party, is not running to win, but to promote the party. ... More >>

Week in Review: Type "Motorhead" into an iPhone and it Auto-Adds the Umlaut

photo of the Fucked Up Inauguration Day crowd by Santiago Felipe In the week we said goodbye to John Updike, twice, and Missbehave Magazine once, we said hello to American Idol judge Kara's cleavage, the U2 song "Get on Your Boots," and welcomed Hanoi Jane back. Cold and poor, we also watched a ... More >>

Home Team Round-Up: These Are Powers, 50 Cent, Animal Collective (Of Course)

Sound of the City roots for the home team and so does Impose Magazine's Jeremy Krinsley. Alia Raza did the above video for Violens, a band that plays soft-heeled indie pop that is not in any way Lansing-Dreiden light, despite the band's frontman being first and foremost a member of that collecti ... More >>

What I Want for Christmas: Brooklyn, Circa 2001

Jim Jones: The Musical (No Really)

Jim Jones and Dame Dash Harness the Power of Words

Jim Jones: The Musical! (No Really)

Status Ain't Hood Does Summer Jam, Again

Hot 97's Summer Jam: A Preview

Cam'ron's New Mixtape: Pretty Great

50 Cent's Empire Crumbles

Totally Use Your Illusion, Dude

Rap stars see how the other half lives

Stack Bundles is Dead

Cam'ron and Jim Jones: Not Friends Anymore

Dipset's Parole Model

The Harlem crew's president and cred-enhancer is once again free to fly high

Jim Jones Obliterates Jay-Z

The BET Hip-Hop Awards: A Running Diary

Status Ain't Hood Does Summer Jam