Jim Jones is opening up about rap beef in the 1990s, recalling how Dipset were inspired by famous rivalries from artists, including Tupac, which labels used as a “marketing tool.”
Amid his own beef with Pusha T, the NYC icon joined a panel discussion exploring the legacy, influence and future of the mixtape hosted by Roc Nation. The conversation turned to the role rap beef played at the height of the mixtape era.
“It’s not a mixtape thing, it’s a Hip-Hop thing,” Jim Jones explained, adding rap beef was not confined to the mixtape era. According to Capo, rap rivalries are inevitable. Especially when you put artists with “a lot of ego put in the same room.” He referenced the famous beef between Kool Moe Dee and LL Cool J as an example. That particular feud erupted in the late 1980s.
However, he conceded mixtapes “heighted a lot of different situations because now it’s an ongoing thing.”
The host then brought it back to Jim Jones and Diplomats’ place in mixtape beef history. Wayno pointed to Juelz Sanatana going at Nas on the 2002 Diplomats Volume 3 tape.
However, Jim Jones said they were just imitating the bigger artists at the time after seeing their popularity soar because of rap rivalries.
“We was watching Tupac and how successful they was getting off of going crazy on everybody,” he said. “This was a whole era right there where this was a marketing tool that was working for major labels and artists that had the upper hand at the time.”
He mentioned the famous beef between Jay-Z and Nas, adding that Dipset were simply “following suit.” Jim Jones continued, “We wasn’t having nothing. If that’s what it’s going to take for n##### to get on, we in.” Watch the video below.