Tag Archives: take-the-stage

‘What you will hear is some hustle music that will make you hit the block early,’ he tells Mixtape Daily. By Shaheem Reid Jim Jones Photo: Byrd Gang This Week’s Main Pick Street King : Jim Jones Holding It Down For : Harlem, USA Mixtape Album : The Ghost of Rich Porter Real Spit : Across 110th Street, Jim Jones grabbed his favorite hero — roast beef with ketchup — and threw waves to the police as squad cars rolled by. One of his old friends, just out of jail, came by and got love from the whole crew, which included Jim and Byrd Gang member Sen City. Jones stood in front of a mural of his late friend Bloodshed, a cousin of Cam’ron’s. Jones spoke of beloved late Harlem figures such as Blood and Rich Porter. “It’s a lot of meanings behind that title,” Jones said of his mixtape, The Ghost of Rich Porter, which comes out Tuesday. “If you’re not familiar with Harlem, I’ll hip you to game kinda quick. If you’re not familiar with Rich Porter, he set the precedent for us as far as how we wanted to live. As far as getting fast money — the cash, the cars, the girls. Then the underlying story behind it — the betrayal, the disloyalty, the backstabbing. Rich was special to Harlem. “If it wasn’t for people like Rich and a few other people, people wouldn’t understand Harlem, as far as the culture, the style. So I credit him for that,” Jim continued. “There’ll never be another Rich Porter in Harlem. He set the precedent for us. It was him we was coming up looking at. On the flipside, I say it’s the ‘ghost,’ because when you think what me, Cam and Juelz and Zeek have done for Harlem, it’s changed from when we was directly in the streets to what we doing now. When we come back now, it’s like people looking at a ghost. Some people are in awe, some people don’t know what they looking at. We’re in the ‘hood.” Shawty Lo, Gucci Mane and the Byrd Gang all appear on the mixtape. “For the past half a year, six, seven months,” Jim said of the tape’s title, “all I been hearing is people saying it’s a recession. It’s getting bad. I never knew it not to be a recession in Harlem. That’s why it’s Harlem. We found a way to get the money. If it wasn’t no job opportunities, our next best thing was to hustle. I’m not telling you what to hustle. I’m not advocating you do anything illegal. I’m advocating you get the money, the moolah, the muggah! That’s what it’s all about. That’s what it portrays. “You won’t hear your traditional pop hit,” Jim added. “What you will hear is some hustle music that will make you hit the block early. … Put that iPod on, hit the train or the bus, get on that commute. All my strap-hangers. Then we’ll get to the album and fulfill all your dreams with all that radio music [later].” Jim’s fifth solo album will be out later this year. It will be an independent release through E1. He has no title yet. Joints to Check For