Diplomatic Animosity: A Brief History Of Cam'ron & Jim Jones' Beef

Cam’ron and Ma$e are friends-turned-enemies-turned-friends-again. It has been one of Hip Hop’s biggest feel-good stories in recent years as the pair have pivoted away from Hip Hop in their mid-late 40s to become two of the most popular sports personalities around. The Harlem natives spent much of the 2000s bickering with each other, but now that they share a set on It Is What It Is, it’s impossible to imagine them apart again.

When Cam was dissing Ma$e, Jim Jones would always be over his shoulder as Dipset’s de facto enforcer. The two were tight and the early ’00s belonged to the Diplomats — which also included Juelz Santana and Freekey Zekey — as they rode Killa Cam’s early success to secure a deal with Roc-A-Fella Records.

They may not have had the world-conquering crossover appeal of G-Unit or the technical wizardry of The LOX, but New York (and America as a whole) loved Dipset, who despite proudly repping Harlem, found success by merging the gritty ’90s NYC sound with club-friendly Southern rap.

The group’s debut album Diplomatic Immunity is a perfect time capsule for 2003. It’s a record dripping in confidence, audacity and the kind of chaos that now defines them (the amount of 9/11-related lyrics are enough to give any record executive a panic attack). Cracking the top 10 on the Billboard 200, the album’s commercial success made Jimmy and Juelz stars on the level of Cam’ron.

But just when they should have gone on to conquer all, the whole thing came crashing down.

Nobody really knows why Dipset faltered — they were caught up in the great Roc-A-Fella schism, their roster rapidly grew in quantity if not necessarily quality, and success ruptured a clear hierarchy where Cam’ron was the capo — but falter it did.

The end result is where we sit today: Cam’ron and Jim Jones both going for the jugular for seemingly trivial reasons when maturer heads should surely prevail. Though a reconciliation feels further away than ever, Cam and Ma$e have proven that time can calm any storm, and Dipset should realize the world is a better place with them as friends instead of foes.

Below, HipHopDX recaps Cam’ron and Jim Jones’ complicated relationship over the last two decades.

Tricky Ricky

“I was dead wrong for this. This is where everything went all the way downhill,” Cam’ron admitted on Instagram Live in 2017. He was referring to T-shirts he made in the mid 2000s with “Tricky Ricky AKA Jim Jones Is A Trick” printed on the front.

It was a dig at Jones for spoiling his then-new girlfriend Chrissy Lampkin. Harmless enough. Only on the back, Cam printed the names of all of their friends who were currently incarcerated, sending a loud and clear message that Jones should have been using his money to help out his brothers behind bars.

As expected, Capo did not take kindly to the stunt and Cam was eventually big enough to admit that he was in the wrong. “It was just a joke. He took that shit serious, b. And to this day, I be man enough. I apologized about doing that, I really do apologize,” he said during his aforementioned broadcast.

50 Cent Stirs the Pot

Back in 2007, 50 Cent was even more audacious, insulting and machiavellian than he is now. While beefing with practically half of New York, 50 also began feuding with Cam’ron after rubbishing Koch Entertainment — to which Jim Jones was signed at the time — as a “graveyard,” leading to disses being exchanged between the pair.

This coincided with Jones confessing to former Hot 97 personality Miss Info that he and Cam were no longer on speaking terms: “Me and Cam’ron haven’t spoken to each other in a year. I kept quiet out of loyalty, I felt like if we can’t be friends then at least we can do business together […] But now I can’t be next to you.”

Naturally, 50 took things to a totally different psychological level and famously brought out both Jim Jones and Juelz Santana at a show in the Big Apple months later. As rumblings of discord within Dipset were becoming public, 50 exploited the brewing tension for his own benefit, something Cam acknowledged during their recent sit-down on his YouTube show Talk With Flee.

“When n-ggas went on stage, I was like, ‘This shit is spinning out.’ It was a checkmate moment. I said, ‘This n-gga’s devious.’ But I respected it, I liked that shit,” he said to a victory-lapping 50.

Cooling Waters

Though the Dipset era had fizzled out, it wasn’t quite dead and buried. By 2009, Jim Jones was making public overtures to Cam’ron that it was time to patch things up and get back to doing what they did best.

“We possess the hottest thing in Hip Hop that hasn’t happened yet and everybody knows it,” he told VIBE. “We damn near could be one of the reasons to make Hip Hop a lucrative thing again and that being the Diplomats. If we put it back together. There’s a 50 percent chance because I’m in. Smell me? And that’s a high percentile.”

The two longtime friends managed to patch things up in early 2010 and publicly announced that their feud was over with a Diplomats comeback single called “Salute.” Rumors quickly followed that the group had signed to Interscope and were set to work with Dr. Dre, but everything quickly petered out. There was no record deal, no follow-up single and no album.

The Reunion That Never Was

Behind closed doors, the Diplomats looked to have built their bridges, recording a track called “Oh Yeah” that Cam’ron dropped in 2016 as a collaboration between himself and Juelz Santana only. Unsurprisingly, this irked Jones and he called out his cohort on Instagram for allegedly removing him from the song.

“Somebody ask Cameron why he clearly took my verse of this song tht we all recorder in his house bout a year n half ago and then so quick to tell th world he doesn’t know why dipset not getting back together to do a album lol,” he wrote. “[T]his n-gga is weird lol let tht hit th blogs I’m a blogger @730freekey lol I couldn’t help it.”

Cam brushed over Capo’s angst, but things soon escalated when the “Hey Ma” hitmaker played down his longtime collaborator’s role in the success of Dipset. “I didn’t really grow up with Jim. We got cool right when the music was popping off,” Cam told Angie Martinez later that year. “Jim caught it right when it was business time […] This is all house money for Jim. [He] wasn’t a rapper.”

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Soon after, Jim Jones signed a management deal with Roc Nation — the company founded by former foe JAY-Z — and sat down for an emotional and revealing interview with Funkmaster Flex, in which he bared his soul about the downfall of the Diplomats.

“I put my life on the line for this. I been to trial for this. I been on America’s Most Wanted for this. I been on Gang Files for this,” he said, holding back tears. “I been on everything you can name, so when people play on me, I get real emotional ’cause I operate off emotions.

“There’s never been a time where I’ve backed down from any situation in this world. Except God. And I been up against 20, 30 deep by myself when n-ggas left me by myself. Ya heard? I escaped those situations and still come back and give n-ggas high fives.”

Diplomatic Ties

Despite the line in the sand having been seemingly drawn, Dipset still found time for some brief displays of love. Near the end of 2017, well over a decade after the release of Diplomatic Immunity, the original foursome reunited on stage at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City.

Though the concert was a splintered and relatively underwhelming affair that saw each of the group perform solo hits with only a brief amount of time dedicated to their iconic posse cuts, it was hoped to be a seminal moment in the story of Dipset — one that would lead to new music.

And well, it was. Diplomatic Ties was released almost a year later, gifting fans nine new tracks and a dream collaboration with The LOX. Despite the promise, the album was poorly received by fans and critics, sold poorly and was most notable for Cam’ron dissing Kanye West on the opening track.

The Line in the Sand

Dipset and The LOX’s Verzuz showdown in 2021 was a pandemic highlight for any Hip Hop head, but it was clear that night the Harlem titans were never going to be the close-knit unit they once were. Not only did they suffer a bruising defeat to the well-oiled Yonkers trio, but it was one of the last times that Cam and Jim spoke.

Everything in Hip Hop seems to come full circle, though, and after Cam’ron and 50 Cent had an entertaining discussion about their complicated history in December, feelings were hurt. Speaking on Justin LaBoy’s Respectfully podcast shortly after, Jones gave Cam and 50 both barrels.

“Them n-ggas be on my dick. Them n-ggas ain’t got nothing else to think about but Capo. I did a lot for them n-ggas in their life, ya heard? Both of them,” he snapped. “Pause, though. Get off my dick! It’s only space on there for baby girl. Come on, man. Tugging on my shit like that.”

Cam’ron’s response was apocalyptic. In a lengthy rant on It Is What It Is, Cam (accompanied by a popcorn-eating Ma$e), eviscerated Jim Jones’ very soul: “You’re a Guardian Angel in designer, n-gga. You are from the Bronx, bro. You are not from Harlem. I did not grow up with you, my n-gga.”

Killa also claimed that Capo “begged” to be friends with him back in the day, reminded him that he and Ma$e “taught you how to rap” and mocked him for making amends with “every n-gga that put hands on you,” including Maino and French Montana.

He further flamed his former groupmate by claiming that he once ran away from members of BMF, sneering: “They chased you to the beach! You was in the sand. You was getting wet in the water from the ocean.”

Jimmy isn’t turning down the temperature. His latest move was to perform an upcoming response track, which is called “JOMO” and is set to drop this week, in front of a mural of Cam’s late cousin and former Children of the Corn groupmate Bloodshed — a dark turn for the previously close friends.

The rekindled feud shows no signs of cooling off with Jim Jones seemingly ready for all-out war, although Cam’ron has said that he will longer publicly address the beef. Whether he keeps that promise remains to be seen.