Jim Jones has been in the game for a long time, and there’s been a lot of artists that he’s had an opportunity to sign. One of the biggest names Capo came across was none other than Drake, who was shopped around heavily early in his career.
During a recent interview, Jim Jones shed light on the time he passed on signing Drake to a deal. According to the Dipset member, he had no idea what to do with a young Drizzy because of his image and history as an actor.
“Drake definitely ran across my desk,” Jones said. “I got a call from Alan Grunblatt, I think I was on tour, and Alan was like, ‘I got this guy named Drake, he’s an actor, he’s on Degrassi.’ I’m like, ‘Who the fuck is Drake on Degrassi?’ He let me hear him rapping, like, this boy could rap his ass off.”
The Harlem rap legend added, “Then I looked at him, I’m like, ‘Boy, what do you mean? What am I going to do with boy? He’s an actor, he’s in a wheelchair on the Disney Channel.’ I’m like, ‘Boy, I don’t know how to make this work out.'”
At the time, Drake was looking to sign to a label that would let him bring his Toronto sound to the forefront, but not many people believed in him. Lil Wayne thought the future 6 God had something going for him, though, and the rest is history.
“Once again, I just wasn’t seeing past what I seen in front of me,” Jim Jones continued. “Weezy was smart enough to do so, and I remember being on another tour in the back of the bus and hearing Weezy and Drake rapping and Drake saying something about Princess Diana and it’s going crazy. I’m like, ‘Wow, life is crazy. This n-gga is dead nasty, fuck what he look like.'”
A similar situation happened with Jim Jones regarding J. Cole and his first dive into the Hip Hop industry. A young Jermaine visited the Dipset member at his office in hopes of getting a deal, but Capo passed on him thinking he sounded too much like Drizzy.
Jim Jones Explains Why He Passed On Signing J. Cole
“J. Cole didn’t have a team when they came to me,” Jones said during his visit to ItsTheReal’s A Waste of Time podcast in 2018. “He didn’t have a team, it was just J. Cole rapping.”
He continued, “A little light-skinned kid coming to the studio every day rapping like Drake, and at that point it was Drake [and] n-ggas didn’t know what to do with no Drake. Drake was just a phenomenon at that point. Shit, you can’t have two of them right now. As you see, it took him a few years after that to kind of find his place and what he wanted to do. He ain’t rapping like Drake no more, but when he was in my studio, he was.”
Hilarious that he ‘didn’t know what to do about his look” so he passed because of low cool guy points. Well let’s keep that as a lesson in the history books. Drake makes 5x more than El Crapo’s entire net worth annually with streaming revenue. Stay High 2022
You clearly no nothing about how the music industry works…It’s called Marketing. You have to be able to MARKET a rapper in order for it to pop. You gotta think this is BEFORE the sound cloud era where people could just drop whenever they wanted. You actually had to have a PERSONA to sell. And coming from Wheelchair Jimmy, to being a rap superstar is a stretch even in today’s era. I’m sure Jim isn’t the first record exec to have had a chance at Drake…..So basically, you don’t know what the fuck you are talking about…
Forgetting Soulja Boy came off the SoundClick era. 2006/7 and you couldn’t market Drake?
How are you going to sign an artist when you were only an artist yourself? Cam’ron had the label Dipset, and that Byrdgang didn’t fly.. Currently Jenny is an artist at Roc Nation. So what label was that you ran???
He was an A&R for some record company at the time…..He has held a few executive positions at various labels aside from being a rapper……….He also had his vampire imprint that he was working on at the time.
Working on but didn’t work out
This guy is a clown,talking shit about Drake and J Cole,I’m sure that if he signed both of them they wouldn’t be anywhere as big as what they are now
this guy is 50 and gangbanging. hahahaha
Thats why he is jim jones and has worked and been fired at many record labels.
And Drake album woulda never came out either ask Stacks and Max
It’s good he ain’t sign to you or my homeboy J.Cole.For the record Lil Ninja my homeboy never sounded like Drake.My home rapp better then you ,gotta better music then you,sale more then you,an got way more money then you Jimmy.Carolina 910 shit ninja.Stick to yo lil rap cause A&R ain’t yo thing no ?.