Jim Jones has offered an explanation as to why New York City Hip Hop hasn’t been at the forefront when it comes to regional sounds.
During a visit to Maino’sKitchen Talk The Podcast, the Dipset Capo reflected on New York City’s positioning in the rap game and how the attitude of the city has also hurt it as well. According to Jones, New Yorkers have the mentality of always wanting to be the best and not working with others.
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“New York has been at a state of emergency when it came to our place in Hip Hop for a long time, we’ve been in last place,” he said. “One of the reasons is because we all know what New York is about everybody wants to be the man. Every few years it’s one person that’s unanimously New York.”
He continued: “Jay would have it, Puffy would have it, Nas would have it. Then when 50 came out, 50 had it. It goes in those cycles. It’s never been a united thing where everybody is helping each other to become unanimously that man.”
Jim Jones’ comments have been a topic of discussion for years amongst New Yorkers. The city had suffered from an identity crisis ever since Hip Hop music began to spread across the nation in the early to mid-2000s.
Diddy spoke on something similar when he visited Hot 97 and gave a public service announcement to the Big Apple. According to Puff, it was time for the city to reclaim its throne.
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“New York, we’re in last place,” Diddy said. “I’m here to tell y’all, and that shit comes to an end today. We’re gonna start doing us. The way you hear the beat in your head, do you. The way you move, do you. The way you dress, do you. Don’t be doing them, God bless them.”
He continued: “A New York cat is not supposed to be following nobody nowhere for nothing. Because we come from a rich culture of artists and designers and creatives. New York was always leaders, and we don’t blend in, b. We from New York, the fuck?”
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Diddy echoed a similar sentiment during his interview with The Breakfast Club last month where he specifically addressed the influence of trap and drill — sub-genres synonymous with Atlanta, Chicago and London — on New York Hip Hop.
“I’m here to deliver a message to New York artists,” Puff began. “We have to press the hard reset button and get back to being us. I love that we know how to rap on trap beats, I love that we know how to rap on drill beats from London, but what are we rapping on that’s coming out of this city? I don’t want to sit back and see my city stay in last place and keep on following what everyone else is doing.”
He added: “We the swag, we the alpha, you know what I’m saying? The alpha and omega, we started it. And no disrespect to nobody else, we should be competing from New York in a way you have to figure out, ‘Ok, this is what’s going, that’s going on. How am I gonna produce something that makes our people move so we could do us?'”
