Welcome to Past the Margin where we go beyond the beats, beyond the rhymes, beyond the cars, girls and diamonds. At Past The Margin we dig a little deeper into the topics that deal with this thing we call "Hip-Hop".

We plan to bring to you those serious, comical and controversial ideas and opinions that you've had with your "peoples" whether it was on the block or in your crib. There's hundreds of conversations going on right now about Hip-Hop and everyone has something to say about it. So don't think outside the box... take it Past the Margin.

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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Love him or hate him, you still have an opinion...




Pray IV Reign (Official PTM Review)
written by D.O.T.

Joseph "Jimmy" Jones released his fourth Solo LP "Pray for Reign" last Tuesday. I'm not going to go into the details of Pray for Reign. I'll let you listen to it for your self and make your own judgement. Jimmy has been in the media throughout his entire career. Going back to 2005 Jimmy, Cam, and Juelz were all over youtube being chased around Harlem (Rucker Park) by MOP and some other Brooklyn goons. Jimmy held his own...but got knocked out clean with one punch. Cam can be seen on the video clearly walking away as Jimmy was getting beaten up. Juelz was no where to be found of course. Other youtube video's have surfaced with Cam jumping into a crowd during a performance in order to to fight a disrespectful concert goer while Juelz stood on stage holding all of the Dips jewlery. I wonder if Jimmy started to feel like he was always doing all of the "tough talk" and dirty work for Cam to the point where he eventually got fed up and decided to branch out on his own.

Even after all of these minor disputes the DIPS remained together while they began working on a new artist...Stack Bundles. As we all know, Stack was killed in 2007. After Stack died the DIPS basically split. Cam went off into never never land and Jimmy and Juelz stayed home. Jimmy has continued to transcend the music and has done remixes for hit records by MIA, Asher Roth, and Ron Brownz.

Jimmy has found a way to stay relevant even after splitting from Cam. In some recently released footage of Cam'Ron being interviewed, Cam replied "Who's that? when asked about Jim Jones" I find that funny seeing how obviously Cam knows who Jim is. Was he acting as if he didn't know Jim to be funny or to prove a point that him and Jimmy don't work together anymore. Jimmy was later interviewed by Ms. Jones (former Hot 97 morning show). She asked him if he had heard that Cam wanted to squash their recent beef and make a record with him. Jimmy replied that he had never heard about Cam wanting to record with him. The fact is that Jimmy has proven that he can stand on his own two without Cam'ron. Does Jimmy owe Cam for putting him on? Are they really beefing or is this just a publicity stunt to sell more records and keep it in the family?

Some people are saying that Jimmy is done. I personally think he's just getting started. Even 50 said that Ballin' was a good record. 50 isn't the end all be all but the way he end's peoples career's it may be a good thing when 50 likes your recond. It most likely means that your record will actually get released and heard in the mainstream. Keep working and good luck Jimmy...

4 comments:

JusWritin' said...

Ok, my bad on the title. This isn't a review at all... haha.

j.d.O.t. said...

No worries Jus. This was the exact opposite of a review.

I just wanted to touch upon Jim's ability to remain relevant in the hip hop game as well as the music industry as a whole. He's been the executive producer on most if not all of the diplomat projects. He has made recent appearances on MTV. Any visibility is another $. So if nothing else, he's still relevant in a time when I feel its hardest to stand out and be relevant.

I left this post openended because that's how I see Jimmy's career. It's open ended like his projected album sales. We'll just have to wait and see. That being said, this fourth album most likely won't do numbers but does that mean Jimmy's done after this?

JusWritin' said...

Probably not. Jim seems to know how to navigate his way around the industry. It's like Fat Joe. He always flops with record sales, yet he always finds himself on a new song somewhere. lol

Stuprint said...

Not gon lie, I've liked a lot of the dipset stuff that had all 3 of em on it and I could buy/listen to a whole Cam'Ron album (sometimes) but Juelz and Jim dont do it for me at all.

Jim had a HUGE song in "Ballin" but what else has he done? Yeah, he's had guest appearances here and in person appearances there but as far as relevance outside of the east coast, i beg to differ.

I think dude will eventually fade into hip hop obscurity. We'll always remember his name when spoken but the next statement will be "what ever happened to him?"