Jim Jones has never shied away from his Blood gang affiliation, and in a recent Breakfast Club interview, the Dipset rapper made it clear—he has no regrets about making millions by commercializing gang culture.
Jones, who has often been criticized for embracing gang imagery in his music, spoke candidly about how his affiliation with the Bloods helped shape his brand. While he distanced himself from actual criminal activity, he acknowledged that he helped make gang culture more visible in New York and turned it into a lucrative business.
“It’s not a crime to be a Blood,” Jones explained. “It’s not a crime to be a sorority member, it’s all the same thing. It’s a crime if you do crime while being that. That turns into other things. If it’s more than one of you doing crime while being Blood, that turns into a RICO. I do business. I’m a businessman, you heard? Always music, baby! I didn’t bring the Bloods to New York!”
Jones also admitted that he capitalized on the gang culture’s influence, similar to how Snoop Dogg commercialized Crip culture.
“Oh, commercializing my gang affiliation? Yeah, I made it cool, but I also commercialized it. I made millions of dollars off the gang culture. Same thing with [what] Snoop has done. But I did not start that. I was a young kid, you know what I mean?”
Despite the controversy surrounding the intersection of gang culture and Hip Hop, Jones defended his role, stating that he has used his platform to uplift others rather than push them into crime.
“Nobody’s twisting nobody’s hands to do anything, this is entertainment business,” Jones said, arguing that labels and executives often exploit these images for their own gain.
However, while Jim Jones promotes a business-first mindset, his ongoing feud with Cam’ron suggests that personal conflicts still play a role in his career. The two Harlem icons are at odds over disagreements related to their past beef with 50 Cent, and it remains to be seen whether things will escalate further—possibly into the booth.