In an Instagram rant earlier this week, rapper Jim Jones blasted former Roc-A-Fella CEO, Dame Dash–seemingly over a money dispute. Dash swiftly responded via Instagram, but has spoken to Hip-Hop Motivation about the bad blood, dismissing Jones’ statements (The Harlem rapper called Dash the ‘real culture vulture’ and ‘a thief’ in an expletive-laced tirade), and claiming to have no hard feelings towards his former artist.
“I know Jim. He’s emotional,” Dame said. “He’s my brother. And I don’t know on any level why anyone would disrespect me … When it comes to black people, when they do business together, it doesn’t matter how much good stuff you do. If something, one thing is perceived as bad, it might be even misunderstood, black people get very reactive. Instead of just talking it through. And a lot of times it’s usually a misunderstanding … I would never have no problems with Jim. I would never have no problems with anybody on a physical level where I have the need to disrespect anybody. So, I wish he would have approached things different … Families got problems sometimes, man. They react. We don’t hide our problems. We wear it all on our sleeve. So, I guess when it comes to Harlem dudes, they emotional. Ddoesn’texcuse it … I would be alright with having a conversation with anyone that says that I owe them money. Just as long as it’s a civil conversation.”
Dash later stated that artists sometimes let their emotions get the best of them.
“It happens a lot,” he said. “When artists will get mad and say things in the moment and they don’t even understand what the business is, but they never apologize when they found out what the business is. An artist is supposed to be emotional. That’s why he’s an artist. That’s why he’s so good at his art. He’s supposed to be. But a lot of people take advantage of artists. And if they see someone protecting an artist they’ll always make sure that they tell that person that they’re making too much money off of them or they can make them more money or they’re robbing them. And also, when people create distance and don’t talk, that’s when you know they’re about to do something bad. Cause you can’t stab a person in his back in front of him … There’s not enough money in the world I think to disrespect someone that’s given you nothing but love their whole life just because of a misunderstanding.”
Dash used the opportunity to again reference parasitic people in power across the hip-hop industry, who he says enjoy seeing these two feud. The former mogul has been critical of industry heavyweight Lyor Cohen especially, and took another jab at the former Warner Music Group chairman.
“You know how happy Lyor was when he saw that? Or anybody else from another culture that benefits from us having beef,” Dash said. “There’s not gonna be no benefit from us brothers having a war or a disagreement or whatever it is … If you in front of a camera you have a public responsibility to be a good example for the people that look up to you, especially from your culture. We have to lead by example. We have to be intelligent. We have to do the right thing by each other,” he stated.
