Recently on The Amazing AllHipHop podcast, Jim Jones spoke to Chuck Creekmur about a lot of different topics. One particular story he told regarded his time at Baseline Studios, the now-defunct studio that Roc-A-Fella called its home in midtown Manhattan. Originally, the studio was owned by Jay-Z and O.G. Juan, and spent its last years under Just Blaze’s supervision before closing in 2010. Furthermore, the Dipset MC fondly recalled his time with Jay at Baseline, and gave listeners an interesting anecdote that meshed the music game and the streets. Around the 42-minute mark in his conversation with AllHipHop, Jones explained how he’d pull up to the studio with a lot of Bloods.
Of course, Hov’s aspirational and detailed brand of hip-hop built an acumen that enabled him to speak to the streets as much as he was straying further from them into billionaire status. However, that was a tightrope walk that he balanced all throughout his career, even to this day as he tries to inspire others to “make it out.” Regardless, Jay-Z apparently wanted a certain level of respect from gang members visiting the stu, according to Jim Jones.
Jim Jones Brought Bloods To Jay-Z’s Studio
“We were right in Harlem so we ain’t have to cross no bridges or nothing to get there,” Jim Jones remarked. “It was literally a seven-minute ride to get down there. We used to come in there all the time. Me piling in there with like 20 Bloods with me. [Jay-Z] looking at me like I’m crazy. One day I came in there with so many Bloods, Jay was like, ‘Come here, come here, come here.’ Like he was my uncle.“
“I’m not worried about all the Bloods you bring here.’” Jay-Z reportedly told Jim Jones. “I don’t care about none of that. But when you bring the gangsters in here, make sure the gangsters holler at me before anything else ’cause this is my house.” Later in the interview, Jones also reflected on gambling with The Blueprint MC and Memphis Bleek and other wild tales. Check out the full interview above and come back to HNHH for the latest updates and tales from Jim Jones and Jay-Z.