It’s about to be a busy year for Jim Jones, and the Harlem Capo is staying focused. Catch him if you can.

Story By Joe La Puma; Photography By Phil Knott; Styling by Anoma Ya Whittaker MORE CREDITS »

(ILLUSTRATION) CHAUNCEY MEDDER; (BARBER) CARLOS THE BARBER; (HAIR) JANOI BURROUGHS; (PHOTOS) AP PHOTO

Is it 1995? The scene at Chung King Studios in Downtown NYC seems familiar, even nostalgic. Dame Dash is here—pearly-white AF1s laced Harlem-style, throwing his customary imaginary dice—while the upstart he’s co-signing kicks back on a leather couch. Tonight’s about the future, though, not the past: Jay-Z is nowhere to be found, Dame is no longer the CEO of Rocafella, and the focus of his marketing might this time around is Jim Jones.

Two years after “Ballin’” became the biggest rap banger in recent memory, Jones is looking to get his momentum back. It’s a cliché for an artist to say he’s paper-chasing, but after inking three separate deals (with Koch, Sony and Asylum), it seems as though Jimmy means it. Like, Really Means It. So, as is fitting a man like Mr. Multitask, he’s got a new album (Pray for Reign), a Dash-produced documentary and a handful of acting spots coming down the pike.

The thing is, between the swag-splashing diatribes most fans know him for, Jones does come down to earth from time to time. Seeing his son in the documentary makes him shed a tear, talking about his girlfriend of four years makes him smile, and his rocky relationship with Cam’ron hits him somewhere in the middle. Then there’s his feelings toward Jay, which might just border on hate. Regardless of what mood he’s in at any given moment, though, Capo’s a dude who’s impossible to ignore. We say that to say this: Don’t be surprised if Dame gets his wish this year. Mainstream, you might wanna get prepped, because here comes Jimmy.

You have a guest role on the Starz show Crash. What else are you getting into for ’09?

Jim Jones: Well, the sky’s the limit, man. There are so many things I want to do. We just started a comedy division together: me, Dame and Mike Epps. We’re getting ready to do the big concert with Epps, and we got a soundtrack to the comedy show. It’s called From Hollywood to Harlem—it should be really funny. Mike Epps is brilliant. I want to explore the movie world through comedy and try to get in that way. Not too many people know me in Hollywood, and that’s the place I need to be. I need everybody to know me.

And what about the play you’re starring in?

Jim Jones: I’m doing a play called Hip-Hop Monologues Off-Broadway. It’s something we derived for my new album. You know how everybody does a listening session and all the publicity comes through, and there’s a little bit of liquor there, and they play the music? I got tired of doing that; I wanted to do something very different. Something to gain people’s attention ’cause I want this album to be a real success. We’re going to do the best verses that fit the situation out of all the songs to pull this play off, and then we’re going to have a full stage set, the backgrounds, and are just going to paint the whole picture. But for the most part, I’ll be how John Leguizamo was in Freak; I’ll be the center of attention.

Speaking of attention, Max B has been going hard at you lately. He even has a site for it, fuckjimjones.com. How do you feel about that?

Jim Jones: It’s cool. Anything he tries to do, I can either shut it down or get paid for it. I own him, all his publishing, all his contracts. He sold me his publishing to get out of jail. He called me crying on the phone saying, “If you bail me out, I’ll sell you all my publishing and do whatever I got to do.” He damn near said, “I’d suck your dick like a crackhead to get out of jail.” [Laughs.] So you can imagine how frustrated I am, the way I’m living. I got 50 grand in my book bag, and we ain’t even at a video shoot.

Meanwhile, your relationship with Cam’ron is at a standstill. It seems like that souring has had the most effect on you.

Jim Jones: It’s definitely hard, because that’s my nigga, that’s my brother. We rolled together for a very long time, and there are things I remember we said that we would never do. And now that we’ve got so much success, we’re doing all the things we watched people do and said that wouldn’t be us. It’s the ego; it has to be. This is a question I’ve asked myself over and over again. That’s the only way I see it. Amongst everything else, there was a couple things said on my part, but I can do that if I want to. Above all, I kept it fair; I could really expose shit, but that’s not what I’m here for. Once your ego becomes bigger than money, you can’t get anywhere. It’s a sad thing—we’ve built so much. Everywhere around the world, people know the Diplomats as a strong entity. And it’s at a halt due to the fact we’ve been going back and forth through this minute bullshit. Home // CELEBRITIES // COVER STORY // Jim Jones