Jim Jones has officially jumped over to the Roc Nation team, and he's explaining why. Deets inside on his new deal, plus why rapper Young M.A is the face of FADER's Sex Issue...
Jim Jones officially announced today that Roc Nation will handle all business endeavors on his behalf. Yep, he signed with the Roc for a management deal sanctioned by Jay Z, OG, and Ty Ty.
We're told Roc Nation will oversee all Jim Jones platforms including music, fashion, acting and more. Shocker? Yup!
When the pic above hit the net last night, folks lost their ish. There's a long standing beef between Dipset (which Jim Jones has been a part of for decades along with his homies - now frenemies - Cam'Ron and Juelz Santana) and Rocafella which has morphed into Roc Nation. Sure, they were all once one big Roc-A-Fella family at different points in time, but both empires have had a volatile relationship since the 90's. Get that timeline HERE.
And so the saga continues.
Jim Jones chose to work with Roc Nation because, he says, it's a very family oriented organization.
“The fact that people are ready to forget the past and help me move fwd to the next step of my career is very inspiring,” said Jim Jones. “As you get older you realize that most of your peers are either dead or in jail. The fact that we can move pass the BS is a testimony of how much we have grown.”
Wow. So, there's that. Congrats to Jimmy on the new deal!
In other rap news, The FADER announces its first-ever Sex Issue. The print issue hits newsstands March 7th and it made "Ooouuu" rapper Young M.A the cover chick.
It's an interesting move as she's mainstream rap's first openly gay artist. And she holds nothing back when it comes to sexuality in her lyrics.
Here's the highlights.
Young M.A on being mainstream rap’s first openly gay artist:
“If I change people’s lives, that’s all that matters to me. I don’t want to be the first ‘dyke rapper,’ ‘aggressive rapper.’ I don’t care for that … I hear from all different people, not just people like me, or lesbians. It be straight people, it be grown men, it be grown women, people that have been sick or depressed that say, ‘Oh, you made me want to go do what I want to do for myself and chase my dreams.’ That’s my purpose.”
On criticisms about misogyny in her music:
“At the end of the day, men can be described the same way as men describe women. A man can be a ho, just as much as a woman can be a ho. And I’m a woman myself! I respect women. I respect my mother.”
On being gay in New York:
“Life is too short. I need to just be myself, express myself. In New York City, it’s popular. I used to think to myself, Man, there’s a lot of gay people out here. And it had me comfortable, it was like, I can be myself! I used to still try to hide it, until it was really overwhelming — there were just too much girls attracted to me!”
On her next project:
“I know people are looking forward to an album from me, but I don’t think it needs to be rushed either. Nowadays albums don’t come out as frequent as they used to, so I’m not too sure if I’ma drop an album as soon as people would think. I’m just trying to go off a vibe: how they feeling this, how they feeling that?”
Get the full cover story here.
Photos: The FADER/Cait Oppermann
