Jim Jones says that he had a chance to sign several current hip-hop stars when he worked as the Vice President of Urban A&R at Koch Records back in 2009. Appearing on a recent episode of The Art of Dialogue, the Dipset rapper explained that he passed up on inking deals with J. Cole, Drake, and even The Weeknd.
“J. Cole used to be in my studio all the time. I can’t say that wholeheartedly, and then Drake, Alan Grunblatt [Koch VP] let me hear some of his music. But I kept telling him [Grunblatt] he [Drake] had no image. I didn’t understand it, it didn’t connect, but he could rap his ass off,” Jones revealed, as caught by AllHipHop.
As for The Weeknd, Jim Jones explained that a personal tragedy was influencing his judgment at the time. The same day as their meeting, his close friend, Stack Bundles, was shot and killed. Regardless of the miscalculations, Jones says he doesn’t let the past get to him. “Would it have been nice? Yeah, that might have been dope. But who knows, they might have not had the success that was given to them from the work they put in if it would have went through the channels that I had to offer,” he said.
Jim Jones & Nas Feud
His comments on The Art of Dialogue aren’t the only reason Jim Jones has found himself in the headlines in recent weeks. In several other interviews, he called out Nas by downplaying the legendary New York rapper’s relevancy. He argued that his catalog has aged better than Nas’ and he isn’t a fan of the rapper’s work since his iconic debut, Illmatic.
Jones also suggested that his calling out of Nas has helped make him relevant. “What I did for Nas recently probably has never been done in his life,” he remarked on the Bagfuel Podcast. “Last time he was in some viral sh*t like this was when he was getting at Jay-Z.”