One artist who has never been slow to drop a Mixtape is my man Jim Jones. Jones came up with Cam’ron as a member of the infamous Harlem Diplomats crew, and he has risen in fame and stature, partially due to his part on VH-1′s “Love & Hip-Hop”. He has a great style, and my only complaint is that he sometimes allows his homies too much time on his own tracks. Other than that, Jim Jones has an impressive record of classic mixtapes, from his Dipset openers “Ambitionz Of A Gangsta” and “Ryder Muzik”, to the classic “7 Day Theory” with DJ Drama. Jones is no stranger to what mixtapes bring for his promotion, and he uses them to the full effect.
This new series “Vampire Life” is a great concept, with Jones as one of the only people that could pull this concept off. Vampire Life is that running the streets late night, getting money, street material that you can really feel when listening to this mixtape. The whole cd is great, except maybe a little bit too much of his homies. “Genocide” is classic Jones, where he spits, “The dope game is his alma mater, I caught him courtside at the Knicks game wearing Prada”. Vintage Jones. Standouts are “Grand Slam”, “Riding On Empty”, “Letter To The Game”, and “Vampire Music”, though the mixtape is pretty damn cohesive and moves fluidly from one track to the next. The other excellent thing about this cd is the use of Heath Ledger’s Joker voice in between tracks, using snippets from the Dark Knight movie. These snippets are perfectly timed and add a real menace to the overall feeling of the cd. I wanna see a lot more of this from Jim Jones, and hopefully more solo time in the vocal booth. Click here to purchase Jim Jones mixtapes ……
