Celebrities
Jim Jones
MTV/mtvU Appearances: (Panama City Beach ’09)
Jim Jones has made his name known with the biggest single of 2006 called “We Fly High (Ballin’)”. Hits like this has landed him on MTV Spring Break with StudentCity down in Panama City Beach to entertain thousands of spring breakers in 2009.
Biography
Jim Jones is splayed across a leather sofa at New York’s Empire Studio, eyes half-mast, the hint of a wry grin creasing his face. His head bops almost imperceptibly to the refrains of “Pop Champagne,” the first single off his forthcoming album on Sony/Columbia, Pray IV Reign. Empire, incidentally, is his: a recent two-million dollar construction with a view like that of its landmark namesake. By all appearances, Jim Jones is immersed in his own private world. Suddenly his eyes widen alarmedly, and he bolts to the engineer’s desk, shouting “That’s not right!” Apparently he’s detected a sonic flaw in the record. The vignette is a microcosm of the man: under a veneer of calm and unflappability burns one of this generation’s fiercest spirits.
“Role model is a touchy title,” Jones says pointedly. “For me to have survived the things I’ve been through and be making all legal money, that forces me to be a role model by default, whether I’m an angel or not. If I can set an example for people as far as my integrity, my work ethic, my accomplishments, then good. I want people to achieve what I have, to do such things and even more. I feel like Obama.” Interesting analogy. But what outsiders may wave off as industry braggadocio applies in earnest to Jim Jones. The mastermind behind the Diplomats, owner of 2006’s biggest single “We Fly High (Ballin’)” a constant cultural force—“ I changed the whole esthetic for the world; skulls was last year’s fashion superfad, and it’s all because of me—” Jim Jones has shown an uncanny ability to evolve and differentiate himself in a game cluttered with idle thinkers and stenciled careers.