Jim Jones says that Dipset is responsible for starting the "mixtape movement" rather than G-Unit. The legendary New York rapper explained his thoughts on who kicked off the wave of classic mixtapes in the early 2000s during an interview on the Flip Da Script podcast. While he feels many people attribute the run to G-Unit, he says there's an important distinction to be made.
“Let’s get this right and I’m going to keep it all the way a buck,” Jones said. “We started the mixtape movement, right? And it wasn’t a crew mixtape. We were making real albums and putting them out as mixtapes. G-Unit was doing replays of other people’s beats and making mixtapes.”
He continued: “It was a big difference. We was using our mixtapes as albums to promote our real albums, and off those mixtapes, we were taking singles that the people started loving and started putting them on our real albums. But even in that, we put the Dipset mixtape out first before G-Unit put their mixtape out. Now go Google it.”
The Diplomats and G-Unit both released their first mixtapes in the same year. Dipset got their project, Diplomats Volume 1, out slightly before G-Unit in 2002. G-Unit’s dropped 50 Cent is the Future shortly afterward. While they may have released first, Dipset dropped significantly fewer total mixtapes than G-Unit. The Diplomats dropped eight mixtapes while G-Unit released a total of 33 mixtapes. Both Dipset and G-Unit's early mixtape runs parallel in the sense that they both spawned the careers of future rap legends. Both 50 Cent and Cam'ron blew up as mainstream stars in the wake of their respective group's successes.
50 recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of his 2003 debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin’. “They can try not to remember because I made it uncomfortable but they can’t re write history,” 50 wrote on Instagram. “20th year anniversary Get Rich Or Die Tryin. Boom.” Check out Jim Jones' comments on the Flip Da Script podcast below.
[Via]