‘The Violence That’s Going On in Hip-Hop is Crazy’: Jim Jones Doubles Down on Rappers Having the Most Dangerous Profession

Jim Jones wants burgeoning rappers to heed this piece of advice before getting into the music industry.

In December 2020, the Harlem native caught some flak after claiming on “The Fat Joe Show” that being a rapper was more dangerous than being a soldier. More than two years later, the “We Fly High” emcee’s perspective on the career still hasn’t changed.

NEW YORK – MARCH 23: Recording artist Jim Jones attends the Sony Entertainment press conference to announce the return of “Hip Hop Monologues: Inside the Life & Mind of Jim Jones” at 37 Arts Theatre on March 23, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images)

During a recent appearance on “The Breakfast Club” on Monday, Jan. 24, the former reality star doubled down on his stance, telling aspiring artists, “I’m just trying to give you a fair warning of things that could happen if you keep going in that direction.” He added, “If you wanna do music, one of these things you’re gonna have to put down; it’s not gonna add up.”

He continued, “You’re either gonna do the streets, or you’re gonna do the music because it never mixes; it never works … I’ve never seen nobody do that successfully, as we can see with so many examples in front of us.”

Jones touched on the increasing amount of violence and death in the recent year. “It’s just nasty. The violence that’s going on in hip-hop is crazy. When we were coming up, we were protected as artists. There’s no protection for the artist anymore. We’re straight targets, and I stand on what I said being a rapper is the most dangerous job in the world.”

He added, “As we can see, so many deaths happened in these past three years, and I’m talking about not just any death; some of the biggest artists that we’ve seen come out this game are getting gunned down due to street violence and things like that.” Jones later challenged anyone to count the number of rapper-related deaths since he made his now-infamous comment.

Last March, Hip Hop Universe released an article that reported over 200 deaths in the hip-hop community; the majority of the names listed were victims of gun violence, including Pop Smoke, Houdini and King Von. In 2021, rappers Young Dolph, Slim 400, Boog The Bandit, DThang, and Drakeo The Ruler were all killed; with the exception of the latter, who died after being stabbed backstage at a performance, all others died through gun violence.