Richardine Bartee
Because verses leave lasting impressions
With the return of Dipset and the rumors about the Pledge of Allegiance Tour being their last group tour, Tania Espat and I found it fitting to compile a list of our best-loved verses by one of Dipset’s most progressive and popular members, Jim Jones. We’ve each selected three tracks, and we’ve explained how it makes it feel. What can we say? We’ve got (concrete) jungle fever.
Richardine’s Top 3
“Honey Dip” featuring Juelz Santana, JR Writer & Latiff (Harlem: Diary of a Summer)
You know how they say, “When you hear a certain song, it reminds you of what you were doing the first time you heard it?” If you were my age in 2005, you were probably dating someone who wasn’t going to be around forever — but it sure as hell felt like it. That Summer I dated a guy from Harlem, who seemed to really like me. He was all about me. I was his honey dip. He would come downtown to meet me at school in TriBeCa, and he’d make that dreadful trek from the Harlem hills to the cop-killer streets of Queens, just to pick me up from work, and make sure I made it home safely. If you were a “ride or die”, “down ass” in 2005, and your boyfriend wore Red Monkey and Evisu jeans everyday, you should request Jim Jones to perform this song during the Dipset reunion tour.
“I’m In Love With A Thug” featuring Denise Weeks & 40 Cal (Harlem: Diary of a Summer)
For as long as I’ve been interested in the male species, I’ve liked, lusted after, loved and fell in love with guys who specifically embody the “bad boy” persona. For a large portion of my adolescent and teenage life, these were the types of men I experienced everything with, happily. When listening to Jim Jones rap about leading a double life consisting of multiple women and crime-committing — in a small way, it helped me to understand the minds of the men who surrounded me. Yes thugs fall in love too, and even though they might want to be with you all the time, their lifestyles don’t permit them to. Being in love with gangsters, thugs, criminals, et al. can be very lonely but there’s something about the uncertainty and possible danger that’s intriguing.
“Built This City” (featuring Cam’ron, Juelz Santana & Hell Rell) (Diplomatic Immunity)
During my childhood, my mother would play a lot of light rock classics and arena rock. It was the 80’s and I was born in the middle of them. I remember our early morning moments. We’d dance to whatever was playing on the radio, and sometimes whatever was in our heads. It was one of the ways my mother and I bonded, to get the day started before I went to school. I think it was my mother’s way of helping me get ready for the world. Familiar with multiple sounds and different styles since birth, I always had an appreciation for when those separate sounds and styles mixed. I needed that confidence in 2003. I was going to graduate from high school in 3 months, and attend my prom alone because my boyfriend at the time was serving time in prison. He was released the day after my prom. I listened to this album, this song as I got dressed to go to prom alone.
“Harlem” (Harlem: Diary of a Summer)
*Bonus: This song was on extreme repeat whenever I was in the car or on the train, heading uptown.
Tania’s Top 3
“What You Been Drankin’ On?” (featuring Jha Jha, Diddy & Paul Wall) (Harlem: Diary of a Summer)
Growing up in 2005, the whole getting Crunk or Krump was such a big thing. Everyone was trying to get on it, or be around it. Drinking on some sizzurp had boomed even more. If only the sizzurp bottle that Dipset was trying to market would have worked. I was one of those people that spent hours, researching new tracks. When I came across “What You Been Drankin’ On?” I liked it even more because Jha Jha made her debut. Jha Jha was the first woman affiliated with Dipset. Thinking about this track just takes me to some wild times. Houston was on the map even more, especially with Paul Wall on this track. Being involved in music in 2005, many of my East Coast friends were heading to the Southside of Houston, just for that sprite remix. I was crushin’ on Jones’ thug look even more, and his idgaf attitude.
“Baby Girl” (featuring Max B) (Harlem: Diary of a Summer)
In the Summer of 2005, Jim Jones had every guy in the hood singing to the “Baby Girl” track. Yet Max B’s hook in this song made it pop with his smooth “waviness”. Then when the music video of this track came out, transitioning to G’s up, it made some controversy. That even the Canadian National Music Station banned the video due to them concluding that Jim Jones was promoting some type of violence. Once that happened, I would see all these hood guys from the block wearing the ‘Stop Snitchin’ shirts with their letter buckles. I mentioned hood guys posted on the block because that’s all I saw and was around at that time. Listening to this song gave me a mixture of everything. From women being freaks just tryna let them skeet to people being authentic with the mixture of the hustle. Summer felt like a live music video because it was LIT around that time. Life revolved around Dipset and you was either with it or not with it.
“We Fly High” (Hustler’s P.O.M.E.)
When this track was released, it blew up quick: In and out of the streets. “We Fly High” ended up being like, number 5 on the Billboard Top 100 and putting producer Zukhan-Bey on another level. It was released a year after “Baby Girl”; not only were the guys from the hood listening and singing to the song, it was poppin’ at the club. I wasn’t even 21 yet but I ended up in the club anyway. Bottles were poppin’ off. Shorties were next to whomever had a bottle, and everyone was feeling mad fly. When I would hear the intro of this song, which was a sample of Rasputin’s Stash “Mr. Cool”, I knew it was time for some turn-up. It was like listening to Bobby Shmurda’s “Hot Nigga” nowadays, but this was Dipset affiliated. It gave me life. If you were around when this song came out, all the guys were switching their styles and mentality. They wanted to look even more fly and they were about the money — with foreign cars, even if it was a rental. By all means necessary, you had to stay ballin’.
For more about Jim Jones, just click here.
