In a year where hip hop is on a commercial downturn, it’s nice to see an essential part of the culture remains. This latest edition of rap beef kicked-off with Jim Jones challenging Pusha T’s validity among rap’s royalty on various hip hop platforms. However, it wasn’t Jones’ opinion on Pusha T that sparked the brouhaha, but rather his determined effort to make it seem like Pusha had little to no cultural relevance. With Jones saying, “Nobody has dressed like him. Nobody wants to be like Pusha T. I don’t remember nothing.”
In turn, Pusha T’s expectedly cunning response created a moment on social media. In sinister tone and fashion, Push gave his reply at the Louis Vuitton fashion show, where record producer — and longtime Pusha T cohort — Pharell Williams debuted his collection as men’s creative director. With this intention, Pusha and his brother, No Malice, who make up Clipse, walked the runway in the show as their new track played. With the fabled duo sharing their first collaboration in 14 years.
Pusha T Fires Back
Although the diss-record was previewed inconspicuously, the public pieced together the Jim Jones disses within the track. Addressing Jones’ comments, Push raps, “beware of my name, that there’s delegate/ You know I know where you’re delicate/ Crush you to pieces, I’ll hum a breath of it…I’m watching your fame escape relevance/ We all in a room but here’s the elephant/ You chasing a feature out of your element.”
By the same token, Push continuously attacks Jim for his own public financial troubles, while reminding of his own mercurial standing within his circle.
“And those lab diamonds under inspection/ The question marks block your blessings/ It’s no tombstones in the desert/ I know by now you get the message,” he goes on to say.
All in all, it was a masterful move by Push to withhold his reply until the time was right. Despite Jim Jones’ assertion that Pusha T held little relevance musically, here he is walking in a fashion show for one of the world’s preeminent brands to his own record, while A-list stars like Jay-Z and Beyoncé were seen boppin’ to the song in the crowd. Jones gave an instant reply on social media, although his perceived carefree attitude did little to sway fans, Jones needed to reply with bars and couldn’t finesse his way out of this one.
Bomb First, Jim Jones Replies
To Jim Jones’ credit, he did reply, albeit with a stellar yet not quite up-to-snuff effort when compared to his adversary. His “Summer Collection, From The Block” video performance saw the Dipset rapper try his hand at Pusha T’s beat. Altogether, Jim held his own with his brand of witty wordplay and street tales, however his flow and presence on the record failed to match Pusha T’s output. That is to say nothing of Jim’s own lyrical expertise as he had his own ammo for Push. Namely, attacking his street cred and claiming that he knew little of the drug dealing he rapped about and for his association with Ye, who helped Pusha launch his solo career on his Good Music label. But nonetheless, it seemed a mistake to rap over a beat that was curated specifically for Pusha and No Malice.
“These two roach niggas don’t know what to do in no raid/ Kanye gave you whips, but that’s what they do to the slaves/ you tryna act bad, but we ain’t doin’ charades/ I really have bombs on the block just like I threw a grenade.”
Jim Jones might have felt similar sentiments as he continued to hop on airwaves and diminish Pusha’s efforts. The one they call Capo phoned in to the Joe Budden Podcast and share more colorful sentiments about this battle. Namely, called Pusha T’s diss-track “cute” and claimed that things might get violent if Pusha goes to similar extents as he did in his beef with Drake. With Capo hilariously quipping “whose going to spin the block for him, Pharrell?”
What Comes Next?
Hopefully more music. Although with Push leading the vote in public opinion, Jim may need to double-down on his attacks to get ahead of things, but would he want to poke to proverbial bear? As things stand, what else can Jim Jones say as it relates to Pusha T? Despite his best efforts, the “Diet Coke” MC remains in the upper echelon of rappers. Altogether, Push has tallied an impressive resume, with platinum-selling albums as a member of the Clipse and as a solo artist. His last two albums, 2018’s DAYTONA and 2022’s It’s Almost Dry got him Grammy nominations and he is still one of the only artists that can snag a Jay – Z feature.
All things considered, Jims’s best bet is to throw a few haymakers and hope his witty-ness is able to catch the public’s ears, basically play the social media battle. Pusha T, meanwhile, seems to be more patient and isn’t as keen to respond through the media. After all, he knows he has the advantage lyrically. Moreover, his abrupt releases and ability to find his opponents hidden skeletons seems to leave foes on edge.
