Getty Kanye West speaks during a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in 2018.
A few years ago, Kanye West had a meltdown and checked into a hospital under the name Jim Jones.
Was West’s Jim Jones alias an ode to the cult leader who conspired with his inner circle to direct a mass murder-suicide of himself and his followers in his jungle commune at Jonestown, Guyana?
Or was it an alias tribute to his former Roc-a-Fella Records labelmate, Jim Jones from the iconic hip hop group, Dipset?
Jones’ biggest commercial song was the song, Ballin. The smash hit peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming his first top ten single. Dipset is comprised of Jones, Juelz Santana, Freekey Zekey, Duke Da God, Hell Rell, Jim Jones and Cam’ron.
Jones thought Kanye West using his name as an alias at the hospital was the worst catfish ever. “I find that very funny,” Jones told me on #WORDSWITHSCOOP Presented by Orox Leathers.
“You know how it goes. You wanna use an alias. I don’t know if I was on his mind at the time but, Jim Jones was probably the first thing that came to his mind. I use Tom Cruise when I’m in the hotel sometimes so I understand how it goes.”
Jones had good counsel. His mother, Nancy Jones found it hilarious. “I Knew it wasn’t Jim because I was here with my son,” she told me on the Scoop B Radio Podcast.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JULY 14: Rapper Jim Jones performs during week four of the BIG3 three-on-three basketball league at Barclays Center on July 14, 2019 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/BIG3/Getty Images)
“Me and my son were together that day, so I knew it wasn’t him. I think I was supposed to take the dog back to him that day because I’m the grandma to my grand-dogs. So I had to take the grand-dogs back to Starbucks and we had laughed about it. And I said: ‘well now you need to go around and say you’re Kanye West and see what kind of perks you can get from it, if ya’ll want to switch names you might as well go right ahead.’”
Jim Jones took that counsel from his mother and in an interview with TMZ in 2017, shared his thoughts on the matter: “I don’t know what’s on Kanye mind,” he said.
“But that’s definitely a funny thing to me. “But on a serious side, that’s kinda f***** up that he would use my name in such a manner. If people didn’t know it wasn’t him and they just thought it was Jim Jones doing the regular, crazy Jim Jones thing that could have got my ass in trouble. So for that alone, I should charge Kanye a sucker free [laughs]. I don’t care about that type of shit.”
Added Jones:
“I do need an apology I believe. Too scared to be in your own skin? Your name Kanye, my name Jim Jones. I didn’t know you wanted to trade lives. I wouldn’t want to be you anyway, not in my worst nightmare – I’m cool with who I am. I’m gonna start using his name. My new alias is Kanye West. I can’t wait to pull up to hotels, the Hermès stall and tell them Mr. West is outside.”