Released through EMPIRE, Harlem hero Jim Jones teams up with producer HitMaka for their EPBack In My Prime. The eight-track project displays Jim’s ability to adapt his sounds to the ever-changing times in hip-hop culture.
The stand-out singles “Gunshot” featuring BEAM and “I Am” featuring Stefflon Don prove their musical chemistry.
“YKTV” featuring Ty Dolla $ign shows Jim rapping in a graceful manner. He opens the song with lines reflective of his failures leading to success. He raps, “I’m trying to leave my son a legacy, for my dogs I’m trying to leave a better pedigree… So many nights I slept in a crack den, I done took a bunch of L’s trying to stack M’s”. Jim’s mature cadence compliments his signature fly talk where he talks of having his lover covered in “furs dragging like a broken exhaust” and flooded with jewelry on her neck.
Back In My Prime is what happens if Harlem: Diary of A Summer was a wine aged by eighteen years. The beats are smoother and the maturation of Jim’s storytelling and cadences packs a stronger punch than his 2005 run in music. Rather than what the title of the EP implies, Jim is entering into a new prime at this point of his career.