I didn’t Phtotoshop that, that’s the actual playbill.
The ancient Greeks used to say that every play is either a tragedy or a comedy. And as Dustin Hoffman character in Stranger Than Fiction says, “In a tragedy you die, in a comedy you get hitched.”
With that in mind, Jim Jones and his suprisingly entertaining “Hip Hop Monologues: Inside The Mind of Jim Jones” would certainly fall into the later category, even if he didn’t get hitched in the end.
Jim Jones is pure comedy-his often non-nonsensical statements in interviews are delivered with loads of swagger and absolute conviction. And yet, Jones seems totally convinced that everything he says makes total sense. Or maybe he’s just good at pretending. Either way, he isn’t much of a rapper, and no one in their right mind would call him an “artist.” But he seems to be in the vanguard of hip hop with his new play.
The play tells the classic story of hip hop; money, power, bitches, beef, police, drugs, and of course love. Jim starts off as a rebel dealer/rapper until he gets knocked by the police. But the judge tells him if he completes a Christmas list community service.
The community service includes talking to the kids, apologizing to women, and attending sex addicts anonymous.[1] In other words, this could easily be the story of T.I. Meanwhile, Jim also falls in love, has a son, and gets into some beef with his ‘frienemies.’[2]
The music in the play all come from Jones’ upcoming album, Pray IV Reign. Although Jim’s album isn’t a concept album, his songs mesh nicely and loosely connect the story, without sounding forced.
Something is rotten in the state of Harlem.
As an actor, Jim seems to be channeling Will Smith from his “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” days (at one point he even does the Will/Jazzy “poosh” hi-five) but he’s nowhere near as witty, clever, or charming. Jimmy’s much more comfortable–and convincing–in scenes where he plays the tough guy as opposed to scenes where he tells the kids to stay in school. In fact, he’s sometimes better as a tough guy actor than a tough guy rapper, occasionally mumbling through verses despite his steady lyrical progression.
The play itself isn’t very original, but it has a bit of swag to it (much like Jim himself) and it’s cast does a decent job considering that they only had three weeks of practice. The play is made up of cliche scenes well known to hip hop fans; an unapologetic courtroom stance, the OG talking to the ‘youngin‘ and a couple fighting through the window (of course Jimmy isn’t yelling “Selma!!” but he’s yelling a ghetto fabulous name like “Chinice“). But the scenes have a Dipset twist.
The biggest twist of all is that Jimmy holds his own in all of his scenes, and strings together a largely entertaining play. He offers half-hearted apologies (His initially heartfelt apology to women ends with a rendition of “This Is For My Bitches”) for his flaws because he would rather stubbornly acknowledge them, and get right back to a celebration of his hedonism.
[1] It’s interesting that the play asks Jim attend something that makes him look kinda cool (he is after all, getting bitches) as opposed to attending something most rappers ought to attend, like Alcoholics Anonymous.
[2] From what I could hear, the songs sounds like it was written about Max B. Although, it sounds like Cam could have easily written the song about Jones.
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