The beef between Jim Jones and Pusha T began in April. On Spotify’s RapCaviar podcast, Jones expressed disagreement with Billboard and VIBE’s 50 Greatest Rappers Of All Time list, taking particular umbrage with Pusha T’s placement at No. 29. “What has he done that puts him in the greatest rappers of all time besides talk about coke that he probably didn’t get himself?” he said.
“He’s nice as sh*t. He could rap his ass off, but what has he done? Nobody has dressed like him,” he continued. “Nobody wants to be like Pusha T. I don’t remember nothing. And let’s not be evil, but we don’t talk about rap where the n**** that’s popping the b*tches wanna f*ck and the n****s wanna be like. I don’t know too many n****s in this game that was leaning towards being like Pusha T.”
He didn’t backtrack at all. Instead, he went deeper in. He appeared on The Breakfast Club and said, “Could you name five Pusha T records? No. Could you rap to five Pusha T records?” He added, “I never wanted to be like Pusha, I never had a Pusha moment in my life. Where I’m from, n****s wanted to be like you if you was really that dude as a rapper.”
On April 21, Pusha T shared a photo on Instagram with fashion designer Jerry Lorenzo before his performance at the Fear of God fashion show at the Hollywood Bowl. “Places they’ll never be, stages they’ll never see…,” Pusha wrote in the caption. “Jerry, you turned the Hollywood Bowl into your world and let me be apart of it…forever grateful.” Fans interpreted it as him firing back at Jones.