Contrary to popular belief, Jim Jones and his Dipset compatriots initiated the rap group mixtape wave, not G-Unit.
Capo clarified the issue of who started the surge of mixtapes from rap collectives that ruled the streets in the early 2000s in a lengthy discussion with the Flip Da Script show.
“Let’s get this right and I’m going to keep it all the way a buck,” Jones said. “We started the mixtape movement, right? And it wasn’t a crew mixtape. We were making real albums and putting them out as mixtapes. G-Unit was doing replays of other people’s beats and making mixtapes.”
He continued: “It was a big difference. We were using our mixtapes as albums to promote our real albums, and off those mixtapes, we were taking singles that the people started loving and started putting them on our real albums.
“But even in that, we put the Dipset mixtape out first before G-Unit put their mixtape out. Now go Google it.”
The Diplomats Volume 1 came issued before G-50 Unit’s 50 Cent is the Future that summer, yet both groups released their debut mixtapes in 2002. Both tapes would pave the way for the bands to become household names and elevate the bands’ respective leaders, Cam’ron and 50 Cent.
