The Diplomats & Vado
Best Buy Theater
Friday, September 30

Better than: Waiting for the next big NYC hip-hop collective to appear.

"It ain't over! Fuck y'all talkin' about?" Cam'ron emphatically declared at one point during Friday night's celebration of the Diplomats' debut Diplomatic Immunity. He was right. The Diplomats—Cam, Jim Jones, Juelz Santana and Freekey Zekey—have managed to reign as one of NYC's definitive hip-hop groups, despite in-fighting and a relatively limited body of work.

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​The year in music, circa 2010, started at the Cake Shop, with a shred-down to the New Year courtesy of Siren Festival MVP-to-be Marissa Paternoster and her band Screaming Females. After a tour through the NYE fetes of the Lower East Side and Williamsburg, that night ended amidst a marathon show at Bushwick's Shea Stadium, right around the time the Blastoids' drummer poured paint on his kit and started splattering away.

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Ay! All photos by Jesse Serwer

​The Diplomats
Hammerstein Ballroom
Friday, November 27

Better Than: Byrd Gang, Skull Gang, Purple City, U.N., Dipset West

It seems a little silly, really, this Dipset revival. When times grew lean for the Cam'ron-led crew a few years back, the support staff--from Jones on down--convinced themselves that they didn't need the brains of the operation anymore. This turned out not to be true, of course, and it took Cam'ron getting back with the old gang--right as he was enjoying a rebirth of sorts with new ally Vado--to make people care again. "Salute," the first and, thus far, only track issued by the newly reconstituted crew, is noisy, fresh and kind of undeniable. New York rap doesn't have much else going for it these days, so what the heck.

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Photo of Jim Jones covering "Six Pack" at Death By Audio by Rebecca Smeyne.

​Three weeks ago, Dipset capo Jim Jones pulled up at Williamsburg's Death By Audio at around 1:15 a.m. on a Friday night, unfolded his lanky frame out of the passenger seat, strolled through a crowd of befuddled punk rockers, and took the stage with Philly art-rockers Snakes Say Hisss. It made no sense. At the time, all we came away with from Jimmy's surprise performance was a suite of hilarious photographs and a blurry video of Jones rapping "Salute." Now, Damon Dash's Creative Control team have produced a more loving, black and white portrait of the evening. It is equally ridiculous. Behold: made-up gang signs, hipsters making out, a man identified as "David Chang," though we don't think he is, Dame Dash looking bemused, Jones signing an autograph for a girl who looks a lot like Charlene Yi, and maybe the worst version of "Love Me No More" you've ever heard in your life, below.

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Jim Jones gives punk rock the gas face. All photos by Rebecca Smeyne.

​These are strange, wonderful times for hip-hop fans in New York. Former Roc-a-Fella mogul and Jay-Z cohort Damon Dash is running a modern day version of Warhol's factory out of a rented loft in Tribeca. Curren$y kills time at Bubby's, down the street (where the other day we dined, in close proximity to Jay and Beyonce). And Harlem's Jim Jones, once and future Dipset capo, will happily jet across the river and crash gnarly DIY punk shows. At least, he did on Friday night, where the impossibly resilient Less Artists More Condos/Under 100 kids threw a party featuring Lionshare, Tough Knuckles (featuring Under 100's Ariel Panero on guitar), Das Racist, and Snakes Say Hisss, who brought Jones out for a supremely awkward and awesome cameo appearance at the end of the night, right before the cops showed up. In the back was Damon Dash himself, looking on with pride--an increasingly regular, though no less shocking, sight at DIY shows citywide. Intrepid photographer Rebecca Smeyne was there, of course; her photos and a bit of crazy-looking video are below.

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If this doesn't say it all, don't know what does

Wyclef's Yele charity has recently drawn a firestorm of criticism, but he's not the only musical figure trying to mobilize folks and funds on behalf of Haiti. There's also an impressive number of benefit concerts and music events happening in the city over the next few weeks, plus a series of ongoing efforts from the likes of Lady Gaga to Clipse to Blink-182. Our exhaustive round-up of the ways artists are attempting to involve their fans, and the general public, in the relief effort, be it downloading a new song (or a great cover of an old one), buying a custom T-shirt, or sending that ever-so-simple text message. Did we miss something? Kindly leave it in the comments.

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HOT 97 belatedly posts footage from Converse's Band of Ballers tournament. The details will be familiar to you by now. But should you be a scout for an opposing team, the video evidence that Asher Roth is terrible at basketball--and that Jones rides a mean skateboard--may come in handy. Also, it turns out HOT 97 will absolutely refuse to film anyone who isn't a rapper and/or video chick. Sorry Matt & Kim, Diplo, and basically everyone else who was there that day. Your legacy will live on in pictures.

Hot 97 & Converse Band Of Ballers Tournament [Rap Radar]

all photos by Puja Patel

The Brooklyn Crew's aggressive (and we suspect, inebriated) group of fans

Converse Band of Ballers
Wednesday, August 12

Yesterday's Converse Band of Ballers was as much of a shit-talking contest as it was a three-on-three tournament. The invite-only event went down at the Church gym in SoHo to a crowd of no more than 200 team friends and affiliates, contest winners, and an overwhelming number of Converse staff members. The All-Star team coaches were Jim Jones (The Jones Family), Asher Roth (The Roth Boys), Diplo (Mad Decent), A-Trak (Fool's Gold), Matt and Kim (The Brooklyn Crew) and Pac Div (... Pac Div). DJ Cipha Sounds was behind the turntables; Hot 97's Miss Info and Peter Rosenberg were on the lighthearted banter. With the exception of Mad Decent's rebellious POPO bros, who both wore neon-print shorts, the teams were, of course, decked head-to-toe in Converse gear--by the number of video cameras on the court, we're sure the game will become an ad campaign for the sponsors. As for the winners, they would go home with bragging rights, a new pair of sneakers and a golden (definitely spray-painted gold) trophy.

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all photos by Rebecca Smeyne

Jim Jones rides in on a skateboard

The undisclosed location of yesterday's Converse Band of Ballers--an afternoon shoe-branded contest that pitted reps from Mad Decent, Fools Gold, Brooklyn via Matt and Kim, and Jim Jones's family against one another in for the humiliation/jubilation/Twitter-following amusement of a select few--was an old-school Nolita church gymnasium. The event wasn't open to the public or the press; we imagine this is because Converse wants to own/brand all the event's documentation for this thing, given that they footed the bill for it and all. No matter, our resident photo-mole Rebecca Smeyne infiltrate the proceedings and fired off some shot on the sly. No shots of the ten grand Jim Jones may or may not have bet on the game--but that is him on the skateboard. "Hipster taunting" was never more absurd. That includes you, Carles.

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Wow, so following this Converse Band of Ballers event on Twitter is kind of like watching baseball games on mlb.com or something. To recap: Jim Jones rode in on a skateboard, in order to "to taunt the hipsters." He's apparently playing every game with ten grand in his front pocket? And shooting airballs. And can't lose. Is Asher Roth too white to stop him? Only the remaining games will tell. In the meantime, we've got five on Jones's old ass cousin...