Max B reflects on past beef with Jim Jones
“It was just egos clashing,” he says of his former collaborator.
A recently aired snippet from an August 2019 interview finds Max B reflecting on his infamous beef with Jim Jones. The Coke Wave rapper, who is currently incarcerated at the East Jersey State Prison, says the since-resolved feud stemmed from large egos.
“It was just egos clashing, a lack of respect. That sh*t don’t mix well, and next thing you know, we beefin’,” he said. “As far as the content or whatever, it should’ve went a different way. I think today we would’ve handled the situation differently.”
The feud, which partially erupted from unfair contract allegations and the formation of Jones’ ByrdGang, went on to materialize in back-and-forth diss videos, interviews and on Max and his protege French Montana’s 2009 collaborated mixtape, Coke Wave.
“I think [it was] two egos coming together, two big personalities,” Max reflected. “We was young. We was all crazy, and now we’re here. We’re older, we got kids.”
“[There’s] people looking at us, we gotta set the right example,” he continued. “We can’t be looking crazy out here. It is what it is, it’s all love. I’m trying to get back over on that plate.”
The two MCs have since reconciled, and Max and French dropped off their fourth Coke Wave installment in 2019. Last year also saw the release of Max’s House Money LP and his remastered classics compilation project, Wave Pack.
“I’m never going to try to take nobody’s sh*t, I’m in the my own lane,” he said. “I’m in my own world. I like to do my own sh*t. I come from a whole ’nother spot.”
Last year, we interviewed his producer Paul Couture, who offered insight into Max’s recording process from prison.
“It started with a lot of phone calls with Max on what he wanted,” Couture revealed. “I’ll send in the music and he’ll send me back what he decided to record to. He’ll usually send me like 30 tracks and I just have to arrange it and clean it all up. It’s always an experimental process because we’re not in the studio together.”
Max was originally sentenced in 2009 on conspiracy charges related to armed robbery, kidnapping, aggravated assault and felony murder. He accepted a plea bargain in 2016 for aggravated manslaughter and is expected to be released in 2021.
Find his interview clip below.