Harlem’s Byrd Gang leader Jim Jones and young Harlemite Webstar have teamed up for their compilation album Jim Jones Presents Webstar: The Rooftop. Already igniting New York’s dance floors and now getting some steam across the country with the club bangers “Dancing On Me” and “She Can Get It,” Webstar spoke exclusively with Hip-Hop Wired about how the project came together.
“We both from Harlem and everything and I had a record and it was hot and was all over the radio called ‘Dancing On Me.’ Jim called me to get on the record and I was actually gonna put it on my solo project but it made more sense to do an album together, be a better set up for my upcoming solo project so we decided to do an album together.”
The Rooftop also features collaborations with Styles P, Juelz Santana, Webstar’s protégé Young B as well as some up and coming Harlem talent. Speaking more about the project, Webstar added that the album is where the streets and the club meet and it shows Jim Jones’ other side and how he likes to have fun.
“Don’t get it twisted, Jim likes to party too. I just brung him to my world. We partying, we messing with the chicks, we pop the champagne, we dancing. We having a good time the whole album. It’s me and him on every song on the record, it’s like a duet album. He’s rapping on the records, I’m producing, I’m rapping on the records. We going back and forth pretty much the whole album. It’s like a real fun club album. I’m sure when people hear the album they gonna be surprised at the quality of music they getting.”
The title of the album also has a significant meaning as it pays tribute to Harlem’s street legends from the 80s and the club they used to ball out at. Speaking more about the project, Webstar reveals,
“The Rooftop was a place where all the flyest drug dealers and girls went to party and you brought out your best cars. You brought out your best minks and you brought out your best jewelry and you just had fun. I was too young to live that generation so what I did was I went and got the original DJs from the Rooftop. Brucie B, Kid Capri, DJ S&S and Ron G. I got them all on the album, they all doing intros and drops throughout the album.”
Webstar will also be dropping his solo album next year on Steve Rifkind’s SRC Records. Showing no sign of letting up and proving that “Chicken Noodle Soup” was no one-hit wonder, he also has a few words for the haters who seem to forget that dance music has always been a part of Hip-Hop and that every rapper ain’t busting guns or selling weight. Hell, 90% of they haven’t no matter what they say in their rhymes.
“It may not be for everybody but it’s for the kids. It’s for the youth and its fun music and I feel we need good music with all the wrong things going on in this world today. We got the war going on, we got the big deficit, we got the recession. So I think people need music just to escape all their problems in life so I try to make music for the people who have a lot of hardships in their life.”
Stay tuned for Hip-Hop Wired for our feature with Webstar and check out the new video below as well as a few tracks from The Rooftop.
“She Can Get It” – Jim Jones & Webstar
“Uptown” feat Jim Jones, Webstar, Rex & Styles P
“Dancing On Me” feat Jim Jones, Webstar Juelz Santana & Remo
DJ Webstar Ft. Jim Jones & Juelz Santana – Dancing on Me (Remix) iM1
