J. Prince has been running the rap game in Houston
for the last 40 years.
He started Rap-a lot- Records
and made Drake famous.
Lately, he’s been in the headlines
for beefing with Offset over Takeoff’s tragic death in Houston,
and there’s a good reason why people are worried
about Offset’s safety right now.
J. Prince has a wild reputation in the game
and today we’re breaking down the crazy stories
that make J. Prince one of the scariest dudes in the industry.
Let’s get right into it.
J has been active in the rap game
for almost 40 years,
but he’s been hustling for even longer than that.
He grew up in an area of Houston
called the “Bloody Nickel” apartments
surrounded by drugs, crime, and poverty,
and he knew at an early age that he didn't want to live that kind of life.
He started mowing lawns for money at just seven years old,
then moved up to selling weed and working as a welder.
But instead of putting both feet in the trenches,
J tried to make legit money and got a job as a bank teller.
Staying out of the streets was also important to J
because he wanted to keep his younger brother on a better path too.
J’s brother Sir Rap-A-Lot
would link up with his homies Raheem and Jukebox
at his grandma’s crib and rap on the front porch.
J didn’t want him falling into the streets like everyone else around them,
so when he lost the bank teller job
he had to find another way to bring money in.
J bought an abandoned building in west Houston
and turned it into a used car dealership.
But selling run-down whips wasn’t enough,
and not before long he was selling exotic cars to athletes.
Then in ‘86,
Sir Rap-a-lot started recording tracks in the same building.
The next year,
J linked up with a computer science major
named Cliff Blodget and officially started Rap-A-Lot Records.
Back then southern hip hop
didn’t have any space in the industry,
but all that changed when J Prince hopped into the game.
He put together a group called the Geto Boys,
which eventually became one of the most influential rap crews ever.
At first it was J’s brother Sir Rap-A-Lot,
Bushwick Bill, and Willie D.
Then after J discovered Scarface in a parking lot,
he took his own brother out of the group and replaced him with Scarface.
It was a cold move that made financial sense,
and it proves that even back then
J Prince knew how to see the bigger picture.
It didn’t take long for Rap-A-Lot and its artists
to start having a major impact on the industry.
J helped create an entire new wave in the rap game,
but at the same time the feds were on his back.
Back in ‘88,
the DEA started a 12 year long investigation
into Prince and his Rap-A-Lot label.
They thought J Prince was using the label as a front for drug trafficking
just like the Black Mafia Family.
The investigation went on for years,
but according to rumors J was able to shut the whole thing down by himself.
In 2000, Scarface dropped his Last of a Dying Breed record
on Rap-A-Lot and took shots at the DEA.
That same year, Attorney General
Janet Reno scrapped the investigation
after J allegedly gave $200K
to Al Gore’s presidential campaign.
A California representative also helped J Prince out
when she told Janet Reno that J and everyone around him
were worried about “police harassment and excessive force.”
The DEA dropped the case,
but an agent named Ernest Howard testified
that he ended it because he was worried about agents’ lives.
It’s not clear exactly what went down behind the scenes,
but J Prince went toe-to-toe with the DEA and actually won.
Taking on the government is wild,
but this next story proves that J. Prince
had total control in the streets too.
Back in the day,
Pimp C from UGK and Master P from No Limit records
got into some sort of beef over money.
And after Pimp C dissed Master P on stage,
Master P and some goons allegedly kidnapped him
and beat him up with pistols.
Master P was allegedly about to pull the trigger
and take out Pimp C,
but first he called J. Prince for the green light.
They both had ties to J,
and he allegedly told Master P to let him go
and the whole situation ended there.
Master P is another massive figure in the rap game,
so him calling J before doing anything
shows how powerful he is.
There’s no real evidence to back the story up,
but Pimp C allegedly confirmed it on the track
I Know You Strapped when he rapped
“You n****s weak so you call Houston for the hit
But didn’t know that we got gangsta n****s all over this b****
So now you b****** gotta deal with the King h*
‘Cause you done crossed me three times,
we just can’t let that go.”
J. Prince usually lets other people do the talking,
but occasionally
he’ll come out and check someone if he thinks they deserve it.
Back in 2018,
J’s son J. Prince Jr.
was having a birthday party in Houston
when 6ix9ine tried to pull up.
But before he could make it in the party,
J’s youngest son Baby Jay kicked him out
and let him know he wasn’t welcome.
Rumors say 6ix9ine wouldn’t check in with J. Prince,
and that’s why he was kicked out.
While he was testifying against his old crew,
6ix9ine told the court that wasn’t his only run-in
with the Rap-A-Lot crew.
According to him,
he was banned from performing at SXSW by them -
and after that he allegedly robbed Rap-A-Lot affiliates
Scumlord Dizzy and Junya Boy.
6ix9ine dragging his label and friends into court
was finally enough to make J Prince speak on the situation,
so he hopped on IG and wrote
“I’m hearing lies
he’s telling under oath about robbing me or representatives of #Rapalot.
Let me just make myself clear,
if him or any of those clowns were to try to rob me
or anyone from the #Rapalot family
bad news would’ve beat them home.”
Handling outside artists like 6ix9ine is one thing,
but according to some Rap-A-Lot affiliates,
J Prince is just as brutal when it comes to rappers on his own label.
A Rap-A-Lot affiliate named Yukmouth
told DJ Vlad
Artists was getting f***** up,
I ain't gonna name what artist.
They was getting f***** up.
Like physically,
physically like,
if you go against the grain man.
It’s gonna be some s***.
It’s not clear what really went on behind closed doors at Rap-A-Lot,
but J Prince takes care of his artists too.
Back when Almighty Jay was brutally attacked and had his chain snatched,
J Prince hopped on social media and called for backup.
A dude named Zae numbafive was spotted with a chain in a music video,
but after J got involved
he hopped on social media immediately to let everyone know
he wasn’t behind the chain snatching.
Zae ended up getting booked on an attempted murder charge,
but even he was afraid of getting on J. Prince’s bad side.
It didn’t take long for J to get the chain back,
and he proved again that he can reach out
and handle situations anywhere.
Rap-A-Lot Records isn’t putting out classic albums like back in the day,
but J Prince is still responsible
for starting the career of one of the biggest artists in the world.
And when Diddy threw a punch at him over a song,
J stepped in and actually sent a diss track.
A lot of people think Birdman and Lil Wayne
are responsible for turning Drake into a superstar,
but it was actually J Prince and his son Jas.
Jas discovered Drake on Myspace
and wanted his dad to sign him,
but J wasn’t convinced at first.
Jas finally convinced J
to get on the phone with his homies in Canada
to check out if the buzz on Drake’s name was real,
and after that they brought him to Houston
and connected him with Lil Wayne.
A few years later,
Diddy allegedly threw hands with Drake over the track 0 to 100 / The Catch Up.
According to TMZ’s sources,
Boi-1da gave the track to Diddy and Drake to lay verses down on it.
But after eight months,
Diddy still hadn’t recorded a verse
so Drake just dropped the song by himself.
The track became one of Drake’s biggest early hits,
and Diddy allegedly walked up to him in a nightclub and said
“You’ll never disrespect me again”,
and threw a punch.
Diddy is a legend in the game
who allegedly has strong street ties too.
But after he attacked someone in J’s circle,
J dropped a recorded warning called Courtesy Call and said
“Let me put these bully n****s on notice,
by letting them know that Drake is family.
Puffy feeling like he can put his hands on my family,
opens the doors for his family to be touched.
You reap what you sow.”
Putting out a warning like that was a crazy move.
Rappers send wild shots on diss tracks all of the time,
but for a hip hop godfather
to publicly threaten a legend like Diddy was crazy.
Luckily the situation cooled off
and Diddy squashed the Beef with Drake,
but J Prince reminded everyone
why you shouldn’t mess with the people in his circle.
The newest dude J is going after is Offset.
Takeoff was tragically killed while he was chilling with J. Prince Jr.
and a bunch of other Rap-A-Lot affiliates in Houston.
There’s still a lot of confusion about what really went down that night,
but J, J. Prince Junior, and Mike Prince
went on the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast to speak on the situation.
A video came out showing J. Prince Junior
allegedly walking past Takeoff’s body right after the shooting,
but during the podcast
they explained the situation
and claimed he was going to wash the blood off his hands.
Then at the end of the interview, J called out Offset and said
N**** you wasn’t really,
right there with Takeoff
when he was alive.
Know what I mean so,
for you to take these
positions that you taking.
You know what I mean,
I got people everywhere so I hear all kinds of things.
I’ma just say this to you.
Don’t ever put me in no position where
I have to defend myself.
You know what I mean, that wouldn’t be healthy for you.”
The whole Prince family got a lot of backlash for the interview,
and it sparked a back and forth between J Prince and Offset too.
Offset clapped back on IG, then
J made a wild video
where he claimed he stepped in to help Offset
after Lil Baby’s 4PF crew jumped him in 2020.
J also claimed that he kept Cardi B safe
when she allegedly had some cripps in LA trying to get at her
for using the word “flue” instead of “blue” on a post.
Cardi B, Offset, and Wack100 called cap on J’s side of the story,
but it’s not clear who’s really telling the truth.
There was some crazy rumors flying
that J Prince actually got arrested for threatening Offset
and that Offset was in protective custody.
Everyone in the rap game was shocked by the wild headlines,
but it looks like it was all made up for clicks.
Offset commented on it and said
“P**** wtf is this cap ass s***.”
Then J posted a video of himself chilling in his yard,
which proved that the whole thing was fake.
Losing Takeoff was tragic enough,
so hopefully J Prince and Offset
can squash whatever they’ve got going on
before someone else gets hurt.
J Prince is a scary dude in hip hop,
and it’s not just his street ties that makes rappers afraid of him.
Besides allegedly running the entire rap game in Houston,
J Prince has money coming in from every direction.
He was Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s first boxing manager
and has managed all kinds of champion fighters.
He owns a massive cattle farm, started his own condom company,
and even bought a private island.
A lot of the stories about J Prince
don’t have concrete evidence to back them up,
but there’s a good reason
why his name has had so much respect and power behind it
for the last 40 years.
You don’t get to that level without earning it,
and so most rappers know better
than to cross him and his Rap-A-Lot crew.