Baaallllinnnn!

November 9, 2006 9:45 AM

A new documentary on the Jonestown Massacre (YouTube) raises a few key questions about The People's Temple and mass suicide; yet the most pertinent quandary at the moment (posed by New York Magazine) has little to do with tainted Kool-Aid and instead focuses on an unfortunately named rapper from Harlem. This week, it's Jim Jones versus Jim Jones.
posted by dead_ (22 comments total)

i thought this was a link to a documentary but it's just an ad. disappointing post.
posted by dydecker at 10:08 AM on November 9, 2006

It was Flavor Aid, not Kool-Aid.
posted by hilker at 10:17 AM on November 9, 2006

Agreed dydecker. Here's the entire loop of tape recorded on the last day at Jonestown.
posted by moonbird at 10:23 AM on November 9, 2006

A 90 minute audio documentary about Jonestown from NPR. [1981]
posted by dydecker at 10:43 AM on November 9, 2006

Not to be confused with:
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:03 AM on November 9, 2006

I can't watch or listen to any of it. I was 7 years old when Jonestown happened and it seriously scarred me. My lifelong aversion to religion started with seeing footage of Jonestown and to this day, churches give me the willies.
posted by jrossi4r at 11:03 AM on November 9, 2006

My post from April has more info on Jonestown, including an interview with the filmmaker.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:05 AM on November 9, 2006

Why the hell would anyone , especially a rapper, call themself Jim Jones? Not only does it have that stigma of Jonestown it's also bland and forgetable.
posted by Liquidwolf at 11:19 AM on November 9, 2006

At first glance I thought this was about a followup to the documentary DiG!
posted by bobo123 at 11:35 AM on November 9, 2006

if you can, go see the movie. it's amazing. If you're not in NYC or California, it'll be broadcast on PBS in April 2007.
posted by chelseagirl at 12:13 PM on November 9, 2006

I was surprised to see that Jim Jones Jr. was African American and how truly diverse the People's Temple was. The thing that made me cry at the screening is that multicultural diversity was the promise that made a lot of the members join up. They saw it as a race-blind utopia. Ugh.

Which makes it all the more surprising that a black rapper would gank the moniker.
posted by Gucky at 12:26 PM on November 9, 2006

Then there's Brian Jonestown Massacre....
posted by Floydd at 12:30 PM on November 9, 2006

It was Flavor Aid, not Kool-Aid.

Correct but in the documentary itself it has footage of Jim Jones showing a camera crew around the compound. He opens a box full of (obviously labelled) Flavor Aid and calls it Kool-Aid. It's every Jonestown pedant's worst nightmare.
posted by John Shaft at 12:48 PM on November 9, 2006 [2 favorites]

Which makes it all the more surprising that a black rapper would gank the moniker.

With the more recent lame rap names like Chingy or Young Jeezy and bland ones like Mike Jones, Paul Wall, and Lloyd Banks (oh yeah, nothing gives you more street cred than sounding like somebodys dentist) leads me to believe that all of the good rap names have been gone for a while.
posted by dr_dank at 1:06 PM on November 9, 2006

instead focuses on an unfortunately named rapper from Harlem. This week, it's Jim Jones versus Jim Jones.

Don't forget former Commandant of the Marine Corps Jim Jones
posted by Andrew Brinton at 1:15 PM on November 9, 2006

I would think that a rapper could use Rev. Jim Jones references as part of his shtick. "I'm MC Jim Jones and I just wanna/mow suckas down like Kool-Aid in Guyana..."

It practically writes itself.
posted by jonp72 at 2:04 PM on November 9, 2006

Don't forget Jim Jones and the Kool-Aid Kids, from my hometown of Kalamazoo. Unfortunately, I can't find a good link to any info about that band, other than on lists of weird band names.
posted by glycolized at 2:47 PM on November 9, 2006

Guyana Punch Line.
posted by sklero at 4:12 PM on November 9, 2006

jrossi4r: My lifelong aversion to religion started

Well, at least some good came of it then.
posted by pompomtom at 6:42 PM on November 9, 2006

There's a former Canadian MP who goes by the name of Jim Jones (Wikipedia link). His full name is H. James Jones, but on every political placard I've seen up in Markham, where he's now a regional councillor, the name he uses is Jim Jones. Weird.
posted by spoobnooble at 7:17 PM on November 9, 2006

When I was growing up in Oklahoma, my congressman was named James R. Jones. I remember to this day the slimy ads run against him by the Republican that took his seat (Jim Inhofe, if memory serves... he's still around). The ads started out "Jim Jones claims he's not a liberal..." followed by a bunch of cherry-picked examples of his supposed liberalness.

It took me a long time to realize why the negative ads always called him "Jim Jones", when his own ads always had him as "James R. Jones".
posted by norm at 7:28 AM on November 10, 2006

My bad, a little checking reveals that the slimy ad I'm thinking of was run in his unsuccessful run for Senate against Don "don't call me Rickles" Nickles in 1986.
posted by norm at 8:35 AM on November 10, 2006