Maino Details His Rap Beginnings and Beefing With Jim Jones - The Combat Jack Show Episode 2

Maino recounts a standoff in the club with the Harlem rapper.

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Image via Complex Original
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Nobody does real talk like Reggie Ossé a.k.a. Combat Jack. The former rap industry attorney, media executive, author, and Internet radio talk-show personality now hosts The Combat Jack Show, where hip-hop's biggest names are put on the front line. The questions will be tough—and shots will be fired. Co-hosted by Dallas Penn, Premium Pete, and Just Blaze, The Combat Jack Show appears every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday on Complex TV. 

In the second part of our three part interview with Maino on The Combat Jack Show, Maino explains that he began rapping halfway through his prison sentence, but wasn't inclined to tell close friends or family about his new hobby. "I wasn't confident about expressing it to people on the outside world," he confesses. "Telling somebody in the street or my loved ones was a different story. I wasn't comfortable with that." He states that his confidence in his craft came from fellow inmates, who gave him positive feedback. "I started gaining confidence, to the point where I started letting people hear me in the jail. I would have little battles."

Finally back home, Maino points out that technology was the most difficult aspect to adjust to. "The way of communicating was different now. But you adapt to it, though," Maino insists. "The good thing about me is that I had people that were in tune and they were out there. They knew what was going on, and they were able to nurture me in that way."

Gradually building his musical reach, Maino cited a handful of DJ's within the New York area that supported his movement, including DJ Envy. Coincidently, Envy was present for an incident at a club, where Maino squared off with Dipset rapper Jim Jones following a few exchanges on wax. "One night we was in the club, and they came in. They was like 30 deep," Maino recounts. After talking it out, the two MC's recognized their parallel identities. "It was two people that didn't like each other. Then later on, once we started to kick it, we saw that we had more in common than just the bullshit."

 

 

 

Also check out Maino on Complex TV's The Combat Jack Show Ep 1 below. 

 

 

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