What happened with Max B and Jim Jones? Beef explored as rapper released from prison

American rapper and singer Max B, whose real name is Charly Wingate, was released from prison on November 9, 2025, after his 75-year sentence was cut short to 20 years. In the wake of his release, Max delivered a message for his friends, family, fans, and the community via social media.

According to Hot New Hip Hop and Billboard, ahead of his release, he spoke about his longtime beef with fellow Harlem rapper and record executive Jim Jones and wished to bury the hatchet. He told Drink Champs during a July 2025 prison call:

“Listen, Jim said a bunch of hard sh*t about me. So, we all say hard sh*t about each other, okay? Jim done wished me dead, all types of sh*t. It’s all good. Listen, man. It's love, man. I want to start over. I'm a new man. I'm a married man. I got four kids. Like, I'm on a whole different time right now, my n***a.”

Max B feuded with Jim Jones after he felt that he wasn’t fairly remunerated. Back in the day, the former collaborated with the latter’s ByrdGang crew and released several songs, including So Harlem, Baby Girl, and Confront Ya Babe. However, they soon had a falling out when Max’s contract didn’t allow him to earn sufficiently.

“I'm out here to get my money and ride out the sunset with this sh*t. It's in there for me, though. I'm going tell you that. So that's the goal. At the end of the day, we all grow. We overcome, man. We all got responsibilities,” he shared in his pre-release interview.

Wingate added that it was time to elevate, build, and pass the torch to the next generation, or “the young man’s world,” and to focus on restarting his life and music. He also mentioned not having any “regret” about his beef with Jim Jones.

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Exploring further about Max B's feud with Jim Jones

During a 2013 prison interview with Complex, Max B explained his beef with Jim Jones. He mentioned that at the start of the collaboration, they were a “good team” who had the potential to turn into the next G-Unit or D-Block. However, soon their personalities and egos began to clash.

“I guess maybe at some point he was feeling threatened by my presence—animosity started. People started disrespecting each other. When you amongst men, men gonna disrespect each other… There’s gonna be a fight, somebody’s gonna get hurt. That’s all that happened. Money, disrespect—they don’t mix,” Max B stated.

He continued to explain that despite standing out with his music, he didn’t receive his financial dues, nor was he allowed to go make independent music, due to his contract limitations.

“I always needed money. I'm like, I need money. I can’t live off $300. Naw, man, you gotta pay me accordingly. Or let me make my own money. Let me get my own manager or assistant. Let me book my own sh*t. There were arguments, there was disrespect every night in the studio. To where I didn't want to go,” Max B explained.

The Coke Wave rapper mentioned that he “drifted” from the lawful path during his beef with Jim Jones. Later, in 2007, matters became worse when he partially sold the publishing rights to his catalogue to Jones to pay his $1.5 million bail.

During an August 2019 prison interview (released in March 2020 on Max B’s YouTube), Wingate doubled down on the reason behind the infamous beef.

“It was just egos clashing, a lack of respect. That sh*t don’t mix well, and next thing you know, we beefin’. As far as the content or whatever, it should’ve gone a different way. I think today we would’ve handled the situation differently,” Charly stated.

Max B shared that they eventually reconciled.

“I think [it was] two egos coming together, two big personalities. 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. 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.”

However, before the feud died down, Jim Jones with his ByrdGang group and Max B with his protégé French Montana shared diss videos, prison calls, and radio interviews against one another, including the latter’s 2009 mixtape, Coke Wave, and the Cocaine City street DVDs.

While Max B may be interested in squashing their beef, last month Jim Jones appeared on the Let’s Rap About It podcast and shared that he is a “petty person” and was not ready to get over it.

“I may forgive, I don’t forget. And even if I forgive, I’m not here to make anybody feel comfortable. Just because someone else figured they situation… don’t mean that everybody could be subjected to doing that… You don’t know how severe it may be to a person,” Jones stated.

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Max B was sentenced to 75 years in prison in 2019 on conspiracy charges for armed robbery, kidnapping, aggravated assault, and felony murder. Later, he accepted an aggravated manslaughter plea deal in 2016 and was scheduled to be released in 2021. However, he had to wait another four years to be finally free on November 9, 2025.