Remember back in the days when people could “pull your coattails” to something in a kind and respectful way, and you took in the advice gracefully? Well, that’s what happened in a surprisingly cordial exchange between Ciara and rapper/reality star Jim Jones at the BET Awards on Monday night.
Cici jumped into a conversation Jones was having with The Breakfast Club in their media space at the awards, telling him he should stop playing and put a ring on it, in so many words. She was referring to his long-delayed engagement to girlfriend Chrissy Lampkin, which has played out over multiple VH1 reality shows, mostly Love & Hip Hop New York and its spinoff show, Chrissy and Mr. Jones.
Per multiple reports, the longtime couple, who don’t have children, have been together for 20 years. Chrissy just celebrated her 54th birthday last month. Jones will be 49 in July. Over the years, they’ve gotten engaged twice but never did the deed. Chrissy’s contentious relationship with Jones’s overbearing mother has been one of the reasons, as well as Jones’s reluctance to marry. In 2019, Lumpkin appeared on Love & Hip Hop and said that tying the knot was no longer a big deal.
Ciara’s unsolicited take on the situation could have been met with hostility, but she does have a frame of reference. She and her husband, NFL quarterback Russell Wilson, are celebrating ten years together in July. They have three children together, and Ciara’s oldest child, Future, is from a previous relationship with the rap star of the same name.
“Why not?” Ciara said as she sat down next to Jones. “Like y’all have lived life in every capacity anyone could live it in. You’re living like you’ve already done it, so let’s just seal it properly because you know what? She deserves it. You deserve it. Why not? I look at y’all and I’m like, they’re so, he is so fly, Chrissy is so beautiful and so dope and she holds you down, like down down down. This is the spirit talking through me right here.”
Well, Ciara does have a point, given the length of time the two have been dating. And Jones acknowledged it when The Breakfast Club host Loren LaRosa asked him about it.
“It was a great piece of advice,” he said. “Honestly, I needed that encouragement. I needed to hear that. Especially from somebody who’s active in preaching what she’s teaching. A lot of people have so many different opinions, and they’re nowhere near marriage or any type of great relationship or in any position to give me any type of advice about what I should be doing.”
See social media’s reaction to Ciara’s advice below.