Double J (Gerald 'J' Jones), known as The Hitman Double J, is a Jersey City rapper and a founding member of Queen Latifah's original Flavor Unit collective, one of the defining hip-hop crews of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
In the Record§
Growing up in Jersey City he hosted block parties alongside future stars including Apache; in 1988 he joined DJ Mark the 45 King's Flavor Unit after an introduction through Apache and the crew.
He appears on the 1990 posse cut 'Flavor Unit Assassination Squad' (4th and Broadway/Island Records) and released the 12-inch 'Cannibal Town / Def Style' and solo album 'The Hitman', best known for the track 'Double J'z Tantrum'.
He later resurfaced as half of the Maniac Mob, reuniting with DJ Mark the 45 King for production on several independent releases including a track on the 1995 compilation 'The D&D Project'.
He received his Island Records deal after Fab Five Freddy saw a homemade video of the Flavor Unit crew and passed it up the chain -- a chain of events that shows how the early 1990s rap industry actually worked.
His passing is mourned in community tribute as the loss of one of Chilltown's finest emcees and a Flavor Unit pioneer; the Jersey City cable program whose first 1992 broadcast featured him alongside Craiga Ski counted that moment among its proudest.
He pressed Cannibal Town himself in 1988 on Chanpen Records, a label named for the aunt who put up the money: 3,000 copies, with the instrumental Club Trax on the flip because the 45 King knew club records moved through Abbey at Movin' Records in East Orange.
His Jersey City school ties ran through the Flavor Unit itself: he and Latee sat in the same third grade class and he came up with Apache, and by his account it was Lakim Shabazz who named the Flavor Unit, the Flavor taken from Latee's This Cut's Got Flavor.
The Hitman's beats were done in house by Double J and Craigaski, and the Gangster Hit video ran on Jersey City's two dollar call in cable video channel; when Island was absorbed by Polygram the album's push dissolved, and he walked away to business and family with, in his words, his own peace of mind.
Photographs§
From the community archive, shared 2026.
Sources§
- Unkut — The Hitman Double J — link
- Red Bull Music Academy — Flavor Unit oral history — link
- The 45 King Presents the Flavor Unit — Apple Music — link
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