S. Samuel
Former Murder Inc. rapper Ja Rule recently discussed his staying power in the music industry after his publicized beef with 50 Cent and why the G-Unit leader never ended his career.
From Ja’s perspective, he still managed to sell albums once his beef with 50 died down around 2004.
“Yeah, I’m starting to now see people that may have hated on me in the beginning are not rooting for me and want to see me win,” Rule explained in an interview. “That to me is big. The best part about it is I’m humbled by it all. I feel like everybody deserves a second chance to do whatever. Really, I feel that my situation was an unfair situation. A very unique, very odd situation. Nobody ever seen anything like that in hip-hop, you know? I laugh when I see people say sh*t like, ‘Yo, [50 Cent] kilt Rule, but he didn’t kill [Rick] Ross.’ No disrespect to Ross, but he did 180-something [first week sales of Teflon Don]. I went platinum with [2004’s] R.U.L.E. after I made [2003’s] Blood In My Eye. I look at sh*t like that and… I don’t know, take it how you want to take it. I was a much bigger selling artist than just platinum so I guess that’s why people felt I took a hit. But the music industry was taking a hit at that time, too. You can’t really judge it or try to make an issue out of it, or an excuse. It just is what it is.” (VIBE)
Last April, Rule explained why rap beefs are insignificant and pointless.
“I think the beef sh*t is wack,” Rule revealed in an interview. “My beef was different, it was real. Physical altercations, all that. A lot of these beefs today, are just publicity stunts for artists to try to sell records. They try to further their careers or whatever, doing so by creating conflict with other artists who are creating a buzz. I think it’s watered down hip-hop. Even though hip-hop was founded on the battle, it came from that. It’s still, with how far hip-hop has come, the beef records take away from the talent and the creative process of it all. I just think all the beef records and that sh*t is wack.” (Dubcnn)
Last year, Murder Inc. associate Cadillac Tah claimed that despite the war between the two rappers, 50 was actually a Ja Rule admirer.
“I guess [his plan] was for him to try to Tupac it, Tupac and Biggie,” Tah explained in an interview. “Find a target, go after the target to make people look at him. That’s kinda always been his little strategy even when he made the song ‘How to Rob.’ He did that so everybody would switch the attention to him, it wasn’t like that was a bad plan. It worked, so if it worked it means it was a good plan. I was just not advising him to do that — He played a ill strategic game. He threw Ja off of his grind and jumped on Ja’s sh*t. He always wanted what Ja had, I mean that kinda fame, how Ja was killing ’em on the radio songs every five minutes…He came in the game with ‘What up blood, what up cuz,’ and then it’s ‘I wanna take you to the candy shop,’ and he would start singing a whole lot. It’s the same sh*t you had my n*gga on the Summer Jam screen about, making fun of that — and you d*mn near made a whole singing album like that.” (Ms Drama TV)
Rule previously said his rap war against 50 was unfair due to the G-Unit leader’s association with police.
“I went at 50 too, I don’t think n*ggas think about that either,” Rule said in an interview earlier this summer. “I went at that n*gga hard too. 50 done had a beef with a gang of n*ggas. Even the first record he made I think was ‘How 2 Rob,’ and I was the only artist that when I seen him, I was like, ‘Eh, that ain’t funny homie. What’s happening.’ You feel what I’m saying? Everybody else that seen him, ‘Hahahahahaaa,’ silly n*ggas. Nah n*gga, ain’t no dap, n*gga. It ain’t funny. What’s happening? And I went at his head. He couldn’t f*ck with what we as doing on these streets so he went into a booth and became Superman. And that’s how that whole thing transcended and he was talking so much to the police, n*gga couldn’t really express his true feelings. He got my n*ggas facing 20 years in jail, my n*gga Supreme is doing life right now. When n*ggas talk all that sh*t, I laugh because they don’t know the infrastructure with how it all spiraled to what it is today.” (Forbez DVD)
Check out a recent Ja Rule interview below:
