Interview: Ja Rule

Almost as quickly as he shot to fame, Ja Rule found himself rocketed into a cloud of controversy over the past year. From the legal troubles threatening his Murder Inc. label to the boos that greeted his October appearance at The Source Awards to the battles with 50 Cent, there's much the public would like to know about the rapper and his state of mind.

On the eve of the release of Ja Rule's latest album, Blood in My Eye, the rapper sat down for a unique and revealing conversation with Minister Louis Farrakhan, the controversial leader of the Nation of Islam. Farrakhan is a trusted figure in the hip-hop community for his interventions in beefs and his championing of black civil rights, but he's also made headlines for his candid, anti-Semitic remarks.

The main topic of discussion between the two was Ja Rule's beef with chart-topping rapper 50 Cent and the future of hip-hop.

Louis Farrakhan: Tell me, how did this beef get started with you and brother 50?

Ja Rule: I think it all started when I was doing a video shoot on Jamaica Avenue. We're from the same neighborhood. And everybody in the neighborhood said that Murder Inc. was on the brink of doing big things. 50 Cent was an artist at the time, too. I think he was with Jam Master Jay, and we knew Jay. It was a situation where 50 wanted to be involved but didn't know how to go about it. He seen how much love we received on the avenue from all the people, 'cause this is our neighborhood. The whole south side is there on Jamaica Avenue for the video shoot. It was a great video, even if it didn't get played, and I think 50 didn't like the fact that I was getting so much love. I didn't know the dude, didn't have any confrontations before this, as the legend would have it. He supposedly spoke to me and said, "What's up?" And I said, "A'ight, what up?" Apparently that wasn't good enough or something, I don't know.

Later he came out like, "I'm gonna use other big rappers' names and dis and downplay them to bring attention to me." Which is a great plan, but all you're doing is creating hatred for yourself from other artists. When he made the record about me, I didn't think it was funny or cool. He'd made two records at the time. In "How to Rob" he talked about how he was gonna rob all these major rappers and artists. It was a jokey kind of record, but a lot of people took offense. I wasn't mentioned in that record. But the other one, called "Murder, I Don't Believe You," or something like that ["Life's on the Line"], set my whole thing spinning, so when we saw each other, it was immediate brawl confrontation. We don't like each other.

I didn't start this. I'm an artist who really went out there to make my records while asking myself, "What can I do to elevate myself and do music?" People started making more records that had more feeling. All the artists came into it making records with feeling about different aspects of life beside the criminal aspect. And this is where the whole hatred really started for him and trickled down. I guess when he got his record deal, he felt the need to call my name and disrespect what I am doing, which is crazy.

Farrakhan: Have you ever had contact with 50 other than through music?

Ja Rule: Yeah. We fought in Atlanta.

Farrakhan: An actual fight?

Ja Rule: Yeah. We fought in Atlanta and we fought in New York at the Hit Factory. We've had our altercations.

Farrakhan: What did you fight over?

Ja Rule: The first time, it was over the record. He made the "Murder, Murder" record. A mutual friend of ours stepped in Atlanta and said, "You know 50. It was just a record. Will you talk to him for me?" I said OK; I'll talk to him and holler. We got face to face and talked, but it all came to play during the talk. We got mad and went off at the handle quick. I got mad and started letting him know how I feel: "I don't like you. I don't like what you're doing. I don't think what you're doing is real." We come out and make records, and you sell your records, and if you catch a beef, then you handle it. You don't come into it with this and this dude. I let him know I wasn't feeling it, his whole style. So he punched me, he snuffed me, and — boom! — I caught him back. Then the fight broke out. We all over the place, we throwin' down. But see, I felt the disrespect. Our mutual friend pitted us to talk, and you just violated the talk when you struck. And once that ensued, that's when the real beef started. Because now it's a physical thing. Back in New York at the Hit Factory, I hear from a mutual friend that he's upstairs in the studio. And me being the enraged guy I was, I took it upon myself to go pay him a visit up there, and it got a little violent.

Farrakhan: What I see, my brother is that this is bigger than Ja Rule and 50 Cent, two artists whom God has blessed with magnificent talent. You can't touch all the people in the world you both have touched and not have something very special. 50 Cent has it, you have it, Jay-Z has it, and Snoop has it. So many brothers and sisters in hip-hop are gifted by God with this tremendous gift. And I know, Ja. As a young man, I used to be a calypso singer. And in calypso you rhyme, and there comes a time in calypso when you go to war to see who is going to be the king of calypso. It's based on who can stand up, rhyme and make the other look bad. But it never reached the point where we became violent or struck the kind of chord where fans would take up the beef with each other. So we need to try and see if there's a bigger picture.

Now you and 50 may have genuine dislike, but you're both artists who touch millions of people. Your disagreement with 50, and his with you, has the potential to become so violent that even hip-hop itself — which is bigger than Ja Rule, Eminem, Dr. Dre or 50 Cent — is threatened by two giants going at each other, and not just in lyrics and words. It's coming down now to one or both of you ending up like Tupac and Biggie. How is hip-hop being threatened? The media takes the beef between you and 50 and they play it, they jam it, they keep it going. Why would they keep something going that could produce bloodshed? There is a bigger plot here, Ja, and this is what I want you and 50 and our hip-hop brothers and sisters to see.

Ja Rule: When I first heard that 50's record was about me, I said, "You know what? I am bigger than that and I ain't thinking about it. Let's continue what we're doing, as black men." But then the public started to give me ridicule, because I guess they were feeling, like, "Since you're not saying anything, you're scared." You understand what I'm saying? Like, "Oh, if he don't say nothing back, he must be scared of that n---a 50." I don't care about that, you understand?

Farrakhan: But they were giving you, Ja, an opportunity to teach. See, you're more than just a rapper. Do you realize, Ja, that the children that go to school, they ain't learning their lessons? But whatever you're saying, whatever 50's saying, whatever Jay-Z's saying, whatever Cube, or any of the rappers is saying, they've got that down, they memorize that. You're more than a hip-hop artist, you've become a teacher through your rap. So when the public starts calling for a fight — "He dissed you, man. You ain't gonna say nothing back? You're a punk" — when they come like that, because that's the way we grew up, how do you respond? You know, whenever we fought in school, none of our people ever tried to stop the fight. They put us in a circle and wanted to see who was gonna win. This childhood thing is playing out in hip-hop, in gang warfare, in turf conflict. Tell me, Ja, how do you view the public clamor if you don't clap back [retaliate]? What do you feel from the public right now?

Ja Rule: They're not gonna respect me. We already went through this. All of the things he was saying is just talk. It's sticks and stones, you know, they don't break my bones, that old cliché. But when the public gets involved and says, "Ja, if you ain't saying nothing, you must be scared," or "50 got you shook," then it's like, "Are y'all serious?" Then let me go do what I do so y'all understand. Because it's easy for me to make clap backs and those kind of records. It's nothing for me to lyrically assault 50 it's easy. But the public makes it so we have to keep assaulting each other. And they're not giving us room to say, "I'm not thinking about him." They're not giving us that space.

Farrakhan: The public is almost demanding from you a response to what 50 has said.

Ja Rule: Before I say that, I just want to say there were other reasons I didn't respond earlier as well. I wanted to respond. Hip-hop is a culture that, if you’re a hip-hop artist and you rap and you’re in this game, you feel you is the best. Of course I think I'm the best. So if anybody says anything foul or disrespectful against Ja Rule, Irv Gotti, Murder Inc., Ashanti, anybody, I'm gonna go on attack, get them and let them know, "Don't say that about our family." Because that's how hip-hop was brought up, on the beef like you said, on the dozens thing. But it got outside of that. Sometimes the public, they don't let you go out and reach your full potential. They want you to stay 'hood.
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What do you think about this thing going on here with Ja Rule and these other rappers? Just a game or what? And what about Farrakhan saying God intended this, I don’t think so. In other words Farrakhan is saying that God wants these rappers to talk bad about each other and shoot each other. OK. Someone’s smoking too much. Comment back.

Complete interview at MTVNews.com