It's become relatively easy to reduce Ja Rule to a punchline, given a variety of unfortunate factors. His involvement in the notoriously doomed Fyre Festival for one, which left him looking like a patsy at best, a criminal at worst.
And lest we forget, his legendary beef with 50 Cent , Eminem , and their legions of loyal fans did him no favors, despite putting up a valiant fight with "Loose Change. Sadly, Ja's post Pain Is Love which recently celebrated its birthday on October 2nd output never quite reached the successes of his first three. Yet you can't keep a good man down, especially a wily veteran like Rule.
In the midst of reigniting his feud with "sworn enemy" 50 Cent, Ja has been moonlighting in the studio, a process that has ultimately borne fruit. Behold These three singles and the production coming from Irv Gotti along with performances from Memphis Bleek , Erick Sermon , Case , Black Child , Nemisis , and Caddillac Tah , then known as Tah Murdah, along with a notable performance from his mentor, Jay-Z led to the album going platinum.
The single was quickly followed by Ja's second effort, Rule , which was released on October 10, The album was ridiculed by critics for its commercial sound, which completely abandoned the dark street sound of his debut. Despite this, the album fared well on the charts and debuted at 1 on the Billboard Charts.
The album would be a huge success going 3x Platinum. The release of this album marked a huge turn in Ja Rule's style of music from a more hardcore edge to a pop crossover oriented sound. Along with its critical success it was also a commercial success it, like its predecessor went 3x Platinum. Ja Rule would shave his head during the promotion of his fourth studio album, The Last Temptation. His fourth album was released on November 19 , Although the album was fairly successful, certified platinum, it failed to carry the momentum brought by his previous album, criticized for being too commercial.
Despite the heavy criticism, it would still be fairly popular and is noted for bringing Bobby Brown back to the music scene. The album features guest appearances from new signees, Young Life, Alexi, Chink Santana , Eastwood , Crooked I , and Nas , who almost signed to the label during that period. Appearances also come from long time-Inc. Other guests were Pharrell , and the late Tupac Shakur. Ja's popularity was on the rise during the summer of , featured on Fat Joe 's " What's Luv?
Blige 's " Rainy Dayz " aside from his own singles. The content of this album led to a dramatic fall in his popularity. This album is also noted as the last Ja Rule album released by The Inc. Records under the moniker Murder Inc. This was partially due to Ja's disses and death threats to adversaries, 50 Cent , Busta Rhymes a former associate , Eminem , Dr.
The album was originally planned to be a mixtape, but former label Def Jam Recordings forced him to release an album in to honor the contract, where he released an album every year. Blood In My Eye peaked at 6, but only managed to go gold, his lowest selling to date. On this album, Ja sparked rivalries with many artists on the Interscope Records roster. Ja Rule returned to form on his sixth studio album, R.
This album would serve as a comeback of sorts for Ja as he saw a return to mainstream success. The lead single was "Wonderful" which was followed by the street anthem, "New York," the third and last single was "Caught Up. The album was certified Platinum in the United States in , and it is the fifth of his six released albums to go platinum. On December 6, , Ja Rule released his seventh album, which is nothing more than a greatest hits album. It features all of the hit singles throughout his career.
The album was released to honor the contract with Def Jam so that The Inc. Despite the album being nothing special it went platinum in early After the release of this compilation, Ja Rule took a hiatus from recording music.
In , The Inc. Records would come under investigation because of the drug trades by Kenneth "Supreme" Mc Griff, who is associated with Irv Gotti. They were willing to let go of the label, despite the fact that they were giving up Ja Rule, who had been the label's flagship since even if he wasn't recording music he was keeping the label in the news.
From to , Irv would search for other labels, and reached a deal with Universal Records. The first single, "Uh Oh" was released on July 31, and premiered on music video shows the following day.
This second single, "Body" was released in September. The album contains a collaboration with former G-Unit artist, The Game , whom he had once had a lyrical altercation with.
They will appear on the track "Sunset. The reasoning towards the title of the album is that it is " the only place where you can't lie to yourself. The same success followed with his third album, which spawned three top 10 singles, two of them reaching 1. The second single, "Always on Time", was released in October and marked the first major guest appearance for Murder Inc's youngest artist Ashanti, and became both Ja Rule and Ashanti's first song to top the Billboard Hot The remix of Jennifer Lopez's "I'm Real" featuring Ja Rule was included on the album and topped the Billboard Hot for five non-consecutive weeks, beginning September 8, , and also topped the Hot Airplay chart.
In the single was named the 30th most successful song of the s, on the Billboard Hot Songs of the Decade. The album also received a Grammy nomination in for Best Rap Album. By , 3. It spawned two hit singles, "Thug Lovin'", featuring Bobby Brown, which peaked at 42 on the Billboard Hot , and "Mesmerize", a duet with Ashanti that peaked at 2 on the Billboard Hot Shortly after the release of his fourth studio album, Ja Rule's ongoing beef with fellow Queens rapper 50 Cent reached its peak, with both artists taking to radio stations almost daily to trade insults and diss tracks.
On January 3, , the Murder Inc. Due to the federal investigation, Ja Rule had a late response in his beef with 50 Cent. The beef continued to be highly publicized throughout , and eventually led to Ja Rule meeting with Minister Louis Farrakhan in October, who wanted to intervene and prevent escalating violence in the feud. The material was intended simply as a mixtape, but was released as an album to fulfill Ja Rule's contractual commitment to Murder Inc.
The album was described as a "hate" album directed at various rappers, including 50 Cent, G-Unit, Eminem, Dr. It peaked at 6 on the Billboard Hot , selling , copies in its first week of release, and had sold over , copies in the U. Ja Rule's sixth studio album, R. Its lead single, "Wonderful", featuring R. Kelly and Ashanti, peaked at 5 on the Billboard Hot The single was followed by the street anthem "New York", featuring Fat Joe and Jadakiss , which charted at 27 on the Billboard Hot The third single was the love song "Caught Up", featuring Lloyd, which had failed to make an impact on the Billboard Hot Gold on January 14, ,[16] and by October the album had sold , copies.
Hiatus, departure from Def Jam, decline of The Inc. Records — On December 6, , The Inc. Exodus was the last album on Ja Rule's contract with The Inc. After its release, Ja Rule took a hiatus from recording music. Meanwhile, The Inc. Records was still under investigation because of alleged drug trades with Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff.
From to , Gotti searched for other labels, finally reaching a deal with Universal Records part of the same company as Def Jam. A few years later The Inc. Pain Is Love 2, prison, and release —present. In February , it was announced that Ja Rule had started working on a new album, Pain Is Love 2, to be produced by the producers of the original Pain Is Love album to "recreate magic".
Ja Rule had planned on releasing it on June 7, but decided to delay the release in order to allow more time to perfect the "level and quality of the records" and to avoid "doing an injustice to [his] fans".
A revised release date of October 11, , was also pushed back. On October 2, , another track, "Spun a Web", was released, also produced by 7 Aurelius and sampling Coldplay's "Trouble". The following day a teaser video premiered on YouTube, and the official video was released on October Pain Is Love 2 was finally released on February 28, , by which time Ja Rule was serving a two-year sentence in prison for gun possession and tax evasion.
Ja Rule was released from prison on May 7, E album Student of the Game. The track had first premiered on Hot A few days later he released "Everything". Both tracks were produced by Visionary producers Reefa and Myles William. On September 27, , both tracks were released on iTunes for digital download.
In , Ja Rule released a memoir, Unruly: The Highs and Lows of Becoming a Man, in which he reflected on his past struggles with a difficult adolescence in New York City and everything that followed, from breakout success and destructive rivalries to fatherhood and a two-year prison sentence. In July , Ja Rule announced his eighth studio album, which was eventually pushed back to a release.
A sneak peek trailer of the show surfaced on the internet in September and the show premiered on October 26, In December , he appeared on The Hamilton Mixtape, rapping Hamilton's verse in Ashanti's performance of "Helpless", referencing Lin-Manuel Miranda's impression of him in the last line of that verse. On June 26, , Ashanti confirmed that she and Ja Rule are working on a collaborative album. Aside from rapping, Ja Rule has established a career as an actor.
In , he starred in I'm in Love with a Church Girl. In August , Ja Rule collaborated with footwear businessman Steve Madden on a new line of men's sneakers called Maven x Madden, which were released for sale by fall In April , the venture touted its Fyre Festival in Hamilton, Bahamas, as a luxury event, but it was a logistical failure, disappointing hundreds of ticket-buyers.
In , Ja Rule partnered with a team of software engineers to launch Flipkick, a platform focusing on selling physical works of art as Non-Fungible Tokens. Flipkick claims to be "the first company to offer cryptographic authentication of physical works of art sold as and linked to NFTs. Atkins earned his GED while in prison in February
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