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Ja Rule
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Guide Note: Ja Rule is an East Coast Rapper from Queens, New York City. He has released 7 albums since his debut album Venni Vetti Vecci was released in 1999. Ja Rule has ... dabbled in the movie business, appearing in movies The Fast And The Furious and Scary Movie 3.
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Ja Rule is so much more than a rapper. He is an all-around hip-hop artist. A talented songwriter, potential movie superstar, and musical sensation, Ja Rule has quickly become hip-hop's top contender. His third album Pain Is Love revisits the formula that transformed Ja from a skilled lyricist into a Songwriting genius.
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Born in the Hollis section of Queens in 1976, deep-voiced rapper Ja Rule had made many allies in hardcore rap by 2000. He was aligned with DMX's Ruff Ryders, Jay-Z's Rock-a-Fella label, and producer Irv Gotti's group Murder Inc. Ja Rule had only started recording in 1995, and by 1999, his single "Holla Holla" went gold and he was on Def Jam's Hard Knock Life Tour. Differentiating himself from his peers, he started a parallel acting career while consistently churning out hit records. His feature film debut was a starring role as the shifty friend of Pras (formerly of the Fugees) in Turn It Up, a film based on the solo debut record from Pras, Ghetto Superstar. He ... appeared alongside Pras and superstar rapper Eminem that same year in the Blair Witch parody Da Hip Hop Witch. Ja Rule continued to play himself in films as a rap performer, but he also accepted straight acting roles.
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One of the most commercially successful rappers in 2000, Ja Rule has a voice that you just can’t touch. He has worked with such rap/R&B artists as DMX, Jay-Z, and Ashanti. He has had some tough times with the hip-hop world. He has had gripes with artists like 50 cent. Regardless, JA Rule has had numerous amounts of number one hits, platinum albums, and a decent amount of movie roles. No matter what problems are thrown at JA Rule he seems to “Always Be on Time” with his music.
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As the flagship artist for producer Irv Gotti's Def Jam-affiliated Murder Inc. label, Ja Rule became the rap industry's most commercially successful artist during the early 2000s, working closely with the hitmaker and his stable of talent. Ja initially won over a sizable following with Venni Vetti Vecci (1999), his rather hardcore debut album modeled largely after the style of rugged thug rap then popularized by DMX and the Ruff Ryder collective. In particular, "Holla Holla" became a breakout hit, but in retrospect it was a minor success relative to what Ja accomplished a year later with his follow-up album, Rule 3:36 (2000). On this album, Gotti juxtaposed the rapper's thuggish style with a trio of radio-friendly vixens -- Christina Milian, Lil' Mo, and Vita -- and produced three enormous hit singles: "Between Me and You," "I Cry," and "Put It on Me." These duets established the template for Ja's following album, Pain Is Love (2001), which featured yet more chorus-singing divas, this time Jennifer Lopez ("I'm Real") and Ashanti ("Always on Time"), as well as a similarly styled interpolation of Stevie Wonder's "Do I Do" ("Livin' It Up") featuring Case on the hook. By 2002, Ja alone had brought Gotti's Murder Inc. label into the national spotlight and helped break successive artists from the label, most notably Ashanti, who collaborated with him on "Down 4 U," yet another chart-topping hit. Roughly around this same time, Ja used his fame to launch a minor acting career for himself, beginning with The Fast and the Furious (2001), and he began to attract attention from his peers, uniting with Nas on the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards and squabbling with DMX in the press.
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In 2000 Ja Rule found a new career when he landed a major role in the rap-themed street drama Turn it Up. Though the film was a box-office flop, Ja Rule's performance was hailed as gritty and true and it helped land him a featured role in The Fast and the Furious. In the prison drama Half Past Dead with Steven Seagal, Ja Rule played a street thug--the type of character revered in mainstream rap. To critics who say he is being pigeonholed in these types of roles because he is a rapper, he told the Los Angeles Times, "It's funny how people always say that you get used in the business," he says. "But my thinking is that if nobody can use you, then you're useless. You want to be useful."
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Ja Rule