New Ja Rule Interview

[Turntable]

Most of ya'll dont like him, or not always anyway. But he was a a major part of Hip Hop of the last 10 years. He was on top and then he fell down. Can he climb up the steps again?

MIO: The title ‘Ruleyork’ has been mentioned throughout some of your latest records and you even have a mixtape by that title coming out soon. Explain to the people what you mean by Ruleyork, what state of mind are you in when you say that?

JA RULE: New York is where I’m from and Ruleyork is my state of mind as well as a New York state of mind. **** it, it’s my city.

MIO: Well you do have the last major New York anthem.

JA RULE: Well Jay’s got one now (Empire State of Mind), I like that one too.

MIO: You got there first though

JA RULE: Yeah I got there first (laughs) but it’s all good. I love New York anthems. But you know, it’s like only certain cities can do anthems, New York, LA, Atlanta…

MIO: How is the mixtape shaping up anyway?

JA RULE: Well I think we’ll put it out a little closer to when I’m trying to release my album, but it will come out this year so we’re looking at maybe another Christmas package. The records are mainly harder sounding, street records. Welcome to Ruleyork is like I said my state of mind, when you see the cover you’ll understand what I’m talking about. The cover is an open road, a highway and there’s a big sign that says ‘Ruleyork 100 Miles Away’ then the exit sign on the side of the road that the car is passing says ‘Ja Rule’. You can take it how you want to take it from there, I’ll explain it later (laughs).

MIO: We heard some snippets in the background of the Atkins Files mixtape, like ‘Wake Me’ and ‘Spun a Web’, will they be on the mixtape or are you saving them for the album?

JA RULE: Well I think Wake Me is going to be on the album, Spun a Web may go on the album, I’m not really sure right now. I may release them I may not, I’ve got a lot of material and I’m getting a lot of new music from a lot of different producers, so as the albums starts shaping up, naturally certain records just aren’t going to make it…so you guys will get them (laughs).

MIO: Tell us about the ideas you have for the new album.

JA RULE: I want it to be different, I want it to be a masterpiece, I want it to be something you can tell I worked hard on and had fun doing it. It’s for the people because right now our business is in such disarray as far as record sales, it’s like the artists are now going back to square one which is for the love of the music. It’s not making us the major dollars that it used to so it’s the other things that we’re doing outside of the music; merchandising, product placement, publishing and writing songs for other people, branding your name…these are the things that are making the money right now. It’s crazy because it used to be the other way around, the music used to drive everything else, now it’s these other things that are driving the music, it’s weird but you learn to roll with the punches. I haven’t put out an album in five years so I want this new one to be a statement album, something that’s gonna make the people say ‘Rule is that nigga…how could I’ve turned my back on Rule’. Anyway, when I look at the whole beef **** and issues people have with Ja Rule I laugh at it. What is really your reason for not liking my music? Because I sing? I’m just looking around the room now to see what the case is. Or is it because of the beef between me and 50 and yall dubbed him the winner? So hate me? You see what I’m saying, I don’t get how this all panned out, but looking at it as a normal sane person (not some crazy dude behind a computer) it really doesn’t make sense.

I’m a real artist, I like to get into different headspaces and try different things and that’s where my melodic flow came from. I got tired of just beats and rhymes, I wanted to make music that was different and when I did it, it touched a whole other world, different people, cultures and countries that I never even thought I’d get to see! My dream was to go gold, so when I created that it opened up a whole new life for me. That, as artists is what we live to do.

MIO: It’s almost as if you are re-entering the hip hop world, do you feel like you need to create something new again for the people to be responsive?

JA RULE: Regardless, I don’t care if I do or don’t put out an album every year, my goal is to do something new and try something different. When you’re making albums year after year, you don’t really get a chance to sit back and try and find the new sound or search for the new flow, so you kind of just recycle what works. A lot of artists get trapped into that, even myself. I’ve been in that zone where I’ve made records that may sound similar to another record, not the same but similar in style or whatever. When you’re making an album year after year sometimes that happens, you get into the same vibes and same flow because you’re working everyday and that’s what’s moving. When you have time to sit back, relax and look at it all from the outside looking in, you get a chance to say ok you know what, hip hop is changing and I’ve done that before so let me do something different. Let me do a little bit of what I’ve done before because you don’t want to let down the fans that are used to that and want that

MIO: When you were on top of the world doing your melodic flow, do you ever feel that it became over saturated?

JA RULE: Maybe, but what is over saturated? That’s a term I think labels use because they’re scared of their artists being out there too much. I think I didn’t do enough, that I should’ve done more! There were a lot of records that they pulled back that I was on with other artists that I felt we should’ve put out. Look at Lil’ Wayne, he’s on everything, he does any record he want’s to do, do you think that’s over saturation or do you look at it as he’s one of the hardest workers in the business?

MIO: How do you feel about the fans that have stuck with you throughout all the experimentation, the high and the lows?

JA RULE: I love them, I love them to death. You’re always gonna have your die hard fans, those fans that appreciate what you do as an artist and as a person so they get to know you and that’s why they’re die hard fans. I feel like Big said it best, ‘to know me is to love me’, if everyone of those people that bought my albums could be around me for a day, they would never ever turn their backs on me because I’m a good person. I’m not the kind of person you have to prove yourself before I extend my hand, I’m open to people and I’m good to them until they do me wrong.

MIO: The Mirror has some amazing material on it. Does it upset you to see such a great album go to waste?

JA RULE: It didn’t go to waste, I didn’t get to sell it and make any profit from it, but people got to hear it and enjoy it. There’s no way of me tracking it to see if it got out to the masses because I gave it away, I hope it did. It’s a really good album and I worked hard on it, the feedback I’ve got from people has been phenomenal. It’s never a waste, remember I used to do this beating on tables and freestyling in high school, so to put out a disc with around 20 songs on it is really not that big of a deal.

MIO: Do you have a favourite song from The Mirror?

JA RULE: I like the title track, I like The Mirror (Love is Pain) because it says a lot. Father Forgive Me, like I said I always try to do something out of the box and that was definitely something different for me.

MIO: There was a lyric in Free where you mentioned ‘stopping the growth’, given the metaphor of the record is about your relationship with hip hop, did you feel you were preventing the genre from progressing?

JA RULE: I was kind of holding on to hip hop because it had been my bitch for a good period of time. Everything I did was kind of blowing up to a level where it was transcending hip hop, I don’t like to say it because I’m not that kind of artist. I’m not one of those artists that like to say ‘yeah I got this many number one records’ I don’t care about that ****, I just like making the music and letting it be what it is. Sometimes I think if I was one of those artists that spoke up more about my accomplishments people would notice more, but since we are talking about that record and what it meant to me, I felt like I was the artist that really broke radio at Def Jam. Before that artists weren’t really getting like 6-8 thousand spins on the radio, at least not hip hop artists, it just wasn’t like that. Everybody was trying to figure out how the **** is he doing this. Gotti was saying he doesn’t have any magic trick for Ja Rule, he was doing the same thing for me that he did for Jay and X, it’s just my **** was tracking better and getting the spins. So what I meant by that lyric was sometimes you have to let hip hop be in the hands of others, to let it become something bigger. If Run DMC held the title forever, it may not have got to Tupac, so if Ja Rule holds the title forever, it never gets to T.I. or Kanye, you understand? With each artist that handles the rock, hip hop grows and I had my hand in making it grow as far as setting radio standards and my melodic style which is kind of a staple now, what artists do as far as putting an album out now and having ‘that record’. I’ve been around a lot of producers and they say ‘you need that Ja Rule record’ and what they mean by that is that melodic, radio friendly record that can be embraced by all. I’m not ashamed of that at all, I’m very proud. So when people try to clown me for singing or whatever, I’m very proud of making that melodic **** mine. Niggas can’t ever take it away from me so anybody that ever tries to do it or embrace that style, they are always gonna look and say that’s Ja Rule.

MIO: That was the first record we heard from The Mirror and is still very much a fan favourite. What was the original plan for Free, was it meant to be pushed as the first single?

JA RULE: I wanted it to be an impact record, but I think people just didn’t get it at the time, they didn’t understand it. The flow is real different on the record, it was very Bone Thugs inspired, I wanted it to be like that I did that on purpose. I just think people weren’t expecting that from me, but music lives forever and as time moves on, even though it’s not a top 10 record it will still be a fan favourite. People will have records in their Ja Rule archive that will be their records, fan favourites like ‘Never Again’ and ‘6 Feet Underground’. Records that I never put out as singles but people love. Even records that I put out that may not have been as popular to the public, they forget what time and span those records came out, like ‘oh **** that was the time when we were supposed to be hatin’ him!’ They’re just singing along and I’m in the crowd thinking y'all don’t even realise that this was a record put out in this time, y'all think it was a record you fell in love with in another time frame. No, this was a record you loved whilst you were closet hating on Ja Rule. I say this all the time, leaders love Ja Rule. Real leaders, like people who are going to change the world love Ja Rule. If you a follower it's easy to follow 50 and be like 'yeah **** that nigga, everybody's hating on him so I'm going to hate to him'. It was hard for a nigga to stand up and be like 'I ****s with Ja Rule' when ten others are saying 'nah nah we ****in with 50 right now'. So if you’re that one nigga standing up that's saying 'I like Rule's music y'all nigga's is clowns'…these are the strong minds. These are the minds that are going to change a generation because these are the mind's that are not scared, these are the ones that take chances, take risks, these are the ones that are going to succeed. Lyor(Cohen) said something real important to me, back when I was with Def Jam we used to have a lot of talks. He said, 'sometimes you’ve got to be willing to loose it all.....to win big' and I didn't understand it at the time, but I understood it as my career went on with certain deals and **** that I had to do. It may have been a big deal that I was doing and I may have had to let 'em know I will turn this deal down if it's not the one I want, knowing that I really wanted that deal. But if I don't stand my ground they’re going to take advantage of me, so I'll have to do it even if it means loosing this mother****er, even if it's a deal breaker. That's how you get to that next level, because every time I did that I won big....I ended up realising that I was worth more then I realised, that my actions and my words and my body of work actually meant more then I realised and sometimes you got to be willing to test that.

MIO: Like around the time of Rule 3:36 when you and Gotti brought Rule 3:36 to Lyor and co and they said 'we don't like it'....

JA RULE: Right, sometimes you got to be willing to risk it all and that was a risk for us because that was a situation that they really didn't want to put a lot of money behind the project because they didn't believe in it, but I'm like ‘yo we just did 1.5 million, at least give us a mother****ing chance to win or give us a good first look!’ So we got our first good look and the record did really well and we did what we did, **** blasted off but there was always that feeling in the middle like......’I told you so’ and on their end like ‘we were wrong’ and that caused friction through the rest of the projects. Even though we did well there was friction because we didn't want them involved with what we were doing, because if they didn't believe in our vision then they didn't need to be apart of it. We had to get in our stance and we won big. When you take that stance it can go either way, we won big but at the same time when people started taking shots you had those poeple that was in the background like ‘now go ahead and do this one on your own.....’

MIO: Speaking of which your in an interesting position of going from being at the top of the world to scrapping the bottom of the barrel...

JA RULE: Not bottom of the barrel baby, I'm still the Rule let’s not get it ****ed up, I still hold the prestige in this mother****er I just haven't been out in awhile (laughs).

MIO: Let's try that again you went from being at the top of the world to people turning their backs on you and now your working your way back up again, is their anything you would of changed along the way?

JA RULE: I wouldn't of changed nothing because that's life, that's how life moves sometimes your here sometimes your there. You look at a guy like Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player to ever live, he wins three championships life is ****ing grand everything is great he's on top of the world what happens? His father get's killed on the side of the road by two ****ing teenage kids, are you ****ing serious? You understand what I'm saying, tragedy strikes and puts real nigga's through real tests. Mike broke for a minute, he couldn't play ball for a while he had to fall back and say ‘you know what I can't do this my mind is not focussed properly, I been struck with a blow that I just can't understand why and how this came to me at this time.’ It's not something that could ever be planned and it's not something that's fair, so he takes his break and realises ‘I'm still the greatest so I'm going to come back and win three more championships.’ See that seperates the real from the fake and what I've been through is a small obstacle, small thing like the 50 cent beef are you series? Do you really think that the world is going to hate me forever because I had beef with this clown ass nigga are you ****ing series? I think not, it's not even a realistic thought. When I think about that and think that I'm an artist thats talented, that can record and not only record but can write, I'm a writer I can write through these problems, I can write about these problems and can talk about it in songs like 'Wake Me' or 'Drown', I can talk about these things and make people feel me from my perspective. R. Kelly said to me one day ‘You see what Witney's going through her problems and ****, I'm going through mine, you going through yours, the difference between what we do and what Witney does is we can write through our problems.’ She has to have somebody write for her so they may not necessarily be feeling her pain or her problems, so she can't properly express to her fans how she really feels. But for me and him thats a totally different thing, I can sit down right now and write a whole ****ing song about what happened in the last five years and explain it in detail if I choose to. And thats the difference between writers and non writers, its the emotion you may sing with the emotion, but I have the pen to put down the emotion and that's important too.

MIO: In the Last Temptation era you really had the rock star image at that time, the chain with the guitar piece it was really out there in the public eye. If you had never made ‘Blood in my Eye’ where do you think your career would of gone muscially? Would you of gone into rock ?

JA RULE: I would of probably done a rock album, but who knows? Who knows what I would have done? Only I know what I was planning to do and what I wanted to do, but it's just one of those things like I said, I think God puts people through certain tests in life and it's usually people who think outside the box, because we think so differently that it has to be a shadow of doubt sometimes in the way we think. If I told you right now that I'm going to be the biggest artist in music, in entertainment, in the next five years you probably be like this nigga is crazy, but if I'd of told you that ten years ago before I did it you'd probaly say this nigga is crazy. So this is how I think and how I see things, I visualise things differently and I know that you live life in spurts and periods, that was just my first chapter of life what I went through. Right now this is my second chapter, what I'm about to go through, what I'm about to embark in.

The idea's and the things that I want to do that I want to make happen, that I have the vision to make happen are more outside the box. I want ideas that people may not see right now but thats fine because I see them and I foresee them happening. So as I make them happen, it's only going to make me look like the artist that I know that I am that people who may not understand all the time, may not see all the time, they only see Ja Rule the artist that makes records or whatever, they don't get to see the guy behind the music that makes the records. They only get to see the finished product, they don't get to visualise how I come up with concepts, how I put it together, how I think of different things, how I write for other artists, they don't get to see a lot of that ****, and for me thats cool because I know what I'm capable of doing and I know what the future hold's for me. I know right now what Im going to be doing in the next six to eight months, but I'm not telling everybody because I want it to be my thing and I want to come out with it, I don't want to just talk about it and we can do interviews and we can talk about projects that I'm working on, but certain things that I know that are about to happen, I don't want to put them out there until they happen. I have a very very bright future in the next few years, so it's going to be fun and I got to say 'he who laughs last, laughs the loudest and the hardest' so I'm going to have some fun with it.

MIO: Recently on MIO people would of noticed a trend where you'd start something like Rule York TV or the Cold War Mixtape series which never came out, 187fm etc. It's almost like they feel you've got too many ideas and you start something then keep moving onto the next thing, nothing ever gets finished or it never gets the full attention it should of received. What do you say to that ?

JA RULE: That's the artist in me, I have a lot of ideas and I flow with al ot of ****. Sometimes things get bored to me fast, that's why I have to learn to not talk about everything before I actually do it because I have so many ideas and I'll spew them sometimes and then I'll get bored with it and be like I don't want to do that anymore I'm doing this. Most artists move like that, most artists are real in and out, like I said we get bored with stuff quick because we’re thinking at a fast pace. The difference is they don't spew their ideas until they actually have them done but that is to my fault, I spew ideas, then I get bored with them and throw them out the window.

MIO: The fan's were getting a bit frustrated...

JA RULE: That I understand, I had to grow into that because I'm not use to it...now I am. When you’re not used to having fans, people that love you, you talk about things amongst your piers and friends, ideas and passions that you may have. When you do that with reporters or people that are printing it becomes damn near reality. Even if its just something I'm talking about doing, like what I said to you guys the other day, I would like to do a record with X (DMX) and I'm thinking about reaching out to him at the Vh1's. That's just an idea, that's just something I thought of, but for you guys it was already stamped in like he's doing a record with X!!! (laughs) So I’ve got to watch what I'm saying.

MIO: Do you want to explain to the fans the concept of the VVV 2010 album ?

JA RULE: It's a three disc set, there's a ‘He came’ disc, ‘He saw’ disc and a ‘He conquered’ disc. The ‘He came’ disc will be really hardcore early Ja Rule Venni Vetti Vicci first album, the 'He saw' disc will be more what I grew into as the years flew by, the style I created, my melodic flows, my duet's that type ****, and then 'He conquered' is going to be my blend of new ****, new style, new flow, brand new out of the box crazy **** yall might not understand it or you might. You know I want to make different records, for that album you may hear me doing a lot of different **** that's way out there, that's crazy but it will be hot. That's all I can promise, hot music. It may be different, you may not understand it but trust me in some region in somewhere in the world they going to be partying to it and having a good time. But people have to understand that about me, I'm a worldly artist now, I travel the world I’ve been all over the place. I've experienced different cultures and music and learned to enjoy their music too and see the enjoyment they get out of it is what really impresses me.

When I used to go overseas all the time I used to try figure out if they really knew what the **** I was saying, they don't even speak my language but they know the words and they’re rocking to my music. That used to always bug me out, I didn't understand it. As I started to really love music and study music you learn how music is the universal language. It's one of the first forms of communication and when you realise that you realise that you can hear music that you may not understand, but you can feel it. It's the only form of art that you cant touch, it touches you. For me that's something special to be able to have that talent, the talent that you can’t touch, the art that you can’t touch but it touches you. To me thats different because any other art in any other type you can physically touch it and breath it and its yours, you cant do that with music but it touches your soul and that's the beauty of music.

MIO: Talk to us a bit about Mpire Records and what the future holds for that.

JA RULE: MPIRE! I'm very happy, I'm making eight dollars a record, I'm happy with my situation. I own all my masters, all my publishing, I own everything.

MIO: Can you tell us what the future holds for Mpire and what we can expect from the label ?

JA RULE: Mpire is not just a rap label you can expect all types of act's on it, RnB, pop, rock, alternative acts whatever, I'm not limiting myself to anything. I like all genres of music, I can write in all genres of music so I'm curious to see how I fare in putting out all types of music.

MIO: Right now you are officially signed to Mpire Records.

JA RULE: I play for the team I own (laughs).

MIO: So right now you are off Murder Inc. Records ?

JA RULE: Yeah…

MIO: Contractually....

JA RULE: I was never on Murder Inc. can I just explain that, I was never a Murder Inc. artist. Me and Gotti had a deal with each other, with the company Top Dawg. So we had a deal with that and Top Dawg had a deal with Def Jam and then he got his imprint Murder Inc. and he gave me a piece. My deal was with Def Jam it was always through Def Jam. I was just the face of Murder Inc. but my actual contract was not with them. I always wanted to sign with Gotti so when we did this next deal with Universal I signed with Murder Inc. so we were all one now, but then the situation just didn't work out.

MIO: Your relationship with Gotti hasn't changed ?

JA RULE: Nah Gotti is my brother, I love Gotti, we tighter than anything. We speak all the time, we’re with each other all the time. It's just people like to start rumours and **** but thats my brother, we good.

MIO: So he's doing his own thing with Murder Inc. and your doing your thing with Mpire ?

JA RULE: You know he's supportive of my Mpire.

MIO: Will he have a role in Mpire?

JA RULE: I'm the boss I'm taking the forefront, but Gotti's always with me just know that. We’re always together just know that.

MIO: Harry-O is heavily involved in Mpire also...

JA RULE: H-O you know he has a good business mind. Right now we’re in the entry stages of a company, I got him doing a big job, he's helping out doing a lot of stuff. He's a smart dude and I can see him owning his own company one day.

MIO: The first release from Mpire will be VVV 2010 or?

JA RULE: 2010 !

MIO: And who do you think will be next up after you?

JA RULE: I'll let the public decide, I think we will do a compilation album and then I'll let the public decide who they feel the most and we'll move from there.

MIO: It's leaning towards Harry-O at the moment from a fans perspective.

JA RULE: He's put in the most work but you never know, like I said I got a rock group.

MIO: Tell us a bit about them.

JA RULE: I don't want to talk about them right now. I got to keep it focused. Everybody's got to have to have their time and their shot and right now we working on Harry-O, Merc and Life. I’ve got a female rapper too, she's hot.

MIO: Is she based in New York, LA or where ?

JA RULE: She’s based everywhere New York, LA, Detroit she’s all over the place.

MIO: As you sit here going through the playlist in front of you, out of all the new tracks, what are the records that you’re really excited about?

JA RULE: I'm still working, I like certain records and I think the public will like certain records and relate to certain records. 'Drown', 'LOL'…when you hear 'Wake Me' it’s like I've just been woken, I'm still alive and who ever thought I was sleeping, dead or whatever I'm ****ing alive and I got some **** for your ass. There's a lot of records on the album that I feel the public are going to feel, but really I feel I haven't made my best work for 2010 yet. I'm just warming up, once I start getting these beats in its going to be crazy. It all starts with the music, the music creates the tone, it sets the vibe, its the backdrop for the paint. You got to have good music to paint a good picture.

MIO: When you say beats are you planning on keeping it in house?

JA RULE: I got all different type of producers, this new dude just came in and he played me some **** and there were a couple of joints I liked.

MIO: Can we expect a big name producer a Just Blaze or a Timbaland name for 2010 ?

JA RULE: Yeah you can expect some of those big names, for 2010 I want to pull out all the stops. I'll definitely do some tracks with some of the heavy's but I got to let the other guys get their shine too. If they come with the right **** and I put the right **** on it then they'll get their shine. That's the **** when you play the name game, allot of times I say to dude's get beats from whoever and don't tell me who they’re from just play me them, that way I'm not biased to anybody or any beat. Like ‘oh those are the ones such and such made, let me hear that’ and I’m listening to them differently, I’m trying to make them hot like ‘oooh you hear the kick on that!?’ Nah, it’s the same kick on the other ****, I don’t like to get into that headspace. If I feel a vibe from a track then that's the one I'm going to get.

MIO: Finally thanks for your time and to finish up what's your message to the fans ?

JA RULE: We coming man, I understand how your frustrated with me at times but yo give me a break I'm only human, Im a man just like everybody else, I have my faults, make mistakes, I trip, I stumble, I fall just like everybody else. With each day I'm trying to get better. If I had anything to say to the people I would tell them just that, live your life just the same way, with each day you get better, we’re all a work in progr

[JumpinJack AJ]

I thought most of his stuff was weak. I'll give him a listen when he comes back out. Out of all the trax he's ever done, I could probably fit all of the ones I like on an 80 minute CD. And of that last 10 years, I think he was only major for about 4 of them...ha ha. I liked "Always On Time" when it was new. I liked him on that Dru Hill remix. I thought "Holla Holla" was okay when it first came out. That song he did with Case was probably my favorite song by him.

I think a big step he needs to take is not sing every again. He needs to stop trying to be harder than he is and he also needs to stop trying to be like 2Pac.

[Guest lambertj3]

ja rule is okay

[VIsqo]

He gave away his last cd over the internet.. It was ok in my opinnion, yall should check it out

[Turntable]

Yeah it was decent, some of the songs are gonna be on the "new" album probably. He will make a video for Father Forgive, which is according to Jay-Z one of the best song he ever heard. I think its aight.

@ AJ: I did not mean he was on top the last 10 years. I ment, if people are gonna talk about Hip Hop/Rap from 2000 till 2010 one day, they will have to mention Ja Rule, just like they will have to mention Nelly, 50, Eminem, Kanye, Jigga and more (not because they all great, but because they more or less reigned, made a mark or stood out). Know what I mean?

Edited November 4, 2009 by Turntable

[VIsqo]

Murder INC was everything on the radio for 2 years straight.. From Ja to Ashanti, they conquered part of this decade...

[bigted]

The way I see it, rappers like Ja Rule and Nelly ain't the greatest rappers ever but you gotta admit that they've made a mark in the game and put out better music than a lot of today's radio rappers, btw nice read there, I'll definately give "The Mirror" a listen

Edited November 5, 2009 by bigted

[JumpinJack AJ]

I'm pretty much in the same boat as Ted. Ja-Rule, Nelly, alot of rappers of their time where pretty phoney or common to me tho' they each have a couple songs I like on the commercial front for what it was worth. I will never give them true props for their music overall but when you compare it to the current stuff, they are definitely better...haha.

[Turntable]

I'm pretty much in the same boat as Ted. Ja-Rule, Nelly, alot of rappers of their time where pretty phoney or common to me tho' they each have a couple songs I like on the commercial front for what it was worth. I will never give them true props for their music overall but when you compare it to the current stuff, they are definitely better...haha.

isnt it crazy how people talk about someone like that every few years. Maybe in 5 years you will say "At least Lil Wayne had some melody in it, but Rappingthugcausi'mtheishman is just wack" :pound:

Edited November 5, 2009 by Turntable

[VIsqo]

lol

[Turntable]

@ Visqo: The Mirror is the one that he leaked and that he then gave out for free. It wont be released anymore. His next album will ne Venni Vetti Vecci 2001, it will be a 3 disc album.

[VIsqo]

Wow, a 3 disk album? thats what I call some risky business.. lol

[JumpinJack AJ]

I agree. I admire him going for it like that. But at the same time, where he career is right now, is it necessary. And on top of that, how many Hip-Hop double albums were dope all the way thru'? Not many of them. Ignoring the big names that have done it, when it came to quality music, even some of the biggest names have dropped double albums and they were riddled with filler tracks.

[Turntable]

It has a concept behind it, so it might work:

"It's a three disc set, there's a ‘He came’ disc, ‘He saw’ disc and a ‘He conquered’ disc. The ‘He came’ disc will be really hardcore early Ja Rule Venni Vetti Vicci first album, the 'He saw' disc will be more what I grew into as the years flew by, the style I created, my melodic flows, my duet's that type ****, and then 'He conquered' is going to be my blend of new ****, new style, new flow, brand new out of the box crazy **** yall might not understand it or you might. You know I want to make different records, for that album you may hear me doing a lot of different **** that's way out there, that's crazy but it will be hot. That's all I can promise, hot music. It may be different, you may not understand it but trust me in some region in somewhere in the world they going to be partying to it and having a good time. "

[bigted]

I found this interview that he did for Allhiphop.com back a few months ago:

Ja Rule: The Man In The Mirror

July 31, 2009

By Ismael AbduSalaam

Ja Rule is excited. For the past several years, the Inc lead artist has taken a back seat after dominating the early 2000s with a string of chart-topping hits. Now, Rule finds himself on the verge of releasing an official comeback LP this November. But first, he has a special treat for fans in The Mirror, the original studio album that has been leaked in various incarnations since 2007. Ja Rule is ready for a comeback, but are the fans ready for him?

AllHipHop.com: Congratulations on finally getting The Mirror completed, I know you’ve been working on it for a minute.

Ja Rule: Nah, The Mirror’s been done. We just had some issues with it, some leak issues. I ain’t that nigga to hit my fans with some s**t they heard. Even if two fans heard it, I’m not putting it out there for the public. So I went in and made a whole new album. The new album is crazy, but a lot of people didn’t hear Mirror. I’ve been getting hit on Twitter, Myspace, and Facebook with people asking about The Mirror. So I realized there are a lot of people who didn’t hear the s**t. So today they’ll get a taste of it.

AllHipHop.com: So you’re the one leaking it?

Ja Rule: Actually that’s not true. The album was leaked already. I don’t know how it got leaked. People could get it and hear it online. That f**ked up my whole project. But I just want people to hear the album who didn’t.

AllHipHop.com: This is your first album in about 5 years. With the title, it alludes to facing the truth about yourself once you look in the mirror. What are the big truths you learned about yourself as Ja Rule the artist and man during this past half-decade?

Ja Rule: It’s hard for the public to distinguish the truth. They get a persona that you portray or they see on screen, but that may not necessarily be the person that you are. Or they may only know you from the singles you drop and do videos for. A lot of fans don’t get to soak up the whole album. With The Mirror, I just wanted people to get an inside look to what it is like to be me and go through what an artist goes through period.

AllHipHop.com: Not to make you feel old, but we’re right at the 10 year anniversary of Venni Vetti Vecci. Even amongst your biggest critics, that’s the album that many concede was executed well. For the fans who love that album, can they expect tracks like “Story To Tell” and “It’s Murda,” or will they get more “Mesmerize” and the other radio songs that took you to stardom?

Ja Rule: The Mirror is really a compilation of complex and different records. They’re not all the same. I got records like “Father Forgive Me” on the album, and “Sing a Prayer For Me.” These records are completely different. I wanted people to feel those sides of me because I’m an artist that likes to grow with each project.

That’s something that people don’t understand about artists. If you go to your job everyday and get bored at it sometimes, it’s the same thing with us, [especially] if you go in the studio and doing the same type of music year after year. You get bored and want to try something new and expand your horizons. When you hear “Father Forgive Me,” that’s me broadening my horizons and moving to something different.

AllHipHop.com: Let’s go back to 2007 when you were first wrapping up this project. Were you getting a lot of resistance from Universal, since they were expecting those platinum hits, and you were now seeking to experiment? Was it a struggle getting them to see your vision?

Ja Rule: It wasn’t really a fight. The situation just didn’t work, it wasn’t a marriage. Sometimes it’s like that. When you see a project do 5 or 10 million that was a project that had good chemistry all around it. Not just through the making of it, but after recording to the marketing and promoting of it. Those are special because everybody is in tune and wants the same thing. It wasn’t like that with The Mirror.

I was new over there at Motown. They never got no money with me in the past. I was a Def Jam artist. There was poor communication on both ends.

AllHipHop.com: We’re ending the first decade of the 2000s, and pretty much the R&B/Hip-Hop collaborations that people were slamming you for are making a resurgence like they normally do every few years. When you look at today’s scene, do you feel it validates you now that people are running or trying to run with the formula you perfected?

Ja Rule: I said it in one of rhymes on Message to Mankind, “I gave birth to a style that’s way too common now/Niggas cocktailed my ****/Got it all watered down.” [laughs] That’s how I feel about it. Like autotune. That was T-Pain’s sound. And now everybody uses it, and Jay puts out “Death of Autotune.” Now, T-Pain might have a hard time coming back with his own sound, because so many people saturated and made it not the s**t. I like autotune and think its some fly s**t. Roger Troutman was the first and T-Pain made it his own thing.

With me, I didn’t create melodic tunes. There were people doing melodic tunes before me, but I made it my s**t. And that’s the difference. When I want to kick it up a notch and do something y’all can’t do, I do this. We can all go in the booth and spit and go hard at each other. We used to do that all day. Me and X used to go to different spots and battle rhyme. DMX was a battle rhymer back in the day. And with Cash Money Click we would go to video shoots and battle rappers, that’s what it was. It’s nothing for an artist to go in the booth and spit it. I can do that and rock with anybody.

But that melodic s**t? I did it in a way that no one else could do or even wanted to try. For me that was my special **** that separated me from other artists.

AllHipHop.com: I’m sure you used your time away to enjoy your family, and also grow as a human being. So looking at Hip-Hop, do you feel it’s grown with you, or has regressed from where you left it?

Ja Rule: Hip-Hop changes every few years. I remember a time when dancing was the s**t in Hip-Hop when I was younger: from the cabbage patch, the wop, pee wee herman, the Biz Mark, we had a gang of songs and dance records! And it was cool for us to do that. Now I’m 33, and you sound about in my age bracket and that era, and you know Hip-Hop has always been a youthful thing. [The dances] are for the kids to enjoy and have fun.

But Hip-Hop is such a big business now, and we grew up with the music. So now you have fans of all ages. That’s why artists like myself, Jay, and Kanye can come up and still sell records because it grows. I listen to Hip-Hop and I’m 33. My kids listen to it. They’re going to grow up and I’m going to get older still listening to Hip-Hop. Then their kids will come up listening to it. So Hip-hop will keep getting bigger as long as we keep putting out good music.

AllHipHop.com: Looking at R.U.L.E. that contained one of the last high-profile NY collaborations to go national in “New York.” Where do see NY Hip-Hop now in terms of quality?

Ja Rule: [Pauses] Y’know, I don’t like to categorize it like that. I feel we’re all Hip-Hop. It’s not music, it’s a state of mind and way of living. It’s the clothes, attitude, walk, and everything that we do. We are different from society, and I don’t want to generalize from region to region. We all made Hip-Hop, and grew up loving it. It’s not like any other form of music. Other genres don’t categorize their s**t by region to region, it’s all one thing. I feel we should really stop the divide and conquer s**t they try to throw at us. We’re all Hip-Hop.

AllHipHop.com: The “Uh-Oh” joint with Wayne was right as he started building the superstar momentum that has manifested today. Did you foresee him becoming as big as he is?

Ja Rule: Weezy was doing what he wanted to do. You have to do the music that you feel in your heart, because that’s what the people will feel. When it’s coming from there, the people respond. He really put in a lot of work on the underground circuit, mixtapes, and he pleased the people. He loved Hip-Hop. He didn’t do it for the money. For about two years straight he said “this is for the people and the fans.” And that’s why he received the love and the rewards. It was a f**king small flame that blew into a fire. He deserved it and worked hard for it.

AllHipHop.com: You have a new label imprint with Empire Records. Are you looking to create a distinct brand away from the Inc or just build onto that movement?

Ja Rule: We made history with Murder Inc. It’s incredible to look back at it. But Empire is my movement. [irv] Gotti is my brother who I love to death, and is supporting me. I guess if you merge the two you have the Inc Empire. [laughs] It is two separate things but still one thing.

AllHipHop.com: You did some venting about DMX and Ashanti on the track “Judas,” regarding some of the past issues you had with the moves they’ve made. Is all that done now, or are there any other past transgressions you needed to let out on The Mirror?

Ja Rule: Nah, I didn’t want anyone to look at The Mirror as a diss album. That was a song I felt I had to get off my chest. When I have thoughts I have to get them out my head through song. “Judas” was just a real record I felt I needed to make. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone’s feelings; I love everyone that was supposedly talked about on that record. I have no problems with anyone.

AllHipHop.com: I remember hearing you speak of the 2002-2003 period as a time when the public just threw you on the “hate train” for no reason. When you look back at that period, do you think there’s anything you could’ve done differently to stop it, or do you feel it was a just an inevitable freight train?

Ja Rule: The fans don’t get a chance to understand the ins and outs of how things work. I don’t think they’re privy to inside information on the underhanded s**t that goes on in this industry. They only get to see what is printed, and perception is reality. That situation and everything around that period in my career didn’t make sense. It didn’t add up. 2+2=8. [laughs] I look at it now and laugh. I’m happy I can because you have to make light of situations like that or you’ll drive yourself crazy. I know how we move and it’s just a funny situation, one of those things you deal with in life. God sends you a test, and you have to pull through and show you’re a strong dude. That takes a lot for a nigga to stand up and walk through fire when people are throwing stones.

AllHipHop.com: Best case scenario for The Mirror, do you want to recapture that superstar status you had before? After experiencing how quickly people can tear you down, is that a reality you still strive for? Or is having the love of your diehard fans enough?

Ja Rule: I have an uncanny love out there. There’s diehard Ja Rule fans out there, and those that really hate me. But when I look at the reasons people don’t like me, it never really resonates. They’re usually frivolous reasons, never about hating the music. I’m not concerned with that. I’m concerned with those who understand what goes on in the music business and what happened with all the s**t I’ve been through. People like comeback stories, to see someone be on top, fall, and come back to glory. That’s the American story. A lot of people are rooting for me to do that with my situation and my new label. I’m getting a lot of love and good feedback. I’ve been all over the world. I’ve been touring for about four years now overseas and it’s crazy. People want to see me win and I don’t want to let them down. I want to put out that music that people will enjoy.

The Mirror is a present for them to enjoy. They’ll get a chance to enjoy it in its entirety. And it’s free, you don’t have to pay s**t for it. I’ll have a mixtape soon and then my new album. I feel it is my time to hit off Hip-Hop.

On The Mirror I didn’t do too many guests. I have Weezy, Game, and a lot of new artists who did their thing. It’s just a great album. And I got production from my man Erick Sermon and Chink Santana.

AllHipHop.com: What’s the early word on that new album?

Ja Rule: New album coming real soon, looking to drop around October or November. I worked really hard for the fans. Look out for my new label Empire Records and all my new artists. I don’t have a title yet. I may do a little contest to get the fans to give some ideas. I’m tittering with it every day.

AllHipHop.com: I’m sure today the fans who haven’t heard The Mirror will be eager to give it a listen.

Ja Rule: Yeah man, but I’m not trying to get in any trouble with Universal [laughs]. The album was already leaked don’t sue me! It’s all love, and it’s getting real crazy. I got a lot of people backing me and it’s feeling good, my nigga.