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.

This interview was not produced by MTV News. While we do not normally present interviews or news reports that we did not create, we felt that this conversation was important for our audience to be able to read and consider for itself.

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: I heard someone robbed you of some of your jewelry at some point.

Ja Rule: That's a false story. That's a story he made up. If someone does some harm to you, don't get mad at the person that's with them, he has nothing to do with it. He's just an innocent bystander. It's him I have the problem with. So I never got that story, but people ate it up, and the media eats that up. I never really got that story. Why would I be mad at you if your man got it? I would get your man; I would be hollering to your man. There really was no beef with me to him. It was always with him to me, you understand. So when I come back now and say I don't like him for this, this and this reason, everyone goes, "Well now, it's getting out of hand." But he already said his piece. He already came out and spoke about how he feels about Murder Inc. I was kind of upset about the fact that the people were kind of receptive to these things he was saying. I really didn't see it was gonna be well-received until it started to get this way. I told myself I needed to start making some records. Because I see there's a lot of ignorance. The people aren't getting that these two men have a real problem, and it's not about records. And since he made it about the records, that's all the people see, the music.





Ja rule did diss 50 Cent all throught the album. Pesronally i dont care because i dont like 50 Cent and he's a fake rapper anyway, nor do i care that much for ja Rule cuz he mainly talks alot about nuthin, but interesting interview.

You know,Ja Rule and 50 Cent really need to stop acting like children! They need to stop this crazy "war".I mean,look what happened to Tupac and Biggie...is that the road they wanna go down too??

Wake up,idiots!!

i don't care what happens between those guys. Dumb music, dumb persons, dumb situation.

lord...


i guess Farrakan hasn't had much to do with his time since all of his medical problems of the last few years.


i find the guy irritating as hell, but surely he's got better things to waste his energy on.

AaronUniversal said:

Farrakan has already done more than probably anyone else on this site will do in a fucking lifetime. Its not unusual for people like Minister Farrakhan and Jesse Jackson to take time to attempt to intervene is potential media disasters of our people. While I don't agree with him on some of issues, I respect his intelligence and his genuine concern. After the Biggie/2Pac mess, I'm sure every black leader/minister/reverend in the country sees how quickly what would seem to be a harmless dispute can turn into a the whole East vs. West thing again, dividing our culture...again. People act differently when cameras are on them. Its a good thing for someone to try to prevent something that seems trivial now from becoming something with disasterous results. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. He's concerned about black folks getting bad press and being stereotyped YET AGAIN by a media that is perpetuating another feud. I wouldn't call that a waste of energy.

BlaqueKnight said:

Do you really believe that Farrakhan is genuinely concerned about this, BlaqueKnight? If two dumb motherfuckers want to blast each other off the face of the planet, good fucking riddance. I see this as a publicity stunt for Farrakhan and I also believe his energy can be spent on better causes. Plus, I don't believe any of that so called beef is real.

stymie said:

i tend to agree. Farrakan seems to be heading the way of Jackson and Sharpton, which is very sad. they only act when there are TV cameras involved.

AaronUniversal said:

The three of them have no crediblity with myself or anyone close to me.

BlaqueKnight said:

Very well put. Someone posted this in the P&R section and I pretty much said the same thing, just not so eloquently. This thing can get so much bigger than Rule and 50. I don't like either one of em. Hell, I would go so far as to say that I CANT STAND 50 cent. But I don't want to see 2 young brothers getting caught up and dying over nonsense. It happens too often every day. I am suprised at the dislike expressed for Farakhan. Out of Farakhan, Sharpton and Jackson, he is the only one that I still respect. I don't think that the minister did this for publicity. He can just say a few choice words if he just wanted to get on TV. I think that he generally cares aobut the young brothers and doesn't want to see them get exploited.

illimack said:

Thank you. Only unaccomplished people need 50 vs. Ja for media attention. All Farrakhan has to do is speak on Bush and what he's doin' with $87 billion to get on t.v.! Some people don't have the gift of foresight to catch where this is all heading and moreso, the reprocussions that come with it. There is an overall "feel" that black folks have to deal with after seemingly insignificant social occurances happen. That itself can be discomforting. High profile cases cause stereotypical views to surface when peoples' attentions are focused on it. The Minister knows what he's doing. I see it. I hope it works. I wouldn't miss either of those fools, but i don't feel like all that East vs. West social drama (again) that comes with it.
[This message was edited Tue Nov 11 12:25:56 PST 2003 by BlaqueKnight]

The beef is stupid. I don't want anyone to get killed for any reason.

The conflict should end by any means necessary.

Eraserhead said: