-- by Shaheem Reid

Ja Rule is hanging out at the Crack House — not the kind of place you'd expect to find a platinum-laced rapper.

It's not what you might think, though. This Crack House is in lower Manhattan, and it serves as the house studio for Murder Inc. Records, Ja Rule's label. It's called the Crack House because it's the place where they cook up addictive hits, and it looks nothing like its more nefarious narco-world namesake.

Ja Rule is sitting in the corner of a small room on a swivel chair, holding a fistful of $100 bills. As a few of his fellow Murderers busy themselves with a no-holds-barred basketball video game, Ja acts the part of the franchise player. He peels off a stack of bills as if they were George Washingtons, not Ben Franklins, and sends one of the studio's employees on a food and Cristal run.

Dressed in blue jeans, a white T-shirt, matching untied 'do rag and Nike headband, his neck weighed down by a gold chain and diamond-flooded Jesus piece, Ja is affirming that this is definitely his world. He's poring over the Broadcast Data Systems report, which tallies how many spins a record is getting at radio.

"See the stars next to my name? I'm doing quite well," he playfully boasts. Since March, his hit "Put It on Me" has broken the BDS record for spins of a rap record. His remix duet with Jennifer Lopez, "I'm Real," currently holds the R&B mainstream record.

Sitting below a mural that reads "The Most Dangerous Record Label, Murder Inc. Records" in bold red letters is Milwaukee Buck, the Crack House's main engineer. He's hearing an earful from Ja as he tries to punch up a track for the rapper to listen to.