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"We had a swell-up of hate" ...
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"I was having fun confronting the fans that had turned on me." ...
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"You had to be a leader to be on Ja Rule's side. The ones that stood up for me, holla back." ...
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"We're innocent, and our innocence will be proven." ...
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— by Shaheem Reid, with additional reporting by John Norris, Curtis Waller and Bridget Bland
Ja Rule's own 'hood is looking at him sideways.
"He wack."
"He's weak."
"He needs to retire."
"He sings too much."
"50 Cent is killing him right now."
You could hear these candid declarations echoed in Any 'Hood U.S.A., but unfortunately, on a sunny spring day in 2003, they were coming from the mouths of people who live just minutes away from where Ja Rule grew up. You could walk up and down Jamaica Avenue, the shopping epicenter of Queens, New York, and ask any of the youngsters — whose hungry ears devour hot hip-hop joints faster than Audrey II can eat a human being — about the once-celebrated flagship of the Inc. Records, and most would tell you, point-blank: They're not feeling him.
They ridiculed him on BET's "106 & Park" when the "Mesmerize" video debuted. When his image appeared on the big video screen during a set by his nemesis, 50 Cent, at the Super Bowl of urban music, Hot 97's Summer Jam X (which, coincidentally, was held just days after the Z100 concert, at the same venue), he was booed, then mocked by 50 Cent, then laughed at by the crowd. If you popped in any mixtape, you'd hear Rule practically being beheaded in verse by foes like Eminem, 50, Busta Rhymes and even his onetime close friend DMX.
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Ja Rule and Ashanti live at Z100's summer concert
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Even though he remained a darling to the mainstream — headlining a sold-out concert at Giants Stadium for New York's pop station Z100, and watching "Mesmerize" reach #2 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart while the video battled for the top spot on MTV's "TRL" — Ja's street credibility was shot.
"I don't think we ever stopped putting out good music, it's just that we had a swell-up of hate," Rule said recently, sitting in a back room at the Inc.'s Crack House recording studio in New York, as he reflected on his and the label's downward spiral. "I seen a lot of artists go through it. When you're crushing it, doing well, I can see people getting a little tired of Murder Inc. Then, with the extra addition of beefing and [50 Cent being] the hot new thing, it came down like snowball effect. A big snowball! It was like an avalanche. But I'm a fighter. I'm a strong dude. I ain't gonna let nothing keep me down or take my focus off the goals I set for myself. I knew that we was gonna come through. It was just a matter of when."
And as the summer of 2003 progressed and the dirt was being kicked on Ja's grave, the tide began to turn. Just a little over a month after the Summer Jam slaughter — which ended with Em, 50 and Busta performing their Ja Rule dis track, "Hail Mary" — Ja was back in New York to make a surprise appearance at an Ashanti concert.
Backstage, the rapper was a little anxious. He didn't know what the reaction would be when he stepped onstage. Would the fans remember that they used to turn up the radio when one of his records like "I'm Real" or "Between Me and You" came on? Or would they impolitely let him know that he needed to make his appearance as brief as possible and let the boo birds fly?
When Ja came out for "Always on Time," dude was greeted with cheers like 50 Cent never existed and it was 2001 all over again. Rule was able to leave the stage — his trademark wide grin intact — and hold his head high. But still, that show was just a few hundred people at a free concert. Heck, they might have just been happy that they didn't have to pay.
The real test would come late in August 2003, when, once again, he was jumping onstage as Ashanti's guest. This time, however, he was at the arena that every rapper or singer dreams of performing in — New York's Madison Square Garden — appearing in front of more than 18,000 people, who paid a fraction of a king's ransom to see headliner R. Kelly.
The heat was on. But sure enough, when Rule got on the mic, the house went crazy. If anybody was booing, you couldn't hear them over the screams of approval.
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Photo: The Inc.
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