By K.B. Tindal
Hip Hop Vibe Staff Writer
Earlier this afternoon, Hip Hop Vibe had the opportunity to talk to Charli Baltimore and the topic of Ja Rule came up. It turns out Ja Rule was also making his media rounds today for his first real sit-down since his prison release. A lot has gone on with Ja Rule and people still want to hear what he has to say.
Fortunately for Ja Rule’s fans, he is very open when he does his interviews. Today, he sat down with Complex and he spoke on his experiences in the rap game. From a 2013 perspective, he talked about his past issues with 50 Cent and Eminem and Ja Rule said they are two beefs that are over from his standpoint.
Ja Rule also spoke on his prison time and his other issues. While he was in prison, Ja Rule took advice from the executives who were arrested during the economic downturn. This prompted him to get his GED and pursue an education. Speaking on this and much more, he gave his take on life, as of 2013.
Read excerpts from Ja Rule’s Complex interview below:
What did you spend most of your time doing when you were on home confinement?
Just relaxing with the kids, family, that’s about it. And recording and stuff—I got a little studio in the house. And work out.We can tell.
[Laughs.] I didn’t do much. I couldn’t do much. I had to be back in by 5, 6 o’clock so wasn’t really much I could do, you know? I’d work out, go record, or just relax with the wife and kids and take it easy.How often did you get to see them when you were locked up?
Wifey came every week to see me. She brought the kids often. I seen them just about every week. I was upstate, near Utica, at Mid-State [Correctional Facility], for most of my time. I was there for about two years, and then when I got out of there the Feds took me and I was in Brooklyn [at Metropolitan Detention Center] for a little and they sent me all the way to [Federal Correctional Institute] Ray Brook, which was like an hour outside of Canada. I was far. They try to punish you as much as they can.What was your daily routine when you were behind bars?
It’s doing time, you know? There’s really not much to do in prison, but work out, read, watch TV. I had a job so I had to get up in the morning and do that. They had me working in the warden’s office, so I was doing little odd jobs, sweeping, mopping, watering plants, shit like that. [Laughs]It must been a trip for people in prison, like “This is Ja Rule!”
I got along with everybody. I knew quite a few guys that was up there, so it wasn’t a hard situation at all. Being away from your family, and your friends, and your kids, that’s the hardest part about being in prison. And the little things; a nice toothbrush, good toilet paper.The food wasn’t great. I wanted lasagna. I wanted [my wife] to make lasagna when I came home because I hadn’t had lasagna in so long. My wife brought me packages when I was in Midstate so I was able to have spaghetti and meatballs and stuff that we made. I ate the best you can for being in that situation.
When I came home I just wanted to have a little bit of lasagna. I wanted to get a good steak. And a cheeseburger. I think that was the first thing I ate when I got out. I went to TGIFridays, just stopped on the road and grabbed something real quick. Shit like that gets to you when you’re locked up, but it’s all doable. If you got to do it, you man up and do it.
How did your mindset evolve while you were behind bars?
When I went in I was a little bitter because I felt I was wrongfully imprisoned, you know? You dealing with a situation that’s a touchy situation in our country, in society: You dealing with firearms. We have the right to bear arms in this country. Don’t get me wrong: I had an illegal weapon, I take full responsibility for that, I did my time for that.But when I really rewind and look back on everything, it kind of hurts me because society wants to take artists and make an example out of them for others to look at and say, “Damn, they locked up Lil Wayne, they locked up Ja Rule, they locked up T.I., they locked up Plaxico Burress. We better not do what they did.’”
I think we would be a greater service to society if we were allowed to speak on our wrongs versus being away for two years. It wasn’t like I was on my way to knock over the 7-Eleven up the block, you know? If you think about it rationally and with common sense—he’s a hip-hop artist. It’s probably for my protection from other people who want to do harm, who want to try to rob celebrities or whatever the case may be.
And you did have some violent conflicts with other artists.
Yeah, but not even that. I’m not worried about anything like that because those are situations that are—I don’t want to say not real—but those are not the real issue in why we move the way we move. The real issue is the real goons that are out there who want to bring harm to you or your family. I feel as though there should be lighter sentences based upon that, knowing that I didn’t have intentions to do anything wrong with that weapon.That had me thinking a lot about the society we live in and how the pictures get painted when it comes to hip-hop artists. Then I look at a situation like what happened with Trayvon Martin and it really hurts my heart, because it’s like a message is being sent that if you carry a firearm and you’re young and you’re black and successful, we’ll put you in jail. But if you’re a young black man you can be murdered, and then the laws can work in this person’s favor.
Am I mad at people having firearms? Not really, because it is our right to bear arms. But am I mad at a law like Stand Your Ground? Yeah, I think that’s a little excessive. I just feel that as a society we really need to come together and figure out where to draw the line between these type of issues, what’s right and what’s wrong, and I think we’re sending the wrong message to our youth.
It’s scary, because it’s like, what do I tell my two sons? Their father gets locked up for a pistol that I didn’t brandish, I didn’t fire, and I did two years? And this man murders a young black man and is free. How do I explain why daddy went to jail and now this guy doesn’t get to go to jail?
There was other tragedies that happened while I was locked up: The shooting at the theater [in Aurora, Colorado], all the kids that got killed at that school [in Sandy Hook, Connecticut]. Those issues we need to look at as a society and maybe we should do deeper background checks on who gets to have firearms or how many rounds in assault rifles, and all these things that they sell that are very easy to obtain. The scales aren’t balanced.
You’ve been tweeting a lot about Trayvon. Is your music going to take a political, socially conscious turn?
Well, it’s funny because what we do is entertainment, but we’re not allowed to entertain. Because everything we say or do gets looked at literally. So if I scream, “It’s murda,” am I really saying I’m gonna murder somebody? I can use it metaphorically, say I want to murder the music scene, I want to murder the game, whatever.It gets taken so literally when we say it versus anybody else. I don’t think heavy metal artists or no other artists get looked upon the way hip-hop does. You got a society where kids are infatuated with video games that promote all kinds of violence. We’re looked upon as idols or whatever, and the kids look up to us, so at some point I do feel that we have a responsibility to be more conscious of what we say and what we do in our music.
One of the things that strikes me is a lot of artists spoke out about the whole Trayvon Martin thing. I like that, I appreciate that our people were able to march calmly and rally safely. But there’s young black men being murdered every day in our neighborhoods. You can’t just take one incident and decide to get behind that just because there’s heavy media behind it and it looks good on you as an artist. What about justice for all of our black youth that are getting killed everyday in the hood by other black men? I think that’s an issue we need to start marching for and rallying for as well.
We have a lot of issues outside of the prisons that we need to fix, but also inside the prison too. I would love to start a scholarship fund for prisoners. I’m hoping to get Michael Vick involved, and T.I. and Wayne, and guys who’ve been behind the wall. I would like us to start it. I haven’t reached out to them yet, but if any of them read this, this is an open invitation to get aboard with what I’m trying to do. Because when I was behind the wall, one thing I did see was a lot of guys that want to do something positive, want to do something better with they lives, but don’t have the means to do it.
You can go get your GED while you’re in prison, which I did, but then it takes money to take college courses and further your education. I seen a lot of guys that actually wanted to do it, they just didn’t have the money to do it. When they get out of prison they don’t have anything to go back to and they don’t have anything to look forward to try to come home and live a better life and be a productive member of society.
I think if we started a program like what I’m talking about that can help these guys get a better education, it can go a long way. Not for nothing, but in prison there’s a lot of alpha males, there’s a lot of guys with great leadership skills. They just chose to lead in the wrong field. [Laughs.]
Tell me about getting your GED. What motivated you to do that?
I wanted to get my GED for my kids’ sake I don’t ever want them to have [me] as an excuse to not strive for the best, to not be the best that they can be. I think that speaks volumes when I’m talking to my kids because they understand that it’s important to have a good education—not so much the diploma, but the education.You had an incredible run of hits, but it all ended pretty abruptly. How do you reflect back on your music career now?
I’m incredibly blessed, man. When I first started doing music I could’ve never imagined to have the success that I’ve had. I was from Hollis, Queens, man. I just wanted to make records that me and my homies was gonna think was dope. I would’ve never thought I’d be the artist I’ve become. I’m very appreciative of it all.That’s another thing prison will do to you: It’ll definitely humble you. I’m very blessed to have such a beautiful family, a great career, and to still be going. [It’s almost] 20 years that I’ve been in this business, and I’ve got a lot of things going on right now for my future that are beautiful. I’m very happy to still be in this business, still look young, still excited about getting into the studio and making records, excited about being on the movie set, excited about doing interviews.
A lot of artists grew up listening to Ja Rule too. Don’t get it f****d up that they didn’t want to have No. 1 records like I did or sell all the records that I was selling or be doing all these songs with all these hot chicks in the business. Don’t think that guys wasn’t watching.Of course, a lot of people will always associate you with your beefs: 50 Cent, Eminem. How do you look at those conflicts now?Man, that just goes back to me being young, full of energy, and not giving a fuck about nothing. That fuck-the-world attitude. I’m just happy that I’ve grown past that. Those things are not even a thought to me anymore. It was so long ago, almost 10 years ago. I hope young artists look at those things [like] it’s part of hip-hop history. Enjoy, man. Enjoy what hip-hop is about: It’s always been about the battles, the beefs, artists going back and forth.
For me, it’s not a thing where you take sides. I had a lot of guys in jail come up to me and they’d be like “Yo, Rule I fucks with you, man. Fuck homeboy, I ain’t never like him anyway.” I’d look at him like, “It don’t got to be that. You can like him and like me too, it’s fine.” It’s not a “I’m on this side or I’m on that side” thing. If you like his music too that’s fine. I even dance to some of his records when they come on in the club.
I don’t have no malice towards anybody. I really don’t care anymore. I’m more about family and my kids and things that really matter in life. So I don’t even talk about those issues in interviews anymore. It was a period in time and we move on.
So is everything squashed between you, 50 and Em?
For me it is. I know for those guys, it is too in some ways. I don’t think any of us really think about it anymore. We have a bigger responsibility to the kids that are coming up behind us to be role models for them, and I think that’s more where everybody is now. I think we’re all adults and we’re grown.People often say 50 killed your career—that’s the popular narrative. Do you think that’s true? Is that what happened to your music career?
Of course not. It’s so many things that went into that that people don’t understand. I’m writing a book, so I guess you can go get my book and get the full story of how things unfolded. The hip-hop fans are not privy to a lot of backdoor conversations.There’s three sides to every story: There’s my side, his side, and the truth. I know in my heart, I’ve always been a real dude. Throughout my career I’ve done a great job of being me. As much as people want to say, “When he came out he sounded like Pac,” I laugh at that because of course I love Pac; everybody loves Pac. I may have took a page out of Pac’s book as far as being passionate about what I do and being a hard worker in my music, but a lot of artists do that.
But on the flipside people say a lot of artists are like Ja Rule, so which is it? Am I an imitation or was I original in what I did? I think as artists we all borrow, we all take pages out of each other’s books and make it our own. Throughout my whole career I was very happy people would even look at me and put my name in the same breath as Tupac. That alone let me know that I’m in good company. I got the plaques and record sales to put behind it and say, “I definitely put in my own work.”
Follow K.B. Tindal on Twitter @KBTindal.
