Shawn Carter popularized the phrase “It was all good just a week ago”— in the case of Ja Rule, it was all good just 624 weeks ago (aka a dozen years).
It’s always fun to stroll down memory lane and recall a certain place in time; 2004 is certainty a place where Ja Rule would like to revisit. Hailing from Hollis, Queens, Ja snatched the proverbial attention of the rap landscape after emphatically delivering a memorable final verse on Jay Z’s super hit “Can I Get A…” in 1998 (Ja allegedly wrote the chorus as well). At the time, many rap fans saw his gravely Moe Sizlack-like voice and in-your-face demeanor and instantly categorized him as a DMX knockoff— and this the ’90s, you know, back when biting actually meant something.
Though it wasn’t long before Rule had carved out quite a niche as a Top 40 rapper making soft, yet popular rap duets with many a songstress, including labelmate Ashanti, Jennifer Lopez and Mary J. Blige (some were better than others). By 2004 Ja Rule, who turns 40 today (February 29), was five years into his mainstream career and had released five solo albums under Murder Inc./Def Jam, each of which debuted in the top six on the Billboard charts. Three of the five debuted in the top three, two reached number one, and one of them (2001’s Pain Is Love) would reach certified triple-platinum status— you know, back when going platinum actually meant something.
Sidebar: Ja Rule is about the only celebrity that I know of that was born on February 29. So this piece is in part a happy birthday shoutout to Ja, as this opportunity won’t present itself again until Kanye West is running for president.
After the highly publicized L 50 Cent dealt him in 2003, Ja Rule’s career was never quite the same. So what’s the significance of 2004’s “New York”? In addition to being one of the better NY anthem records of the 2000s, it represents the last hit of Ja Rule’s career. Soon after, Ja stepped away from music, the Feds ran up in Murder Inc., and Ja would eventually be locked up on tax evasion and weapons charges.
Following a two-year stint in the clink, Ja Rule inked a deal for a family-friendly reality show with MTV. His final album is supposedly in the works, to little fanfare.
Looking back, Ja Rule had a lot of hits, more than you probably remember. His run from ’99-’04 rivals that of any artist in rap, other than the megastars from that era (Nelly, Eminem, the aforementioned Jay Z etc.). Men everywhere should thank him for putting Christina Milian on the map, and he should be ecstatic that Meek Mill has supplanted him as the most notable loser of a rap beef in history. But if nothing else, the story of Ja and Murder Inc. is a cautionary tale for those who assume success can’t flip on you very quickly.
The man who deserves real praise in all this is Jadakiss, who was making “real songs with Big, no made up shits” in the ’90s, jumped on the final verse of this record while amidst his greatest solo success of his career the mid-2000s; and in addition to dropping an album just three months ago, Kiss just announced a joint mixtape with the highly underrated Fabolous.
Needless to say we’ll be on the lookout for that tape. We’ll also be on the lookout for the next pyramid scheme endorsed by Fat Joe, or the next lawsuit field against him by Big Pun’s widow.
A dozen years, yo. A dozen years. Happy 10th birthday Ja Rule.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w73qxCxRnWE