Ja Looks to Settle 50 Beef
Ja Rule addressed his long-standing feud with rival rapper 50 Cent
in an exclusive interview with Minister Louis Farrakhan last week
and pledged to do what he could to bury the hatchet. The interview
was the only one Ja granted to plug his new album, Blood in My
Eye, which was released today.
After Ja discussed his childhood in the Hollis neighborhood of
Queens, New York, the conversation turned to a rhyming feud with 50
Cent that he admitted had turned violent, with fist fights in
Atlanta and a New York City studio. Ja Rule traced the root of the
ill feelings back to a video shoot he did in the neighborhood that
didn’t sit well with 50 Cent. “I think he didn’t like the fact that
I was getting so much love,” he said. “I didn’t even know the
dude.” Soon after, Ja was targeted in song, referenced in the 50
Cent track “Murder, I Don’t Believe You.” “I didn’t start this,” Ja
said. “It was really no beef with me with him. It was always him
with me.”
The rapper said that he tried to ignore the onslaught of barbs.
“When I first heard the records, I said, ‘Come on, I’m bigger than
that,'” he said. “But the public started to give me ridicule.”
Farrakhan had harsh words for the media’s sensationalism of
hip-hop beefs and urged Ja Rule to settle the feud for the benefit
of hip-hop and the youth who emulate rap stars. “I never want to
see anything happen to you, Ja,” he said, “and I never want to see
anything happen to 50. I want to see peace. And if you want to dis
each other in the culture, that’s fine. But once we go past the
line, when we’re talking about killing one another, they print it
and put it out.”
“I see the bigger picture that you’re talking about,” Ja said.
“It’s not about me and 50’s personal beef. It’s about the overall
state of hip-hop and the children that are coming up watching and
learning and pitting themselves against each other because one
rapper says he doesn’t like the other. I’d be crazy and
disrespectful to say I wouldn’t sit down at the table and try to
help hip-hop.”