Ja Rule
Jeffrey Bruce Atkins, better known by his stage name Ja Rule, is an American rapper, singer, and actor. Born and raised in Queens, New York City, Ja Rule became known for blending gangsta rap with pop and R&B sensibilities. He signed with Irv Gotti's Murder Inc Records, an imprint of Def Jam Recordings to release his debut studio album Venni Vetti Vecci, which spawned his first hit single, "Holla Holla". In 2001, he peaked the Billboard Hot 100 on several occasions with his singles "Put It on Me", "Always on Time", and his guest appearances on Jennifer Lopez's songs "I'm Real " and "Ain't It Funny".
Commercially successful, Venni Vetti Vecci received platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America and was followed by his second and third albums, Rule 3:36 and Pain Is Love, both of which peaked atop the US Billboard 200. With over 15 million combined sales, both also received triple platinum certifications by the RIAA and spawned the Billboard Hot 100-top ten singles "Put It on Me" and "Livin' It Up". He followed up with his fourth, fifth and sixth albums The Last Temptation, Blood in My Eye, and R.U.L.E. ; The Last Temptation received platinum certification and spawned the top-two single "Mesmerize", while R.U.L.E. received gold certification and spawned the top-five single "Wonderful". Ja Rule has been nominated for two American Music Awards and four Grammy Awards with respective collaborators Lil' Mo, Vita, Ashanti and Case. From 1999 to 2005 Ja Rule had seventeen Hot 100 hits, chiefly produced by Irv Gotti, and as of 2018, Ja Rule has sold 30 million records worldwide.
Outside of music, Ja Rule was met with scrutiny for his involvement in the fraudulent Fyre Festival, which he co-founded with con artist Billy McFarland. In November 2019, he was cleared of any legal wrongdoing from his role in the festival. Earlier that year, he joined the main cast of WeTV's Growing Up Hip Hop: New York. As an actor, he has also starred in films such as Turn It Up, The Fast and the Furious, Half Past Dead, Scary Movie 3, The Cookout, Assault on Precinct 13, Back in the Day, Furnace, and Wrong Side of Town.
Early life
Jeffrey Bruce Atkins was born on February 29, 1976, in Hollis, a section of the Queens borough of New York City. Atkins' father left the family when he was very young. Atkins was raised as an only child, as his younger sister, Kristen, died in the womb when Atkins was 5. His mother, Debra, was a healthcare worker, and due to the amount of time she spent working, Atkins was largely raised by his grandparents as a Jehovah's Witness. Atkins' mother left the Jehovah's Witness religion when he was twelve and was therefore shunned by her former congregation including her parents, meaning she was no longer allowed to see her son. Atkins and his mother decided they would rather live together even if it meant struggling to pay bills. Not long after moving in with his mother, Atkins began selling drugs in Hollis.Career
Cash Money Click (1994–95)
Atkins began his rap career in 1994 with the hip hop group Cash Money Click alongside members Chris Black and O-1. He took the stage name "Ja Rule", telling MTV News that the name came from a friend who addressed him by that name; other friends simply called him "Ja". Together they worked with producer DJ Irv to produce a number of songs, releasing their debut single "Get Tha Fortune" independently in 1994. After the group signed with TVT Records, the song was re-released through the label later that year as the B-side to their second single, "4 My Click". "4 My Click" featured Mic Geronimo and became popular on pirate radio, eventually receiving airplay on Yo! MTV Raps. Plans for the release of the group's eponymous debut studio album were brought to a halt in 1995 after Chris Black was sentenced to five years in prison and the group was dropped from TVT, which led to their third single "She Swallowed It" never officially being released, however it was later bootlegged. With no label, the group disbanded shortly after being dropped.Solo career and ''Venni Vetti Vecci'' (1995–1999)
After being dropped from TVT, Ja Rule maintained a close relationship with DJ Irv, who was working as an executive producer for Def Jam at the time. DJ Irv, now known as Irv Gotti, was hired as an A&R for the label and was able to get Ja Rule a contract with Def Jam. In 1995, he made his first solo appearance on Mic Geronimo's "Time to Build" alongside Jay-Z and DMX, who were also in the early stages of their careers. He later appeared on the song "Usual Suspects" from Mic Geronimo's second album Vendetta in 1997, alongside The Lox, DMX and Tragedy Khadafi. He also had a brief cameo in the video for "Walk in New York" by Queens hardcore rap group Onyx. Later in 1997, Irv Gotti was granted his own imprint from Def Jam, known as Murder Inc. Records. Ja Rule was promoted as the label's flagship artist, and he continued to make guest appearances on songs by other artists, including Method Man, Redman, Nas, DMX, LL Cool J and Dru Hill. He later appeared on Jay-Z's 1998 hit single "Can I Get A...", for which he wrote the hook. It was originally planned to be Ja Rule's debut single until Jay-Z heard the track and requested it for himself. During this time, he rapped under the slightly modified stage name Jah.Returning to the Ja Rule name, his debut single "Holla Holla" was released in March 1999 and became a hit, peaking at number 35 on the Billboard Hot 100. Fueled by the success of "Holla Holla", Ja Rule's debut album, Venni Vetti Vecci, was released in 1999, peaking at number 3 on the Billboard 200 with 184,000 copies sold in its first week. It eventually reached platinum status in the US due to the popularity of "Holla Holla". A remix of "Holla Holla" was later released, featuring Jay-Z, Vita, Cadillac Tah, Black Child, Memphis Bleek and Busta Rhymes.
''Rule 3:36'', ''Pain Is Love'', and ''The Last Temptation'' (2000–2002)
Ja Rule's second single, "Between Me and You", featuring Christina Milian, was released in June 2000 as the first single from his second studio album and became his first major crossover hit, earning Top 40 airplay and reaching number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album's next single, "Put It on Me", featuring Vita and Lil' Mo, was released in December 2000 and became one of the biggest hits of 2001, reaching number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming the first top-10 hit for both Ja Rule and Vita. The video for "Put It on Me" also topped the MTV Video Countdown for a week, and became the first music video to be retired on BET's 106 & Park after spending more than 60 days on the countdown. The video also ranked number 1 on BET's Notarized: Top 100 Videos of 2001.Ja Rule's second album, Rule 3:36, was released on October 10, 2000, and went in a much different stylistic direction from Venni Vetti Vecci, changing his almost trademark hardcore hip-hop sound to mainstream-oriented pop-rap, debuting at number 1 on the Billboard 200 with 276,000 copies sold in its first week, making it Ja Rule's first number-one album. The album later went on to be certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. A week later, Ja Rule featured on Cuban Link's song "Murda Murda" from Cuban's 24K album. It was released on October 22, 2000, by Atlantic Records and Terror Squad Entertainment as the B-side to Cuban's "Still Telling Lies" single.
The success of Rule 3:36 promoted Ja Rule to international status, and made Murder Inc. one of the biggest labels in the United States. The same success followed with his third album, which spawned three top-10 singles, two of them reaching number 1. The first, "Livin' It Up", featuring Case, was released in July 2001 and reached number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also achieved success in the United Kingdom, reaching number 5 on the UK Singles Chart. The second single, "Always on Time", was released in October 2001 and marked the first major guest appearance for Murder Inc's youngest artist Ashanti, and became both Ja Rule and Ashanti's first song to top the Billboard Hot 100. The remix of Jennifer Lopez's "I'm Real" featuring Ja Rule was included on the album and topped the Billboard Hot 100 for five non-consecutive weeks, beginning September 8, 2001, and also topped the Hot 100 Airplay chart. The song was a staple of R&B/hip hop and pop radio during the summer and fall of 2001, spending fifteen weeks total in the top five of the Hot 100. In 2009 the single was named the 30th most successful song of the 2000s, on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs of the Decade. The album's fourth single, "Down Ass Bitch" featuring Charli Baltimore was also successful, reaching number 21 on the Hot 100.
Ja Rule released his third studio album, Pain Is Love, on October 2, 2001. Like its predecessor, Pain Is Love topped the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 361,000 copies and is certified triple platinum by the RIAA. The album also received a Grammy nomination in 2002 for Best Rap Album. By 2007, 3.6 million copies of Pain Is Love had been sold.
The Last Temptation, Ja Rule's fourth album, was released on November 19, 2002. It spawned two hit singles, "Thug Lovin'", featuring Bobby Brown, which peaked at number 42 on the Billboard Hot 100, and "Mesmerize", a duet with Ashanti that peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The Last Temptation debuted at number 4 on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 237,000 copies and was certified platinum by the RIAA in December 2002.
50 Cent feud, ''Blood in My Eye,'' and ''R.U.L.E.'' (2003–2004)
Shortly after the release of his fourth studio album, Ja Rule's ongoing beef with fellow Queens rapper 50 Cent reached its peak, with both artists taking to radio stations almost daily to trade insults and diss tracks. On January 3, 2003, the Murder Inc. offices were raided by FBI agents and NYPD officers due to accusations of money laundering and drug trades toward Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff, who was associated with Irv Gotti. Due to the federal investigation, Ja Rule had a late response in his beef with 50 Cent. By association, 50 Cent's labelmates Eminem, Obie Trice, D12, and Ja Rule's former friends and associates DMX and Busta Rhymes were brought into the feud too. Ja Rule released the diss track "Loose Change" in April 2003, where he attacks 50 Cent, as well as Eminem, Busta Rhymes and Dr. Dre. 50 Cent eventually responded with "Hail Mary", which used the beat from 2Pac's song of the same name and featured Eminem and Busta Rhymes. The beef continued to be highly publicized throughout 2003, and eventually led to Ja Rule meeting with Minister Louis Farrakhan in October, who wanted to intervene and prevent escalating violence in the feud.Ja Rule's fifth studio album, Blood in My Eye, was released on November 4, 2003, under the Murder Inc. label, which renamed itself "The Inc." several days after the album release. The material was intended simply as a mixtape, but was released as an album to fulfill Ja Rule's contractual commitment to Murder Inc. to release one annually. The album was described as a "hate" album directed at various rappers, including 50 Cent, G-Unit, Eminem, Proof, Dr. Dre, DMX, Busta Rhymes and others, and marked a return to the hardcore style Ja Rule had used in his earlier career. It spawned one hit single, "Clap Back", which reached number 44 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won a Source Award for "Fat Tape" song of the year. It peaked at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 200, selling 139,000 copies in its first week of release, and had sold over 468,000 copies in the U.S. by 2008.
Ja Rule's sixth studio album, R.U.L.E., was released in November 2004, debuting at number 7 and selling 166,000 copies in its first week of release. Its lead single, "Wonderful", featuring R. Kelly and Ashanti, peaked at number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. The single was followed by the street anthem "New York", featuring Fat Joe and Jadakiss, which charted at number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100. The third single was the love song "Caught Up", featuring Lloyd, which failed to make an impact on the Billboard Hot 100. The RIAA certified R.U.L.E. Gold on January 14, 2005, and by October 2007 the album had sold 658,000 copies.