Deep Album Cuts Vol. 244: Ja Rule
Ja Rule is facing Fat Joe in a Verzuz battle on September 14th. It's kind of an interesting pairing because it's a good match despite the fact that Fat Joe's had such a long career with peaks and valleys while Ja had a relatively brief run but was absolutely huge for a couple years. Ja would never be able to face rivals like 50 Cent or DMX in a Verzuz, but other maybe Fabolous, Fat Joe is the best possible opponent you could find for him.
Ja Rule deep album cuts (Spotify playlist):
1. Story To Tell
2. Kill 'Em All featuring Jay-Z
2. Kill 'Em All featuring Jay-Z
3. It's Murda featuring Jay-Z and DMX
4. Daddy's Little Baby featuring Ronald Isley
5. Fuck U featuring 01 and Vita
6. I'll Fuck U Girl (skit)
7. Love Me, Hate Me
8. Extasy featuring Cadillac Tah, Black Child and Jayo Felony
9. X featuring Missy Elliott and Tweet
10. Big Remo (skit)
11. Never Again
12. The Inc. featuring Cadillac Tah, Black Child and Ashanti
13. Pop N****s
14. Last Temptation featuring Charli Baltimore
15. Against Time
16. The Life featuring Hussein Fatal, Cadillac Tah and James Gotti
17. Where I'm From featuring Lloyd
18. Life Goes On featuring Trick Daddy and Chink Santana
19. To The Top featuring Kalenna Harper
Tracks 1, 2, 3 and 4 from Venni Vetti Vecci (1999)
Tracks 5, 6, 7 and 8 from Rule 3:36 (2000)
Tracks 9, 10, 11 and 12 from Pain Is Love (2001)
Tracks 13 and 14 from the The Last Temptation (2002)
Tracks 5, 6, 7 and 8 from Rule 3:36 (2000)
Tracks 9, 10, 11 and 12 from Pain Is Love (2001)
Tracks 13 and 14 from the The Last Temptation (2002)
Tracks 15 and 16 from Blood In My Eye (2003)
Tracks 17 and 18 from R.U.L.E. (2004)
Track 19 from Pain Is Love 2 (2012)
Tracks 17 and 18 from R.U.L.E. (2004)
Track 19 from Pain Is Love 2 (2012)
It's interesting to think of how Ja Rule was in the mix with Jay-Z and DMX for years -- they all appeared together on Mic Geronimo's "Time To Build" in 1995, before any of them had an album out. And once they were all platinum Def Jam stars by the end of the decade, there was talk of a supergroup of all 3 of them called Murder Inc., but it never amounted to anything beyond a couple more posse cuts, one on the Streets Is Watching soundtrack and one on Ja's solo debut. A couple decades later, DMX is gone but a legend, Jay-Z oversees an empire, and Ja Rule is just one of those faded aging hitmakers remembered for a few singles, not remotely the same kind of legacy.
Say what you will about Ja Rule's success with thug love songs and R&B collaborations, but I think he made the most of his talents. Venni Vetti Vecci is one of his better albums, but he was probably never gonna be remembered as one of the greats in that gangsta rap vein he was working in, especially since DMX got out a year ahead of him and dominated that lane. So when Ja Rule started making more melodic songs, he really found his own way to stand out, and I still think "Put It On Me" is the best rap/R&B crossover song of the 2000s.
Since Ja Rule was Murder Inc.'s big franchise act, he was just a constant presence, 6 albums in 6 years. But even though 2004's R.U.L.E. was a modestly successful comeback after the 50 Cent beef decimated his career, Ja Rule never really recovered, and the only album hes released since then, 2012's Pain Is Love 2, came out while he was in prison for tax evasion. When Def Jam balked at releasing a new album in 2005, they released a best-of compilation instead to fulfill his contract, and I reviewed Exodus when it came out. At the time I was frustrated that it was one of those greatest hits comps that skipped some big hits to make room for album tracks, but looking back now I respect that he put "Daddy's Little Baby," "Never Again," and "Love Me, Hate Me" on Exodus, those are definitely songs that make a case for Ja having more range than he's given credit for.
One thing about Murder Inc. only having one star rapper and one star singer is that Ja Rule's albums became the primary showcase for the roster, and so a lot of these songs are just loaded up with unmemorable verses by guys who never became stars in their own right like Cadillac Tah and Black Child. Vita was good, though, she should have been a star. The albums also kept most of the production in-house with Irv Gotti, 7 Aurelius, and other Murder Inc. producers, which gives Ja a signature sound but also seals him off from a lot of what was going on in the rest of the rap world. When he finally got on a Neptunes beat on "Pop N****s," the effect is kind of jarring. I included "I'll Fuck U Girl (skit)" and "Big Remo (skit)" because I want to make note of how bizarre it is that Ja Rule had a guy doing a Bernie Mac impression in skits on multiple hit albums years before Kanye West famously did the same thing. Why didn't anyone just get the real Bernie Mac to do a skit on their album?
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