JA RULE

When you hear the name Ja Rule you just may think that right now, this man is the hardest working brother in the business. Ja Rule show up on the scene in late 1998 when he added some flava to Jay-Z’s “Can I Get A…” which became the mammoth hit of the year. People began looking out for the guy with the raspy yet sexy voice that was reminiscent of DMX.

He released his debut cd in 1999 and “Venni, Vetti, Vecci” (Latin for he came, he saw, he conquered) was full of hot guest appearances from Eric Sermon and DMX to Jay-Z and spawned Ja Rule’s mega-hit single “Holla Holla.” Just a year later, Ja Rule put out his sophomore album “Rule 3:36” and that’s when he began to rule the millennium. This second album, Ja put out more party jams featuring some very known and also some unknown female vocalists and those songs began blowing up the charts.

“Between Me & You” featuring Christina Milian crossed over almost over night and Ja Rule became a household name. “I Cry” featuring ‘Lil Mo brought in more and more female fans and Murder Inc.’s Vita helped him out with “Put It On Me”. Before the smoke even cleared from the first two hit cds, Ja Rule pushed out his third album in 3 years and “Pain Is Love” hit the streets. The hits began flowing again as Ja Rule enlisted the help of Jennifer Lopez on “I’m Real”, and Ashanti on “Always on Time”.

Ja rule quickly became one of the most successful rap artists because of the success of all three of his cds. Although some may argue that dropping 3 albums in 3 years may hurt you (DMX did the same but his 2nd and 3rd tries dropped off the charts quickly), Ja rule proved critics wrong. Longtime producer, Irv Gotti (a.k.a. DJ Irv as listed in liner notes on Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt). Ja Rule quickly become the poster child of his Murder Inc. label.

Irv Gotti began spitting out major hits with his Murder Inc. family which includes Ja Rule, Charlie Baltimore, Vita, Tah Murdah, Black Child, Dave Bing, Jayo Felony, Shade Sheist, and Ashanti. This year Ja Rule has been in serious demand. An example of how hard the man works was shown on the 2nd Annual BET Awards show when Ja Rule hit the stage to do his own track, a track with Mary J. Blige and a track with Ashanti. Now if performing live on an awards show 3 times in one night isn’t working hard, I don’t know what is!

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