Six years ago, after rap music hit-maker Irv Gotti inflated career sails by producing Ja Rule’s knockout commercial debut, the Queens, N.Y., rapper was set up as the genre’s next superstar, a guy who was a more cuddly “thug” than DMX and more “street” than Jay-Z or P. Diddy.
Three years ago, after Ja’s subsequent releases saw the MC pair up with such sultry crooners as Ashanti and Jennifer Lopez, this entertainer born Jeff Atkins co-headlined the sold-out KS107.5 Summer Jam at Coors Amphitheater.
But this year finds Ja Rule scurrying to tidy legal problems, shouldering lukewarm reviews of his last album, 2004’s “R.U.L.E.,” and playing smaller venues like Boulder’s Fox Theatre, where he headlines on Sunday.
Here are five tidbits about the roller-coaster career of a one-time Top-40 radio darling.
Apple pie in the sky. High hopes for Ja Rule started with Irv Gotti, whose real name is Irving Lorenzo but has used his entertainment moniker and Murder Inc. label to underscore a rough edge. Gotti hit home runs in the 1990s through work with Jay-Z and DMX, both of whom hosted a budding Ja Rule before his own debut. Ja, who is still considered Murder Inc.’s “flagship artist,” was expected to surpass those rappers in popularity.
He walks the walk. Despite lackluster response to
2003’s release “Blood in My Eye,” Ja Rule continued to set a course for commercial domination by launching an acting career (“The Fast and the Furious”) and a clothing line, ErvinGeoffrey, which critics charged was set up to purposely antagonize Ja Rule’s nemesis, 50 Cent.
Stay out of the candy shop. 50 Cent has gone as far as to claim responsibility for Ja’s tumbling career. Research into Ja’s background will turn up a number of conspicuous, no-source press releases and “news” stories attacking the rapper’s credibility and business smarts. “His career is over. Nobody listens to his music anymore. I ran him out of the business,” 50 Cent told teenhollywood.com about his nemesis.
He talks the talk. “R.U.L.E.” found minor success with the R. Kelly platform, “Wonderful.” And the few critics who lauded the CD did so because of deep-
voiced Ja’s open-book lyricism about a childhood surrounded by crime and poverty. But musical partnerships have always been Ja Rule’s bread and butter. He scored coups by teaming up with the likes of Missy Elliott, Fat Joe and Jada Kiss.
Do the crime, do the (gossip-page) time. More than being spotlighted in music magazines lately, Ja Rule has been finagling his way out of multiple legal problems. In March, he pleaded guilty to assault at a Toronto nightclub. And two of Ja Rule’s bodyguards are suspected in a shooting at a New York City hotspot.
Meanwhile, Irv Gotti and several Murder Inc. people were charged earlier this year with using the label to launder drug money. And, judging from his appearance on the MTV reality show “Power Girls,” Ja Rule has remained loyal to celebrity publicist Lizzie Grubman despite her own public misstep: Not long ago, the PR powerhouse did jail time for plowing her SUV into a crowd outside a party in the Hamptons.
Staff writer Elana Ashanti Jefferson can be reached at 303-820-1957 or ejefferson@denverpost.com.
Ja Rule
POPULAR RAP|Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder; 9 p.m. Sunday|$35|303-443-3399
