REV. FARRAKHAN: First, Ja, I want to welcome you to your home away from home.
JA RULE: [Laughs] Thank you, thank you.

REV. FARRAKHAN: Thank you for coming in.

JA RULE: Thanks for having me.

REV. FARRAKHAN: And thank Irv for arranging it.

JA RULE: Yes. Yeah.

REV. FARRAKHAN: I really, really appreciate you and how God has used you to affect so many millions of our young people. Could you tell me something about our growing up? I heard that, that you were an only child.

JA RULE: Mm-hmm.

 REV. FARRAKHAN: Dad was not in the house.

JA RULE: Not in the house.

REV. FARRAKHAN: So you were reared totally by Mom?

JA RULE: Yeah.

REV. FARRAKHAN: Tell me, tell me about your young life.

JA RULE: Well, I had a, a kind of hard childhood but not crazy. See, it, it is crazy because a lot of people are not going to understand it. I grew up a Jehovah’s Witness.

REV. FARRAKHAN: Ah!

JA RULE: So [Laughs] we going to get into…

 REV. FARRAKHAN: That’s wonderful. Go ahead, brother.

JA RULE: [Laughs] We’re going to get into how, how, you know, how I didn't, I didn't have Christmas. I didn't have birthdays. I didn't have none of that type of things that the kids enjoy as, as kids.

REV. FARRAKHAN: Mm-hmm.

JA RULE: And so I missed all of that. My father wasn't around. He was a womanizer. And he hit my mom. Mom. I'm putting this out there. Yeah, you know, he hit my mom. That’s why I vow I'll never hit a woman. Ever, ever, ever hit a woman because I see the pain it brought my mother.

REV. FARRAKHAN: And up to this time you are married.

JA RULE: I'm married.

REV. FARRAKHAN: You have children.

JA RULE: I have three children.

REV. FARRAKHAN: And you never hit your wife.

JA RULE: I never hit my wife.

REV. FARRAKHAN: Ah, that’s wonderful, brother.

JA RULE: You know, I, I grew up an only child and actually I did have a sister but she died when I was five and she was younger than me. So you can imagine I, I really, you know, I didn't cry or anything, you know. Really didn't know the meaning of death.

REV. FARRAKHAN: What did she die from?

JA RULE: Respiratory problems. Yeah.

REV. FARRAKHAN: Mm-hmm.

JA RULE: Couldn't breathe properly.

REV. FARRAKHAN: Mm-hmm. How did that affect you?

JA RULE: See, that’s what I'm saying. That really didn't have an affect on me till I was older because I didn't understand it. You know, I was young.  I was about four or five so, you know, my mom comes home and she tells me, “You know, your sister’s not going to make it.” You know, I'm really like – don't understand it. I, you know, I'm like, well, you know, where’s the next toy, you know? It, it didn't register…

REV. FARRAKHAN: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

JA RULE: …until I was a little bit older and, and I started to understand like I don't have a sister that I, that I had that was here and I, and I could of grew up with here, whatever, whatever. So that was, that was tough on me. And, and my father, he was, he wasn't there. And it was just me and my mom and she worked two jobs trying to, you know, trying to raise me. And that was tough because she worked the four-to-12 shift.

REV. FARRAKHAN: Mm.

JA RULE: So I'd come home from school and nobody’s home. So now it’s like on my own. So that’s why I kind of feel like the street’s raised me, you know, because the older guys around. We always lived around older guys. That’s all that was around me. And they kind of, you know…

REV. FARRAKHAN: How did you relate in school with your classmates and your teachers? You grew up in, in Queens?

JA RULE: In Queens. Yeah.

REV. FARRAKHAN: Yeah. Was it an all black school?

JA RULE: My first, the first school I went to was, it was an all black school. It was 134. I used to fight every day so they, I got thrown out. And then my mom figured it would be better if I went to, if they bussed me out, you know. I know you know about the bus thing in Boston. [Laughs]

REV. FARRAKHAN: Mm-hmm.

JA RULE: But they bused me on out to a white school, 172. Well, it was a little bit better for me there. I didn't have no black friends now so I had to kind of learn how to deal with that situation, you know.

REV. FARRAKHAN: Did you fight a lot at the new school?

JA RULE: No, because there I was tougher. I was the black kid, so they kind of looked at me as the tough kid. Even though I was small, where I used get into fights in the black school every day because I was smaller, at the white school I was black.

REV. FARRAKHAN: Did you feel, Ja, somewhat abandoned because Dad wasn't there and Mom had to work real hard to support you and…

JA RULE: A little bit.

REV. FARRAKHAN: …rear you?

 JA RULE: I always felt like a loner because I was by myself a lot. My grandma helped out tremendously.

REV. FARRAKHAN: Mm-hmm.

JA RULE: My grandmother and my grandfather, you know. The Cherrys [Phonetic]. [Laughs] Ed and Mama Cherry [Phonetic], they helped out a lot and they did a lot for me as a young, youngster but here’s where that got twisted. Being a Jehovah's Witness is very strict religion. And…

REV. FARRAKHAN: Mm-hmm.

JA RULE: …they got such a thing that’s called you could get disfellowshipped…

REV. FARRAKHAN: Mm-hmm.

JA RULE: …or disassociated…

REV. FARRAKHAN: Mm-hmm.

JA RULE: …if you do something outside of what they believe.

REV. FARRAKHAN: Mm-hmm.

JA RULE: Now, they believe a lot, have a lot of, you know, beliefs that are just hard on kids, hard on human beings. You know? You can't hang with worldly people, meaning people who are not Jehovah's Witnesses.

REV. FARRAKHAN: [Interposing] I understand. Mm-hmm.

 JA RULE: So my mom got disfellowshipped because she liked to go out with co-workers and have a drink or two or whatever. And they found this out and disfellowshipped my mom. And like this devastated my mother because the whole congregation stopped speaking to her. And that’s how they do it. You’re not, no one’s allowed to speak to you when you’re, you’redisfellowshipped. It’s like you’re banished.

REV. FARRAKHAN: Mm-hmm.

JA RULE: Not even your family.

REV. FARRAKHAN: Mm.

JA RULE: So now my grandmother, my grandfather, her parents, didn’t speak to her, her brother, no one…

REV. FARRAKHAN: Now, the whole family were, were Jehovah's Witness.

JA RULE: Right. They're not speaking to my mother.

REV. FARRAKHAN: Mm-hmm.

 JA RULE: And this, this really like made me hate the religion because I said, “Like, how could a religion tear apart a family?” And I, I didn't, I didn't involve with that. Like I don't feel that. Because now that I'm successful everybody speaks, “He’s still disfellowshipped,” but everybody comes around now. And, and I said, “You know what? If it took my success to bring my family back together, then so be it.” I'm not going to be the one to say, “Oh, stay away now!”

 REV. FARRAKHAN: Mm-hmm.

JA RULE: Because I love to see my family together. Like that’s what life is about. It’s about family.

REV. FARRAKHAN: Mm-hmm.

JA RULE: So I'm, I'm happy now that, you know, my mother’s brother give her a call every now and then. It, it cringes the soul a little bit why, you know, everybody is so friendly. And I'm not going to say it’s just because I'm successful but that has something to do with it.

 REV. FARRAKHAN: This is very, very revealing because, brother, we're all a product of that which  God has put within and what the environment helps to shape and mold us. And this helps me to see the man that I've heard about, that I've read about, that I've listened to that  is a powerful human being. Ja. Ja Rule. And the fact that you would take a name is significant to me, that it, in spite of a negative experience with what we call organized religion…

 JA RULE: Mm-hmm.

REV. FARRAKHAN: …it never took you away from feeling a need for a relationship with the Creator of all this magnificence…

JA RULE: Mm-hmm.

REV. FARRAKHAN: …that we see, that we call universe.

JA RULE: I'd never even thought of it like that. The way you just put it to me, I never seen it that  way. Like, you know, because I've, like ever since those times when my mother, those early times of religion, I don't deal with religion but I love God.

REV. FARRAKHAN: Yeah. Yeah. Well, that’s, that’s, that’s magnificently said, Ja, because the Creator, by whatever name we call Him, is not only the author of your life but He’s the author of your gift.

JA RULE: Mm-hmm.

REV. FARRAKHAN: And He’s the

author of the hearts and minds of the millions that He really has blessed you to touch. And you touch them naturally from the position of the street…

JA RULE: Mm-hmm.

REV. FARRAKHAN: …from which you grew. Ja may not be all that Ja could be and 50 may not be all that 50 could be, but when a person knows what God’s intention was when He created, I look beyond what is presented. And the Scripture says it like this. “Ye are all God’s children of the most high God.” So you can look at yourself as a human being in the image of God…

JA RULE: Mm-hmm.

REV. FARRAKHAN: …as a God. A little God.

JA RULE: Mm-hmm.

REV. FARRAKHAN: But a God.

JA RULE: Mm-hmm.

REV. FARRAKHAN: And the power that God has blessed you to wield over people, when you can come in a room and people stand and you say words and they go off, that’s power. That’s influence. That’s God.  50 has that same kind of juice. He’s different from you. He may have grown up different than you. But at the same time, God says in the Qu’ran, “I created you…”

 JA RULE: Mm-hmm.

REV. FARRAKHAN: …from a single

essence. And I created your mate of the same kind and from you too I created many men and  women. So 50’s root is God and mother, your father, all of us, our root is God. But what kind of life have we been living…

 JA RULE: Mm.

REV. FARRAKHAN: …under the rule of our oppressor? See? The oppressor. The Bible says we are born in sin and shaped in iniquity. Tell me how did this beef get started with you and, and brother 50?

JA RULE: I think it started with a video shoot that I did on Jamaica Avenue. We're all from the same neighborhood and everybody in the neighborhood kind of knew that [Unintelligible] was on the brink of doing big things. And he was an artist at the time. I, I think he was, he was with Jam Master Jay or whatever. And we knew Jay as well. So it was kind of a situation where like he wanted to kind of be in or kind of be involved but didn't know how to go about it. And I think when he seen how much love we was receiving on the Ave from all of the people where – you know, because this is our neighborhood. Like we're both from the same neighborhood. So, you know, the whole Southside’s there, Hollis is there, Laurelton, like, I mean, the whole Queens is on Jamaica Avenue for this video shoot. And it was like, it was, it was, it was monumental even though the video didn't get played [Laughs] like that. [Laughs] It was still a great video.  And I think he didn't like the fact that I was getting so much love and [Inaudible] why? I didn't even know the dude. Didn't know him. You know, didn't have any confrontation with him before this. But as the legend would have it, he supposedly had spoke to me and said, “What’s up?” or whatever and I hit him with a, “Aight, what’s up?” And for him that wasn't good enough or something. I don't know what it was. But anyway, he came out with the intent to, “I’m going to use other rappers, big rappers’ names and try to diss them or downplay them so people can pay attention to me.” Which was a great plan. But now all’s your doing is creating hatred for yourself from other artists. And when he made the record about me, I didn't, I didn't think it was funny. Like I didn't, I didn't think it was cool. You know, I didn't think, I didn't – now, he had made two records at the time. One was called “How to Rob” and he was talking about how he was rob all the rappers in the industry. It was a jokey kind of record but a lot of people took offense to it. My name wasn't mentioned in that record. It was another record that he made called “Murder, I Don't Believe You” or something like that that set my whole thing spinning. And when we had a chance to, to see each other it was immediate brawl confrontation because we just don't like each other. I didn't start this. And I, I'm an artist that really went out there and, and, and made my records and then said to myself, “What can I do to elevate myself and do music? People started making more records that had more feeling. All, all the artists came into that. Started more records with feeling. Started making more records about different aspects of life besides the criminal aspect. And this is where this whole hatred for me just really started from him and, and started to, you know, trickle down. So I guess when he got his record deal or whatever he felt it his duty to call my name, disrespect what I'm doing, which is crazy.

REV. FARRAKHAN: At some point I heard that someone robbed you of some of your jewelry?

JA RULE: That’s a false story.That’s a, that’s a story he made up. If someone did some harm to you, you don't get mad at the person with them. He has nothing to do with it. He’s just a bypasser on or an innocent bystander. Wrong place, wrong time. It’s him that I have the problem with.

REV. FARRAKHAN: Mm-hmm.

JA RULE: So I didn't, I never got that story and, and people eat it up and they love it because it’s, you know, it is what it is and the media eats all these stories up. But I never really got that story. Like why would I be mad at you if your man robbed me? Like I'm going to get your man, be hollering at your man. Not you. It was really no beef with me with him. It was always him with me. You understand? And then when I come back now and say I don't like him for this, this, that and the reason and, you know, people say, “Oh, you know, now it’s getting out of hand.” But he already said his peace. He already came out and spoke largely about how he feels of, of Murder, Inc. I was kind of upset at the fact that the people were receptive to this, these things he was saying. You know, I,  I really didn't think it was going to be that serious until it started to get, get this way, you know, and then I said to myself, “You know what? I need to make some records because I see it’s a lot of ignorance. That people don't, they're not getting this.They're not, they're not getting the fact that these two men have a real problem and it’s not about records. But since he made it about records, that’s all the people see is, is, is the music.

REV. FARRAKHAN: Have you ever had contact with 50 other than through music?

JA RULE: Yeah. We, we, we fought in Atlanta.

PART TWO >>