Ja Rule challenged longtime foe 50 Cent to a Verzuz battle last December, a matchup that would’ve undoubtedly gone down in the Hip Hop history books. But 50 Cent declined and instead, clowned Ja Rule in the most 50 Cent way possible — with a meme.
During an exclusive interview with HipHopDX at the time, the Murder Inc. vet implied 50 Cent was simply scared to hop in the virtual arena with him.
“Listen, man,” he said. “Everybody don’t want the smoke. Everybody don’t want this smoke. I got heat. Let me tell you something, when I do my shows, I can rock. I’m telling you, it’s like an hour of straight hit records. No filler. All crab meat, n-gga. This ain’t the joints with the — you know what I’m saying? All meat in that muthafucking crab cake, n-gga. It’s all meat, n-gga.”
But Fat Joe, who will actually face off against Ja Rule later this month, says fear has nothing to do with 50 Cent’s decision not to participate.
“Why y’all keep asking me about 50 Cent? We gave him the option,” he said on Instagram Live. “He did not want to go against me … He not doing the Verzuz.”
He continued, “You keep askin’ me some shit I can’t help you with. And so, he don’t wanna do it. It’s not cause he scared or he’s not one of the greatest who ever lived, he just ain’t fucking with that. I tell you what — 50 Cent gon’ be a billionaire, a real billionaire. You gotta understand, 50 Cent got a bunch of TV shows. TV. That’s not rap music. That’s a different type of money.”
Fat Joe and 50 Cent were on bad terms for years — and a lot of it had to do with Ja Rule. Speaking to Chanel West Coast last fall, Fat Joe explained after Ja Rule had given Fat Joe a song, he decided to work with him, even though people warned him working with Ja Rule would lead to trouble.
Swizz Beatz + Timbaland Book Ja Rule For Next Verzuz Battle — But Not Against 50 Cent
“I gotta stand next to the man, the man was my brother when he didn’t have this beef,” Joe said at the time. “The game is: You choose a side. Sometimes your side don’t win!” Ultimately, the two squashed their beef.
The Fat Joe and Ja Rule event takes place on September 14 at 9 p.m. ET in New York City. The showdown can be livestreamed on the Verzuz Instagram page as well as the Triller and FiteTV apps.
Tickets for the event will be available on Tuesday (September 7).
Ja will beat Joe, won’t be by a large margain, but Rule got more known hits.
This is not a good match-up. Fat Joe has too many records man.
He got street anthems and commercial records. The problem with Ja is that he only has commercial records with a few street anthems.
Ja Rules biggest “hip hop” records are Holla Holla and its murda etc etc
I could see a Ja Rule vs Drake or something lol. having love song battles.
Whats Ja going to play when Fat Joe puts on Twins? or Success or Rudeboy Salute? or John Blaze?
And the audience that will watch this has no idea what those songs are but they know all of Ja’s terrible singing on the track joints w Ashanti though.
Ja’ s first album is better than Joe has ever done…hard to skip tracks on that debut
New York, Clap Back, It’s Murda, Story to Tell, 6 Feet Underground
50 cent is not afraid of ja rule, he knock him out of hip hop and he still gonna do it, I trust my 50 cent.
50 already said he would only do it with Game, which I’d really like to see.
Verse is of;¥
IM FROM PHILLY MAN WHERE YALL FROM? CAUSE YALL SOUND WEAK. IM 37 FROM EAST COAST. NOOOO ONNNEEEE PUT 50 ON TOP OF ANY LIST BRO! HE HAD A SHORT RUN. NO REAL 10 HITS REALLY. STOP 50 SCARED CAUSE HE STOLE JA RULE CAREER. STARTED USING JA RULES STYLE AND ONLY AFTER JAY Z BODIES HIM FOR 3 YEARS! YALL DONT REMEMBER CAUSE YALL WAS IN CORNY AS TOWNS AND CITIES. FAT JOE IS A TOKEN TO US. IDKY HE KEEPS SPEAKING AS IF HES A GREAT. HE IS NOT. ASK ANYONE ON THE EAST COAST. HES JUST A COLLABO RAPPER. PERIOD. 50 IS TRASH. AND FAT JOE. PLEASE
So who are the greats? If you tell me Beans and Cassidy, I swear I will come to your hood and knock you the #$₩@ out!
I keep telling you kids. Fat Joes 1995 album jealous ones envy is better than illmatic and pre dates pun. Pun made his debut on that album. Fat Joe is a certified legend. im a fan of ja and 50 too. big fan. but you cant say fat joe aint a legend
Definitely a legend. But come on son better than illmatic? What planet you from?
The Planet of Nowhere is where the dude is from. Dude definitely needs to lay off the smoke.
While I agree that Joe’s J.O.E album is by far his best work and doesn’t get enough recognition. But better than illmatic???….that’s just wayyyy off base lol.
Tupac amaru shakur, Christopher Wallace, Marshall Mathers, Andre 3000, bone thugs and harmony