During an interview with Vlad TV, Queens, New York rapper Ja Rule recalled the battle between Jay Z and DMX, two artists he says didn’t like each other at one point. He later revealed that there’s likely a video of the battle between the two emcees “somewhere.”
After speaking briefly on the battle between Jay Z and DMX, Ja Rule shared the names of the artists he battled and cyphered with at the start of his music career. Among the artists mentioned were Method Man and those in the New York City-based rap group Onyx.
“I think there is somewhere,” Ja Rule said when asked about the existence of a videotape of the Jay Z and DMX battle. “And they’re battling on like pool tables and guns is out. It’s like a crazy battle. But that was before all of this. That was before we all came together. Because when we were doing our thing we couldn’t get them in the same room together. Like they didn’t like each other. Jay and X. Nah, they didn’t like each other…We battled with Onyx. My homie Redman. Me and Red we went at it at a club and shit. And this is how I knew down the line that I was destined to be a good artist.”
Prior to speaking on the Jay Z and DMX battle and the artists he battled himself, Ja Rule detailed the moment he met and rapped with DMX in the projects at the urging of Irv Gotti. He recalled seeing DMX rapping with his mouth wired shut due to a past altercation.
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“When I first met X…I couldn’t believe the living conditions of what it was where he was living,” he said. “I thought I lived in projects. Windows broken out. It was like—It looked like Cabrini Green in Chicago. And I was like ‘Holy shit.’ And then I met The Dog. And his mouth was wired shut and shit. He had got into a fight or somebody got jumped. Or some shit like that prior to it and his mouth was wired up. And he was rhyming with the fuckin’ wires in his mouth. Crazy shit. Like the shit about to pop, break. And I was like ‘Okay, I like this dude.’ I could fuck with him. And I was out there spitting. Cause Gotti had a thing. He’d be like ‘You know, Rule. You think you nice and shit.’ I was like ‘Nigga, I’m nice. I get busy.’ He’s like ‘Yeah, you get busy in your hood. Let’s see if you get busy over in this neighborhood.’ I said ‘Alright, so take me wherever we go.’ And that’s when we went out there. We met X, The LOX, everybody. And the feeling was mutual between that group of emcees. Like ‘Alright, little homie get busy.’ I was like ‘These niggas getting busy.’ Shortly after that X got his deal with Def Jam.”
