Ja Rule and 50 Cent‘s beef was one of Hip Hop’s most infamous feuds, and Melle Mel thinks things may have gone differently for Ja if he wasn’t trying to “copy” 50’s gangsta ways.
In a new clip released from the legendary rapper’s recent sit-down with The Art of Dialogue, he shared his thoughts on why rappers trying to be “hard” is resulting in the destruction of the genre.
“A lot of rappers could be better rappers if they stopped rapping like everybody else,” Mel said. “What is it that you need to say? You could be the n-gga that made a song about a pool party, but you fucked around and listened to Meek Mill and went and you fucked around and did some dumb shit. It’s just like when 50 Cent was doing this shit and then when Ja Rule and that was probably one of his last big records. [Raps Ja’s ‘New York’]”
He continued: “If he woulda just made that record a pure New York record, it would have been a way bigger record. But he went the route of trying to sound hard because 50 Cent sound hard. And it was still a good record but I’m just saying, if he woulda just made it a pure New York record like how JAY-Z did with his New York record. See what I’m saying? If he woulda went along the same lines as that.”
“So the point [I’m] saying is that consciousness does have its place in Hip Hop, but everybody is too scared about not being hard. And that’s the destruction of the whole game.”
Check out Melle Mel’s comments below:
https://youtu.be/rq8MDYIRXUU
50 Cent recently reflected on his high-profile feud with Ja Rule almost 20 years later, admitting that he was “buggin’” for going to war with Fat Joe and anyone else who aligned themselves with Ja at the time.
“There’s an element, a part of our culture that I’m aware of it because I am it,” he said in a February interview with Rolling Stone. “Your Lil Durks, your NBA YoungBoys, the whole surrounding cast of that … it almost splits our culture in half because when you cool with one, you can’t work with the other.
“I was using the same thinking in the very beginning of my career because it’s just the thinking you would use in the environment. If anybody went next to Ja Rule, I’d jump on the person who featured with them, anybody who was faintly near them, ’cause I put him on life support and you wanna go resuscitate him.
“So that energy, later you look at it and you go, ‘I was buggin.’”
50 went on to praise Joey Crack for his loyalty to Ja Rule and Murder Inc., describing him as the type of friend everybody needs in their corner.
“Fat Joe, his issues, I would see him a little uncomfortable with the success I was having, and I interpreted as, ‘He doesn’t like me,’ when he’s really the kind of guy you want to be friends with because he’s loyal to a default,” he added. “He’s so loyal for one record that [Murder Inc.] did with him that we became enemies.”
This is equal to watching the highlights and forming a opinion on the game when you didn’t watch the game. Ja Rule at no point ever copied 50, That New York record was similar to a lot of Ja Rule non single songs on a few of his albums. Now the thing that Ja or the record label did do was start making a few of those songs that were more hardcore songs singles instead of sticking with the formula of the RNB rap tracks being the singles. If anything 50 took some formula’s from Ja and Murder Inc with the RNB rap tracks. But Both made great records both are extremely talented. By the way Ja Rule New York was 10x better then Jay’s Empire New York record.
Move the legends, Melle Mell needs to STFU though. This old man has no idea what he’s talking about anymore. Says there is room for consciousness bunt knocked Kendrick for not being street???? Ja Rule was just trying to be 50?????? WTF????? Melle Mell has really lost touch. CTE from that beating Willie D gave him. Where is Willie when you need him?
Melle Mel is off once again what a surprise.
Melly Mel that drunk uncle telling you how it was bc it works in his reality. People point out 50’s strategic onslaught that involved taking over Ja’s style and adding a G Unit spin to it. Shoot, High and Mighty had a song “Dumb” that has a line of 50 taking out Ja but sounding like him after the fact. I kind of see what Mel’s saying, but his dementia was kicking in during those years to actually convince himself that Ja bit 50. And New York was an NY posse cut. Jay z was a single throwback in the day hit imo
uh…. wasn’t Ja trying to act hard years before 50 even came out? Or did I imagine the whole “It’s MURDA!!!” thing?
Old man yelling at the air again
Praying for Melle Mel, Dementia is crazy, this guy is saying alot of sh*t he just making up in his mind, the 50 and ja stuff is on point, but everything else is stuff you hear in a special care home for people with alziemers…or someone that been hitting the pipe for decades. Everyone thinks you should respect your elders and the ones that came before but thats not always true, case point this fool. What he said about X and Pac being better actors than rappers is LAUGHABLE, his take on Eminem sounds like some typical bitter racist stuff, Melle Mel on the Lord jammar, imagine saying michael jordan, kobe bryant, lebron james are guest in the house of basketball?? because it was created buy a white man and was predominately white and now majority basketball players are black…..imagine if white people said theyre guest lol…..people just can’t admist that other races be in that race bag more than just white folks, but ya’ll to ignore the elephant in the room
Praying for Melle Mel, Dementia is crazy, this guy is saying alot of sh*t he just making up in his mind, the 50 and ja stuff is on point, but everything else is stuff you hear in a special care home for people with alziemers…or someone that been hitting the pipe for decades. Everyone thinks you should respect your elders and the ones that came before but thats not always true, case point this fool. What he said about X and Pac being better actors than rappers is LAUGHABLE, his take on Eminem sounds like some typical bitter racist stuff, Melle Mel on the Lord jammar, imagine saying michael jordan, kobe bryant, lebron james are guest in the house of basketball?? because it was created buy a white man and was predominately white and now majority basketball players are black…..imagine if white people said theyre guest lol…..people just can’t admitt that other races be in that race bag more than just white folks, but ya’ll ignore the elephant in the room
Steroid breaks the brain cells. Unc please go drink some warm milk.