I have mixed feelings about the Me'Shell Ndegeocello/Soulive/Donnie concert last Thursday at Variety Playhouse.  Donnie really surprised me with his abrupt departure from his performance that he couldn't seem to finish because his voice suddenly gave out.  I've been hearing about similar situations in other cities as well as other things that don't factor well for him if they are actually true, but I don't like rumors, so I'm not going to nuture them if that's what they are in fact.  Given the quick set, Soulive had to go longer than anticipated...even when Me'Shell told them they could because she was getting a massage backstage (I'm glad the crowd didn't know that at the time). Soulive was dope, as always, but their lengthy set did start to wear on me, although that might have been attributed to this dude they brought out to do some vocals and he was ah-ite, then st arted to get annoying.  Come to find out he was Aaron Neville's son, which I now realize the family resemblance, but thank God he doesn't sing like him (given how drastically "different" it would have sounded with Soulive)!  Me'Shell had a hard job ahead to bring the audience back, but she accomplished it like she wasn't fazed one bit (though "hazed" is more like it if you were there up close--LOL)!  She had an entirely new band save her loyal sideman, Cato on lead guitar.  It was the best show I've ever heard or seen from her and I was thoroughly satisfied and impressed by it! Got to send a shout-out to Sy Smith who did her thing on background vocals (but we're gonna bring her to the forefront in an upcoming interview for those who aren't up on one of the best kept secrets in the music industry waiting to happen)! If the tour is headed to your city, and it's almost over, YOU'D BETTER GO!  Hate that I missed kickin' it with Me'Shell at Ketch a Vibe, but a brotha was on his feet for almost four hours straight--a woman even fainted close by (it was a sold out crowd)!

I'm keeping this article short to spotlight an interview some of you may of you may not be aware of between Min. Louis Farrakhan (who conducted the interview) and Ja Rule (on his beef with 50 Cent) that's on www.mtv.com; first Shaq and Kobe, now this!  But before I end, I have to say that The Matrix Revolutions (the final chapter of the trilogy) took me further than probably any other Sci-Fi movie I've ever seen...including Star Wars, though The Lord of The Rings comes in at a dead second, but I'll have to determine that from the last installment coming this Christmas--is this the "Year of Finales", or what?!  I would love to have a forum or discussion with someone on the many parallels this story has on real world scenarios.  For those who haven't seen it, yet want my review, yet don't want me to give it away--my advice is to compare Neo to Jesus, as far as the biblical storyline goes, because it's so close to how the scriptures depict his life that's it's hardly coincidental. 

Anyway, check out the following:

Ja Rule and Minister Louis Farrakhan talk about beef with 50 Cent (11.05.03)

Almost as quickly as he shot to fame, Ja Rule found himself rocketed into a cloud of controversy over the past year. From the legal troubles threatening his Murder Inc. label to the boos that greeted his October appearance at The Source Awards to the battles with 50 Cent, there's much the public would like to know about the rapper and his state of mind.

On the eve of the release of Ja Rule's latest album, Blood in My Eye, the rapper sat down for a unique and revealing conversation with Minister Louis Farrakhan, the controversial leader of the Nation of Islam. Farrakhan is a trusted figure in the hip-hop community for his interventions in beefs and his championing of black civil rights, but he's also made headlines for his candid, anti-Semitic remarks.

This interview was not produced by MTV News.  While we do not normally present interviews or news reports that we did not create, we felt that this conversation was important for our audience to be able to read and consider for itself.

The main topic of discussion between the two was Ja Rule's beef with chart-topping rapper 50 Cent and the future of hip-hop.

Louis Farrakhan: Tell me, how did this beef get started with you and brother 50?

Ja Rule: I think it all started when I was doing a video shoot on Jamaica Avenue. We're from the same neighborhood. And everybody in the neighborhood said that Murder Inc. was on the brink of doing big things. 50 Cent was an artist at the time, too. I think he was with Jam Master Jay, and we knew Jay. It was a situation where 50 wanted to be involved but didn't know how to go about it. He seen how much love we received on the avenue from all the people, 'cause this is our neighborhood. The whole south side is there on Jamaica Avenue for the video shoot. It was a great video, even if it didn't get played, and I think 50 didn't like the fact that I was getting so much love. I didn't know the dude, didn't have any confrontations before this, as the legend would have it. He supposedly spoke to me and said, "What's up?" And I said, "A'ight, what up?" Apparently that wasn't good enough or something, I don't know.

Later he came out like, "I'm gonna use other big rappers' names and dis and downplay them to bring attention to me." Which is a great plan, but all you're doing is creating hatred for yourself from other artists. When he made the record about me, I didn't think it was funny or cool. He'd made two records at the time. In "How to Rob" he talked about how he was gonna rob all these major rappers and artists. It was a jokey kind of record, but a lot of people took offense. I wasn't mentioned in that record. But the other one, called "Murder, I Don't Believe You," or something like that ["Life's on the Line"], set my whole thing spinning, so when we saw each other, it was immediate brawl confrontation. We don't like each other.

I didn't start this. I'm an artist who really went out there to make my records while asking myself, "What can I do to elevate myself and do music?" People started making more records that had more feeling. All the artists came into it making records with feeling about different aspects of life beside the criminal aspect. And this is where the whole hatred really started for him and trickled down. I guess when he got his record deal, he felt the need to call my name and disrespect what I am doing, which is crazy.

Farrakhan: I heard someone robbed you of some of your jewelry at some point.



Ja Rule: That's a false story. That's a story he made up. If someone does some harm to you, don't get mad at the person that's with them, he has nothing to do with it. He's just an innocent bystander. It's him I have the problem with. So I never got that story, but people ate it up, and the media eats that up. I never really got that story. Why would I be mad at you if your man got it? I would get your man; I would be hollering to your man. There really was no beef with me to him. It was always with him to me, you understand. So when I come back now and say I don't like him for this, this and this reason, everyone goes, "Well now, it's getting out of hand." But he already said his piece. He already came out and spoke about how he feels about Murder Inc. I was kind of upset about the fact that the people were kind of receptive to these things he was saying. I really didn't see it was gonna be well-received until it started to get this way. I told myself I needed to start making some records. Because I see there's a lot of ignorance. The people aren't getting that these two men have a real problem, and it's not about records. And since he made it about the records, that's all the people see, the music.

Farrakhan: I really appreciate you and how God has used you to affect so many millions of our young people. Tell me something about your growing up. I heard you were an only child. Dad wasn't in the house, so you were raised totally by your mom.

Ja Rule: Thank you. Yeah.

Farrakhan: Tell me about your mom. Tell me about your young life.

Ja Rule: Well, I had a kind of hard childhood. It's crazy because not a lot of people are going to understand it. I grew up a Jehovah's Witness.

Farrakhan: Ah, that's wonderful.

Ja Rule: So, yeah, we gonna get into it, how I didn't have Christmas, I didn't have birthdays — none of the type of thing kids enjoy. I missed all of that. My father wasn't around. He was a womanizer and hit my mom. Mom, I am putting this out there. That's why I vow to never hit a woman. I see the pain it brought my mom.

Farrakhan: And now you're married, have children and you never hit your wife?

Ja Rule: Yes, three children — never hit my wife.

Farrakhan: That's wonderful, my brother.

Ja Rule: You know, I grew up an only child. I had a younger sister, but she died when I was 5.

Farrakhan: What did she die from?

Ja Rule: Respiratory problems. She couldn't breathe properly.

Farrakhan: How did that affect you?

Ja Rule: See, that's the thing. It didn't really affect me until I was older because I didn't understand it. I was young, 4 or 5, and my mom comes home and she's like, "Your sister isn't gonna make it." I didn't really understand it. I'm like, where's the next toy? It didn't register until I was older and I was like, I don't have the sister I could have grown up with. That was tough on me. My father wasn't there so it was just me and my mom. She worked two jobs trying to raise me, which was tough. She worked the four-to-twelve shift, so no one was home when I came home from school. That's why I feel like the streets raised me, 'cause I grew up with the older guys around me.

Farrakhan: How did you relate to your classmates and teachers? You grew up in Queens. Was it an all-black school?

Ja Rule: The first school I went to was all-black, PS 134. I used to fight every day, so my mom figured I should be bused out — you know the busing thing in Boston? So they bused me on out to a white school, MS 172, where it was a little bit better. I didn't have any black friends there, but I learned how to deal with that situation and get along.

Farrakhan: Did you fight a lot in your new school?

Ja Rule: I didn't fight a lot there because I was tougher. I was the black kid, so they kinda looked at me as the tough kid. I was small, but at the black school I got into fights every day because I was small. But here I was small and the tough guy.

Farrakhan: Did you feel somewhat abandoned, Ja, because Dad wasn't there and Mom had to work to support and raise you?

Ja Rule: A little bit. I always felt like a loner because I was by myself a lot. My grandma and grandpa, Ed and Mama Cherry, helped out tremendously. They did a lot for me as a youngster. But here's where things got twisted: Being a Jehovah's Witness, it's a very strict religion and they have something called "disfellowshipping" or "disassociating" if you do something outside their beliefs. And they have a lot of beliefs that are hard on kids, hard on human beings. You can't hang with worldly people, people outside Jehovah's, and so my mom got disassociated from it because she liked to go out with her co-workers and have a drink or two. They found this out and disfellowshipped my mom. This devastated her because the whole congregation wouldn't talk to her. That's how they do it. It's like they banish you. They won't talk to you, not even your family. So my grandmother and grandfather, her parents and her brother, stopped speaking to my mother. This really made me hate the religion. How can a religion tear apart family?

I didn't get involved. Now I'm successful and she's still disfellowshipped, but everyone comes around. You know, if it took my success to put my family back together, so be it. I'm not one to be, like, stay away. I love to see my family together. Family's what life is about. So I'm happy that now my mother's brother gives her a call every now and then. Everybody is so friendly, and I'm not gonna say it's all because I am successful, but that has something to do with it.

Farrakhan: This is very revealing, brother, because we are all products of that which God has put within us and the way the environment helps to shape and mold us. This helps me to see the man I've heard about, that I've read about and that I've listened to, a powerful human being: Ja Rule.

                                                                            Ja Rule and 50 come to blows in Atlanta


Farrakhan: Have you ever had contact with 50 other than through music?

Ja Rule: Yeah. We fought in Atlanta.

Farrakhan: An actual fight?

Ja Rule: Yeah. We fought in Atlanta and we fought in New York at the Hit Factory. We've had our altercations.

Farrakhan: What did you fight over?

Ja Rule: The first time, it was over the record. He made the "Murder, Murder" record. A mutual friend of ours stepped in Atlanta and said, "You know 50. It was just a record. Will you talk to him for me?" I said OK, I'll talk to him and holler. We got face to face and talked, but it all came to play during the talk. We got mad and went off at the handle quick. I got mad and started letting him know how I feel: "I don't like you. I don't like what you're doing. I don't think what you're doing is real." We come out and make records, and you sell your records, and if you catch a beef, then you handle it. You don't come into it with this and this dude. I let him know I wasn't feeling it, his whole style. So he punched me, he snuffed me, and — boom! — I caught him back. Then the fight broke out. We all over the place, we throwin' down. But see, I felt the disrespect. Our mutual friend pitted us to talk, and you just violated the talk when you struck. And once that ensued, that's when the real beef started. Because now it's a physical thing. Back in New York at the Hit Factory, I hear from a mutual friend that he's upstairs in the studio. And me being the enraged guy I was, I took it upon myself to go pay him a visit up there, and it got a little violent.

Farrakhan: What I see, my brother, is that this is bigger than Ja Rule and 50 Cent, two artists whom God has blessed with magnificent talent. You can't touch all the people in the world you both have touched and not have something very special. 50 Cent has it, you have it, Jay-Z has it, Snoop has it. So many brothers and sisters in hip-hop are gifted by God with this tremendous gift. And I know, Ja. As a young man, I used to be a calypso singer. And in calypso you rhyme, and there comes a time in calypso when you go to war to see who is going to be the king of calypso. It's based on who can stand up, rhyme and make the other look bad. But it never reached the point where we became violent or struck the kind of chord where fans would take up the beef with each other. So we need to try and see if there's a bigger picture.

Now you and 50 may have genuine dislike, but you're both artists who touch millions of people. Your disagreement with 50, and his with you, has the potential to become so violent that even hip-hop itself — which is bigger than Ja Rule, Eminem, Dr. Dre or 50 Cent — is threatened by two giants going at each other, and not just in lyrics and words. It's coming down now to one or both of you ending up like Tupac and Biggie. How is hip-hop being threatened? The media takes the beef between you and 50 and they play it, they jam it, they keep it going. Why would they keep something going that could produce bloodshed? There is a bigger plot here, Ja, and this is what I want you and 50 and our hip-hop brothers and sisters to see.

Ja Rule: When I first heard that 50's record was about me, I said, "You know what? I am bigger than that and I ain't thinking about it. Let's continue what we're doing, as black men." But then the public started to give me ridicule, because I guess they were feeling, like, "Since you're not saying anything, you're scared." You understand what I'm saying? Like, "Oh, if he don't say nothing back, he must be scared of that n---a 50." I don't care about that, you understand?

Farrakhan: But they were giving you, Ja, an opportunity to teach. See, you're more than just a rapper. Do you realize, Ja, that the children that go to school, they ain't learning their lessons? But whatever you're saying, whatever 50's saying, whatever Jay-Z's saying, whatever Cube, or any of the rappers is saying, they've got that down, they memorize that. You're more than a hip-hop artist, you've become a teacher through your rap. So when the public starts calling for a fight — "He dissed you, man. You ain't gonna say nothing back? You're a punk" — when they come like that, because that's the way we grew up, how do you respond? You know, whenever we fought in school, none of our people ever tried to stop the fight. They put us in a circle and wanted to see who was gonna win. This childhood thing is playing out in hip-hop, in gang warfare, in turf conflict. Tell me, Ja, how do you view the public clamor if you don't clap back [retaliate]? What do you feel from the public right now?

Ja Rule: They're not gonna respect me. We already went through this. All of the things he was saying is just talk. It's sticks and stones, you know, they don't break my bones, that old cliché.  But when the public gets involved and says, "Ja, if you ain't saying nothing, you must be scared," or "50 got you shook," then it's like, "Are y'all serious?" Then let me go do what I do so y'all understand. Because it's easy for me to make clap backs and those kind of records. It's nothing for me to lyrically assault 50, it's easy. But the public makes it so we have to keep assaulting each other. And they're not giving us room to say, "I'm not thinking about him." They're not giving us that space.

(Editors' note: Ja Rule's new album is in fact filled with the lyrical assaults at 50 Cent he says the public pushes him to do. The mild-mannered man speaking with Minister Farrakhan is the same man who not only insults 50, but threatens to kill him and his family on multiple tracks. Some might say it's hypocritical ... is Ja the guy who wrote this record or the man calmly speaking in this interview? When reached for a comment, Murder Inc. boss Irv Gotti made it clear that it was his idea for the rapper to meet with Farrakhan, not Ja's. Where is Ja's head now? According to Gotti, the MC is "in a space where if they bring peace, he's at peace. if they bring sh--, he's into sh--.")

Farrakhan: The public is almost demanding from you a response to what 50 has said.

Ja Rule: Before I say that, I just want to say there were other reasons I didn't respond earlier as well. I wanted to respond. Hip-hop is a culture that, if you're a hip-hop artist and you rap and you're in this game, you feel you are the best. Of course I think I'm the best. So if anybody says anything foul or disrespectful against Ja Rule, Irv Gotti, Murder Inc., Ashanti, anybody, I'm gonna go on attack, get them and let them know, "Don't say that about our family." Because that's how hip-hop was brought up, on the beef like you said, on the dozens thing. But it got outside of that. Sometimes the public, they don't let you go out and reach your full potential. They want you to stay 'hood.

                                                                         Ja Rule willing to settle his beef with 50 Cent

Farrakhan: Ja, there's several lessons in what I'm hearing. Either we follow the public or we lead and teach the public. The public has an appetite for the beef. They love it. Now, we have to get them to have an appetite for something better than the destruction of one another. Hip-hop says we are thugs, we come up out of the street and now we've learned to rap, which is a tremendous art form. But now the enemy of all of us is watching. A war is about to come down on the rap community. When you and 50 throw down, it goes all the way down into the streets. Now what I see is, somebody intended to kill 50. You don't shoot somebody nine times for them to come up. So, if he's wiped out with all his popularity, and they can even subtly suggest that you or your people did it, then those that love 50 turn their guns on Ja. This has to end at some point and we need to educate the public. Don't call for Ja to clap back at 50, and 50 to clap back at Ja, when we've lost Biggie and Tupac, or we lose Ja and 50.

If you let the public dictate and you continue to follow that, the end result will be death and destruction. 50, you and me, we gotta sit down at a common table and work out the way hip-hop will go to the next level. The grave is where we are right now, mentally, and we gotta come up out of that. The power to come up out of that is the wisdom you gain as a result of increasing your knowledge and understanding. Then you feed that gently into your lyrics so the public says, "I'm glad Ja taught me better, because I was about to throw down and kill my brother." Like you said, Ja don't like 50 and 50 don't like Ja. There's a battle, but it's going from words to the gun. And we have to stop that. Your career doesn't depend on the public clamor. You think it does, but you have to feed the public something better and tell them why. "Yeah, I'm a clap-back man, but I don't wanna clap back because if I do and you die, your blood is on my hands and I don't want that." I believe we can come through this. Nobody on our level can bridge what you feel for 50 and what 50 feels for you. God sees we're on the brink of a fire pit, but he don't want you or 50 or any of our youth burned. He wants to save us from that pit and unite your hearts so that you become brothers even though today, at this moment, you see yourselves as enemies. I love Ja, 50, Irv and [Violator Records CEO Chris] Lighty. Ain't none of you that I don't love, because I see beyond where you are to what I know we're capable of becoming. I don't believe you've reached your full potential yet, Ja.

Ja Rule: I don't believe it either.

Farrakhan: I know there's a world for you out there beyond even the world you've touched. Look at the fame God has given you. You didn't just do hip-hop. You wrote songs, you appealed to sisters with beautiful lyrics and whatnot. You are broad, very broad. You can touch that genre and you can go all the way over, that's an artist. I would like to ask if Ja would be willing to sit as quickly as we can with the rest of the brothers with whom there's a beef, and I'll do my best to bring about peace so that you and 50 can continue your careers. But above all, to save young people from a plot that is bigger than you and 50 and all the others who have a beef. Would you be willing to sit with others to bring that about, Ja?

Ja Rule: Absolutely, because I see the bigger picture you are talking about. It's not about me and 50's personal beef. It's about the overall state of hip-hop and the children coming up watching and learning and pitting themselves against each other because one rapper says he doesn't like the other rapper. I see a bigger picture. For the sake of our children and things like that, the well-being of hip-hop and what you are saying, I understand it. I'd be very crazy and disrespectful to say I wouldn't sit down at that table and try to help hip-hop.

Farrakhan: The two of you will heal so many wounds if you come together, wounds you don't even see. Suppose after that we organize a peace tour with you and 50 tearing up the country and the world. The youth will say, "He can clap back and then take it to another level." And let everyone go outta there feeling the power of their youth and strength and the newness of this young man who is really the formation of a whole new world. The Bible says, when the children of Israel came up under Pharaoh, God told Moses to let the old ones die out in the wilderness, and He would take their children and they would inhabit the promised land. I see the promise of everyone who died in slavery in you all. I see the strength in you, but I see that the generation needs direction. You have everything you need to become powerful except guidance, direction. If I can supply that, my brothers can go out and build a whole new reality for themselves and our people. And those three lovely children you have will never be at no graveside mourning because someone took out their daddy in the night over some foolishness. May God bless you, Ja. May God bless you, Irv. May God bless 50 and the crew that flows with him. May God bless hip-hop to rise to its full potential and make the youth of the world instruments of peace rather than instruments of death. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. Thank you all. 

Source: MTV.COM http://www.mtv.com/bands/j/ja_rule/news_feature_031103/