Interview: Rules of the Game

Ja Rule has a message to the world. Back him up and you'll earn his everlasting love. Cross him and ... well, let's just say you don't want to make him angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry.

The 24-year-old, Hollis, Queens-born rapper (also known as Jeff Atkins) has managed to keep his anger in check so far, growing from a teen prodigy to a multi-platinum Incredible Hulk of hip-hop. His distinctive growl has propelled him back toward the top of the charts with his hard-hitting second album, Rule 3:36, and the hits "Between Me and You" and "Put It on Me."

Since breaking through with Jay-Z on the 1998 smash "Can I Get A...," Ja Rule has written his own code book for success, going platinum with his 1999 debut Venni Vetti Vecci, which spawned the hit "Holla Holla." Rule 3:36 finds the rapper calming down a bit from the murderous thoughts of Venni Vetti Vecci; he goes so far as to sample the O'Jays' "Cry Together" for the state-of-the-avenue soul ballad "I Cry," and he hits upon a certain love-spreading club drug in "Extasy."

Not content to spread his street gospel on record only, Rule teamed with one-time Fugees member Pras in the 2000 film "Turn It Up." He's currently shooting "Racer X," starring Vin Diesel ("Pitch Black"). The film, about men who race cars in the streets, is in keeping with Rule's hectic pace.

Rule slowed down and kept his rage in check long enough to spare the life of MTV Radio's Curtis Waller, explaining how he had some fun recording his second album, why he's nobody's protégé and why you probably won't see him pulling a Whitney Houston in an airport any time soon.

MTV: Why did you title your latest album Rule 3:36?

Ja Rule: That's one of my rules. Rule 3:36 stands for, "He who believes in Ja Rule shall have everlasting love. He who does not shall not see life, but the wrath of my vengeance." It's my message to the world. [laughs]

MTV: Venni Vetti Vecci comes from the Latin term for "He came, he saw, he conquered." Are you still the conqueror?

Ja Rule: That album was more personal. It dealt with a lot of pain, and that's why I called it Venni Vetti Vecci. He came, he saw, he conquered. That's what I was going through. I came in the rap game in '94. I didn't do what I expected. I was in a group, Cash Money Click. You get in and think, "Wow, I'm gonna be this big star." And it didn't happen the way we planned. That was my "he came" process. The "he saw" process was me sitting back for three years with no deal, just watching sh-- go down. I watched Big [Notorious B.I.G.] come in the game around the same time I did. He skyrocketed, became one of the biggest rappers ever, and then died all in that period of time. People took the "he conquered" part as conquering the rap game. That's a goal of mine, so you can take it as that, but really what I meant was a conquering of myself. I learned a lot from having a bum deal to getting my deal with Def Jam. I had my daughter. It was a growth period. So that was the theme of the first album.

On the new album, the theme is different. I've grown up. I'm not nervous anymore. I made my first album. It was successful. I sold 1.5 million records with it. This new album was a challenge to make everybody believe Ja Rule's not f---ing trying to be like DMX, Ja Rule's not Jay-Z's protégé. I'm my own man and I got my own clique of n---as that are coming up with me. Love me or hate me, it doesn't matter, 'cause I'm coming.

MTV: Ja Rule has religious overtones, with Jah being the Rastafarian name for God. What's the significance of your rap name?

Ja Rule: It's so simple. My rap name is my initials from my actual name, Jeff Atkins. The Rule got slapped on by a friend of mine. Everyone used to call me Ja, and my man just threw on Rule. He used to be like, "Ja Rule, what's up?" I just ran with it.

MTV: Rule 3:36 sounds as if it could be a Bible passage.

Ja Rule: I've got a whole gang of rules to live by that I made up. There's 13 of them, but I only released 12 because the 13th rule was personal. But I'm gonna release all of my rules. I'm gonna do it on my Web site.

MTV: Have you considered writing a book of rules, or even poetry?

Ja Rule: That's hot - "My Rules." But see, there's only 13 of them. But I write these things that are kind of like poems, but they're not poems. I turn them into chants. The first one was the opening to my first album. It was called "The March [Prelude]." That's what I call them, my marches. It was, "Lord can we get a break, we're not really happy here. Take a look into my eyes and see pain without fear."

I got one on my new album. One day, my wife said something like, "Black men don't care enough about life in general." I thought about that, and it's true. Here I am, I have a good career, and I take so many risks. I'll carry weed in my pocket through the airport, just dumb sh--. I'll drive without a license, a suspended license. Why would I do that when I got a bright future? So I made this chant: "Well if I grow old, I'd shock myself, 'cause only Lord knows all the pain we've been dealt. I should kill myself and get it all over with. But then I stop and pray for God to watch over me."

That's what I think about every day before I go out into this hard world. It would be easier to take myself out, but that's too easy. We have to keep struggling; we got to keep fighting. We got to ask God to keep watching over us and take us to that next level. I performed it, and people had never heard it. But they chanted it with me like they had heard it a million times. That's the sh-- that makes music so powerful. It's the feeling that people can get from it, the energy it can bring, the emotional highs and lows.

MTV: Your perspective has evolved.

Ja Rule: Yeah, I'm ready for the world now. The first album I was ready, but I was cold.

MTV: Talk about "Between Me and You."

Ja Rule: It's an anthem to those who cheat. It's cute, a secret little thing we do that should be between me and you. I think people will have fun with it. It's entertainment. That's what this sh-- is about, having fun. [The video is basically] Ja Rule with some chick creeping around. A man's trying to call her, and I got her. [laughs] It's what's been going on since the beginning of time. I just wanted to elaborate on the situation and have some fun with it.

MTV: Having fun - that seems to be a departure from some of your earlier videos.

Ja Rule: You see me in rare form like you've never seen me before. I got on the crazy straw hat. I'm out there having a good time. I've had people actually come up to me and be like, "I didn't want to approach Ja, 'cause I thought you were mean." And then I look at my videos and I'm like, "Damn, I didn't smile my whole video." I don't want to give off that vibe to people, because I'm a cool person. I'm a real n---a. You can all come up to me, hang out, kick it and sh--. It's cool.

I think I'll have a lot of fun this year, making the records and putting them out there for the people. Don't get me wrong, we got the serious records on there that are going to crush them, that's gonna hurt them. But when I thought about the first album I said, "You know what I don't really have? Records on here that I can hear in a club." Except for "Holla Holla," and I'm tired of hearing "Holla Holla" in the club. I'm in the club holla'd holla'd out. I'm like, "I like going into clubs and having me a good time. Why don't I make me a couple of records they can play in the club?"

MTV: What are some of the other joints on the new album like that?

Ja Rule: That cross the barriers? "Put It on Me" and "I Cry" can hit the clubs and tear the gutter up, too. And then I got my street gutter records: "6 Feet Underground," "One of Us." MTV: What's "Put It on Me" about?

Ja Rule: "Put It on Me" is a reflection of what happens when you're away from home for three months without your family and your wife, and you're homesick. It's a record that lets you know I care. I make records that will degrade women sometimes, but it's all in fun, and the ladies understand that. "Put It on Me" is something for them. All the sh-- I talk about them, at least I can give them one back.

MTV: Give us the lowdown on the song "Extasy."

Ja Rule: It's about the drug ecstasy. It's a rave record. I did my album out in L.A. I rented a mansion there for three months, and I wanted to create a comfortable environment for myself and all my n---as. Everybody talks about keeping real, keeping it street, all the bullsh--. To me, keeping it real is getting out of the 'hood, showing people something better so they can better themselves. So I took all my n---as out of the 'hood and we all hung out in this mansion. While we were out there, we were doing a lot of partying and we noticed L.A. was big on ecstasy. Everybody's in the club doing ecstasy ... and I was like, "Sh--, I need to make a record about ecstasy."

I'm watching a lot of VH1 lately and I've come to one conclusion: that music and drugs go hand-in-hand. When I was a kid, I never understood why [Grandmaster Flash's] "White Lines" was such a big record, and why it crossed over the way it did. Now that I'm older, I'm like, "This guy's rhyming about f---ing coke." ... There's a lot of records out there that have been made about different drugs over the years, and they've been big records. They've been hot for the time, even if they're not singles. Ecstasy's a big drug right now, so I made a record for all the ravers out there.