Fat Joe praises his VERZUZ opponent Ja Rule with a Drake compliment.
Earlier this week, Ja Rule and Fat Joe went head to head as the latest VERZUZ battle clash at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The duo played 20 of their greatest hits, with some guest appearances from Remy Ma, Ashanti, Jadakiss, Nelly, and more. Now Fat Joe invited Ja Rule for an Instagram live where he praised his “New York” song collaborator. Fat Joe called Ja Rule a pop star, before comparing him with Drake.
“No disrespect to your Hip Hop roots, you’re a pop star,” says Fat Joe. “I always tell everybody you was the Drake before Drake. You had hit after hit after hit after hit.” Ja Rule laughed at the compliment before calling Drizzy one of the greatest of all time.
Fat Joe continues “He’s [Drake] the GOAT, we not going there. But what I’m saying is for the youth who’s tuned in, they don’t realize that this guy Ja Rule had a run like Drake for years. Just hit, hit, hit, hit, hit, hit, hit, hit.”
Some fans in the Shade Room post’s comments disputed this assertion, arguing that Ja Rule should not be considered the “Drake of his era,” but rather a legend in his own right, given that he existed before Drake.
Ja had an amazing run when he signed to Irv Gotti’s Murder Inc. label. He has sold 14.4 million units in the US and over 30 million records worldwide. His albums “Rule 3:36” (2000) and “Pain is Love” (2001) debuted at #1 on Billboard 200.
Ja Rule had three No. 1 singles in the Billboard Hot 100 over his career. With the release of his new album “Certified Lover Boy” and the song “Way 2 Sexy” featuring Future and Young Thug, Drake has now reached the milestone of ten million streams. In spite of the fact that he and Nelly may not have had the same chart success, Ja Rule’s trademarked style of melody rapping has now been completely accepted in the mainstream rap canon.
Ashanti joined Fat Joe and Ja Rule afterward on their Instagram Live to talk about her and her ex-boyfriend Nelly finally getting together on Tuesday night. Although that wasn’t true, many quickly assumed the two were making up.
“Listen, there’s nothing happening,” Ashanti said. “Now look, this is the crazy part. I had no idea he was gonna be there, and I haven’t seen him or spoken to him since we broke up. Six years or something? So, I didn’t know what to expect. I seen him move you out the way.”
View this post on Instagram
