Music WTF?!? Melle Mel says 50 Cent was the BLUEPRINT to Ja Rule style UPDATE: What does Ja Rule think about this?

playahaitian · Mar 18, 2023

Ja Rule Says He Was 50 Cent’s ‘Blueprint’ As He Laughs Off Melle Mel’s Comments – HipHopDX

hiphopdx.com

JA RULE SAYS HE WAS 50 CENT’S ‘BLUEPRINT’ AS HE LAUGHS OFF MELLE MEL’S COMMENTS
by MICHAEL SAPONARA
Published on: Mar 17, 2023, 4:00 PM PDT

Ja Rule has responded to Melle Mel‘s allegations that he copied 50 Cent, claiming he was the blueprint the G-Unit honcho followed.

TMZ caught up with Ja outside an airport earlier this week where he scoffed at the idea of mimicking his nemesis 50 Cent, as suggested by Mel, who also dissed his “New York” anthem’s success in comparison to JAY-Z and Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind.”

“Mel’s earned the right to say whatever he wants but me copying 50 is like the funniest shit ever because 50 copied me,” Ja fired back. “I was his blueprint. But other than that, my ‘New York’ record was huge — humongous — one of the biggest New York records to date.

“‘Empire State of Mind’ is a huge record as well, but they’re different. Mine is a street anthem and ‘Empire State of Mind’ is like a big commercial kind of record with Alicia Keys and JAY-Z. Mine is me, Fat Joe, Jadakiss — it’s gutter.”

Before heading out, Ja Rule made sure to pay homage to KRS-One as he sampled lyrics from his “100 Guns” track for the memorable “New York” chorus.

“Big shout-out to KRS-One, that’s his lyric, ‘100 gun, 100 clips.’ Everybody know that — I don’t know how Mel fucked that timeline up,” he added.

The conversation stemmed from Melle Mel’s incendiary The Art of Dialogue interview, which saw him hit Ja with allegations of copying his foe 50’s street mentality.

“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,” Mel said while rapping 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.”

While “Empire State of Mind” went on to top the Billboard Hot 100 and collect three Grammy nominations, Ja Rule’s “New York” still made waves from a commercial standpoint as the gritty Cool & Dre-produced record peaked at No. 27 on the Hot 100.

playahaitian · Mar 18, 2023

Ja Rule Tried To ‘Copy’ 50 Cent, Says Melle Mel

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 if Ja wasn't trying to "copy" 50.

hiphopdx.com

playahaitian · Mar 18, 2023

JA RULE TRIED TO ‘COPY’ 50 CENT, SAYS MELLE MEL
by MARISA MENDEZ
Published on: Mar 16, 2023, 5:30 PM PDT
https://www.facebook.com/dialog/sha...hopdx.com/news/ja-rule-copy-50-cent-melle-mel
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.”

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.”