Ja Rule Says He and Fat Joe Purposely Avoided R. Kelly Collabs During 'Verzuz'

Following his recent Verzuz event against his frequent collaborator Fat Joe, Ja Rule has stopped by Drink Champs and admitted he and Joe avoided playing their R. Kelly collabs.

At around the 24-minute mark of the episode, Ja Rule spoke about the idea of separating the art from the artist, and admitted it was “tough to do.” He added, “That’s why we didn’t play no R. Kelly records that night.” Explaining himself further, Ja revealed that he and Fat Joe had a conversation about avoiding their respective R. Kelly collaborations before the Verzuz event.

“R. Kelly’s a flawed man, he’s going through his problems,” he continued. “He’s flawed. Nobody’s perfect… And, you know, what he’s done is what he’s done and he has to account [for it]. But the art, do we throw it away? … It’s such a touchy subject, and for me it’s a touchier subject.” Ja Rule added that he wrote R. Kelly’s verses on his collaborations with him, which prompted N.O.R.E. to say that Fat Joe did the same.

Elsewhere in the chat, Ja Rule joked that he thought when he first got a call from Swizz Beatz he was going to be asked about doing a Verzuz with 50 Cent, whom he has a long-standing beef with. “ I missed the calls. I got a call from Swizz, now Swizz don’t normally call me. The real shit is, I thought it was the other dude," he said. "That’s the Verzuz that everybody’s been trying to make. So then, after that, I looked at my next missed call and it was Fat Joe. So then, I called Swizz and [he] was like, ‘You want to do it?’ We put this together in two weeks. I really didn’t have prep time.

Watch the full episode of Drink Champs above.