For over a quarter of a century, Ja Rule and 50 Cent have sustained their headlines-friendly feud, frequently trading playful mockery on social media as their respective trajectories as artists and businessmen have progressed.
In an interview with Carmelo Anthony and Kazeem Famuyide for the 7PM in Brooklyn podcast, Ja simultaneously argued that he and Fif both deserve respect from fans while also emphasizing what he sees as his own superior qualities as a rapper.
“But you don’t though,” Ja said when it was proposed that fans often feel as though they have to pick one or the other in these types of scenarios. “I know how fans see it but you really don’t. At the end of the day, you’ve gotta kinda love both or you gotta kinda respect both. You don’t gotta love both but you gotta respect both. You gotta appreciate both, and that’s just what it is. Even in rap competitions and battles and beefs and shit like that, you know I have a very different take on it than everybody does. … He has a take on it that was his take.”
Ja conceded that his own stance might be “unpopular” before laying out his points.
“I feel like I was the better rapper,” he said. “I felt like I made the better records. I feel like my records aged better, still. So that’s how I feel inside. I don’t know how everybody else feels.”
In the same interview, shared Nov. 10, the 49-year-old “Mama” artist later argued that “one is an imitation of the other in a lot of ways,” zeroing in on what he sees as his ushering-in of the duet format in the 2000s. As Ja pointed out, despite prior criticism, 50 Cent himself also sang on his own records.
As for any potential of the two landing on a song together, Ja seemingly doesn’t see that as a possibility.
“We’ve never done a record together,” he said. “We’ve never been friends, so I don’t know why people wanna see that.”
The more recent feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake was also touched on during the conversation, as was Ja’s intentions of wishing “luck” to his longtime adversary despite their differences over the years.
“That’s why I don’t sit here and promote the negativity between me and 50,” Ja explained. “I don’t give a fuck about that shit. I wish that Black man luck, man. Go ahead and do you, man. Get your money, man. But do right, do better. Because all you do is fucking shit on other Black people too. That’s all he does.”