Posted by Ja Rule may have been a punchline in Hip Hop for the last 15 years but his appearance on Verzuz shifted plenty of opinions for the Murder Inc. rapper.
Beyond the Fyre Fest jokes and more, Ja reminded people why in five years from 1999 to 2004, he racked up four platinum albums (two of which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart), six Top 10s and three No. 1 hits, among other accolades. Ja’s newfound resurgence even prompted Charlemagne Tha God to resurrect one of Dave Chappelle’s infamous jokes about Ja for a recent segment on The God’s Honest Truth.
During a segment which aired on Friday (September 24), The Breakfast Club host dove deep into the sordid racial history of the FBI, particularly former Bureau chief J. Edgar Hoover. At one point, Charlamange referred to Hoover as the “Thanos of exceptional Negroes.” Towards the end of the piece, Charlamange openly wondered what Ja Rule would think about this, a callback to Chappelle’s 2004 joke from his comedy special For What It’s Worth. This time, Ja had plenty of thoughts regarding Hoover and how the FBI needed to change the name of its building to reflect someone more progressive.
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Ja began, quoting William Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet. “Shakespeare once said, ‘Love all, trust a few. Do wrong to none.’ Well, Shakespeare never crossed swords with J. Edgar Hoover.”
The segment concludes with Ja driving off in a sleek BMW with his 2004 diss song “Clap Back” playing him off.
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In December 2020, Ja spoke with HipHopDX about Chappelle’s infamous joke and said he laughed it off after he heard it.
“My brother Dave, big shouts to Dave,” Ja said. “Yeah, we laughed about that. I’ve Facetimed Dave, or he’ll Facetime me and he’ll ask me, ‘Where’s Ja!’ Honored to be a part of that. What it was about was worshipping celebrities and putting too much faith in what a celebrity thinks and says. That’s what the joke was about and it just so happened I was the hottest n-gga at the time so I was used as a reference.”