JA RULE TALKS “CHURCH GIRL”, “HIP HOP” AND “HILLSONG”
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH PLATINUM SELLING RAPPER AND ACTOR JA RULE
AS TOLD TO HASAN JAMES
ROOT: Considering that you are from the Hip Hop world, with this movie “I’m In Love With A Church Girl”, how has the Christian community embraced you as you’ve been promoting this movie?
JA RULE: They’ve been exceptional; they’ve been very open, very accepting. I know I’m not a Christian per se, but I’m very spiritual, I believe in God. I actually just got saved, recently too. I guess I am a Christian.
ROOT: Congratulations! You grew up a Jehovah’s Witness right?
JA RULE: Yes, I grew up as a Jehovah’s Witness. This has been a journey for me but I’ve been having a good time. God has blessed me with a lot of great things. I feel really good about everything that is going on. So yes they have embraced me in a real special way. I’m happy to be a part of it all.
ROOT: Your character in the movie, Miles Montego is a very complex character. How much of Miles is Jeffery Atkins? Can you relate to the character?
JA RULE: I relate to him in a lot of ways, that constant struggle between good and bad. Trying to better your life, trying to do something better with your life and still having that dark past that keeps holding you back from going down that road. So I can relate to that in a lot of ways. I’ve been fighting that temptation for a long time. Doing music and films and trying to be on a whole new page of my life, but still having homies. I still ride with them and support them. I have a lot of love for them and sometimes their baggage gets caught up in what I’m doing. I understand that 100%, that’s why the character is very relatable.
ROOT: You said you recently got saved. How will this affect your music?
JA RULE: It’s a work in progress. After I got saved I had to let everyone know that you just can’t make a gospel record tomorrow. It’s a process and I’m taking baby steps towards that. Being saved is basically saying that I’m accepting Christ into my life. I do want to be closer to God and I do want God to be in my life. I guess that was a natural progression to get started and get the ball rolling. I’m happy. I pulled my wife out and made her get saved with me, so we did it together. Since then we’ve been talking about how we can be more grounded, trying to work more on ourselves. I think that is a big step because it helps you think consciously about the things that you do. I think it was a great thing for me, better for me going further down the road.
ROOT: It’s no secret that you were locked up for two years for tax evasion. It seems like all of the celebrities have been going to prison for taxes lately.
JA RULE: It was a gun charge. They came in got me after I did my two years for the gun charge and then they slapped me with some more time for the taxes.
ROOT: You’ve been away for some time, what did you do while you were in prison? How did you reflect? Is that where you met God, while you were in prison?
JA RULE: No, I’ve known God for a long time. My family was Jehovah’s Witnesses, so I grew up in that. So I’ve always felt I had a relationship with God, I just wasn’t that religious. I feel everyone should have their one on one with God. I don’t think that everyone really needs the religion part though. I’ve always felt I should have that one on one with God and I believe in a higher power and that’s how I carried myself throughout my life. I don’t know how to explain it.
ROOT: I must say you appear to be different.
Hasan James & Ja Rule
JA RULE: While I was in prison I did a lot of reading, I did a lot a research on myself. When you have that much time to yourself, you think about a lot things you have been through, all of the people you’ve hurt in the past and things you may have done. You reflect on that. I did a lot of soul searching.
ROOT: The title of the movie title says it all “I’m In Love With A Church Girl,” some people might say, “Oh, this is another church movie so I don’t want to see it.” How do you think this movie is different and why should people go out and see it?
JA RULE: I think what takes that immediately right out of that is “that it’s not a church movie” statement is that you have Adrienne and I in the film. We’re not of the church and I think that’s what is special about the movie. Israel (Houghton), he says this great thing about what church movies normally do, salting the salt and lightening the light. When you normally think of a faith based movie, they are made for church people, but what the church is trying to do is those that are not of the church. Those that may be in need to be brought to the church. So this type of film does that because it lends a certain cool to it by having regular people in it. My fans can go and say, “Well Ja did a faith based film, Ja goes to church or Ja is involved with the church community, Ja loves God. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Maybe that’s a cool thing, that’s fly.” I think that people get nervous when you say the word church, they say “Nah, I don’t want to do that, I’m too cool for that, I can’t go to church because God may not want somebody like me in his church, I’m evil, I’m partying, I was in the strip club last night.” But that’s not what it’s about; God wants you to come as you are. I’ve really really been to a church where I felt that vibe. I’ve been going to different churches on this run promoting the movie and I’m not going to lie, I’m a honest person, I’m very honest and candid when I speak and going to a lot of those churches I didn’t feel the vibe. I didn’t feel like come as you are, I didn’t feel comfortable.
ROOT: Did you feel as if you were being judged?
JA RULE: Yes. Galley Molinasays a great thing to, “This is the time when you shouldn’t be doing this, you should be doing this” and that’s the truth. People want to point their fingers and judge when they shouldn’t be doing that. You are supposed to be Godly people; you are supposed to be people created in God’s eyes. We are all his children so you shouldn’t judge a person that is trying to find God; you are supposed to be trying to help them get there. I finally felt that when I went to Hillsong Church. I walked in and immediately felt comfortable. It was dark but it wasn’t a club, the atmosphere was good and people were there in their regular clothes and they were having a good time. They were there sharing, congregating and sharing the word of God together, but in a different way. It was in a way where I didn’t feel uncomfortable. And then Carl Lentz comes out and he’s dressed like me. So it made me really feel that “Comes As You Are” wasn’t something they say and that meant a lot to me.
ROOT: I am a fan of Hip Hop and I’m a big fan of yours. There are so many disposable rappers now, they come out with one song and they are a “star”, but you have a catalog of work, selling four million records. Now you are back on the scene and it’s totally different even from the time you went away until now. What does a 37 year- old Ja Rule have to offer Hip Hop now?
JA RULE: Am I that old? (Laughter) Here’s the funny thing about that, I’m not going to say no names but I may be younger than some of these rappers that ya’ll consider new rappers and so for me that’s funny. As I look at Hip Hop and the beauty of what’s going on with Hip Hop is that it’s growing. When I was 17, my mother didn’t listen to Hip Hop, that wasn’t her thing. They’re genre of music was a little different, O’Jays, The Temps that good old soul music. That I sample, that I grew up on to, that was being played in the house and then Hip Hop came in and that was our thing. That was our cultural youthful, aggressive, rebellious culture that we embraced and now I’m 37 and I listen to Hip Hop with my daughter who is 18 and I listen to Hip Hop with my sons who are 13 and 10. So that’s the difference, now Hip Hop has grown. Hip Hop has been here for over three decades and now we are able to grow with the music. I’m able to listen to the same music my kids are listening to and I don’t think they are going to stop listening to Hip Hop so their kids will still be listening to Hip Hop while we are in our 50s and so in that aspect it’s a beautiful thing. I don’t think people realize it but there is definitely a market for the older Hip Hop artist. My cousin just told me the other day that “I heard Doug E. Fresh and them were having a concert in the city somewhere and I went and I had the best time.” And she is about 42, 43. But that brought her back to a moment in time.
ROOT: And Doug E. Fresh is in his 40s.
JA RULE: Exactly! So the music is starting to grow as the artists are evolving. I think we are going to see those tours going out, Big Daddy Kane and Eric B and Rakim. I think if a promoter were smart they would market and put that out there the right way. I think one just happened, it was LL, Ice Cube and some other old school rappers.
ROOT: The Rock The Bells Tour…
JA RULE: Yes and it was successful. And that too let’s me know that, we’re moving in the right direction and that we are growing with the music. I think that Hip Hop will be around for a very long time. Even with these new artists doing what they do. My kids love that. The other day my daughter was like “I love Gucci Mane,” I’m like “Gucci is alright.” He’s not my favorite, I mean I like Gucci too but that’s not for me, that’s their thing and I like that too, that they have their own artists.
ROOT: Like that new song “Don’t drop that…”
JA RULE: That’s my son’s ringtone.
ROOT: My daughter and her friends changed the lyrics to “Don’t drop that Lunchable.” LOL. When we were growing up it was all about lyrics, now it’s all about the hooks. Times have really changed.
JA RULE: Definitely!
