50 Cent and Ja Rule’s feud was probably one of Hip Hop’s most infamous beefs, and Melle Mel thinks things may have gone differently for Ja Rule if he did not copy Fiddy’s gangsta style.
In a recent interview with The Art of Dialogue, the legendary rapper from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five shared his thoughts on why rappers trying to be “hard” is resulting in the destruction of the genre itself.
“A lot of rappers could be better rappers if they stopped rapping like everybody else. What is it that you need to say? You could be the ni–a that made a song about a pool party, but you f–ked around and listened to Meek Mill and went and you f–ked around and did some dumb s–t. It’s just like when 50 Cent was doing this s–t and then when Ja Rule and that was probably one of his last big records.” said Melle Mel.
Then 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 am 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.”
In a recently release footage from TMZ, Ja literally laughs out loud at Mel’s comments and says: “Mel has earned the right to say whatever he wants but me copying Fifty is the funniest s–t I’ve ever because Fifty copied me. I was his blueprint. Other than that, my New York record was huge. One of the biggest New York records to date. Empire State of Mind is also huge but they are different. Mine’s a street anthem and Empire State Of Mind is a big commercial record with Alicia Key and Jay-Z.”
You can watch the video below: