The iconic rapper's voice was the soundtrack to the early 2000s.
There was a time when every song on the radio seemed to be a Ja Rule hit, but before the platinum records and the fame, there was Jeffrey Atkins -- a kid from Hollis, Queens, secretly listening to rap music of something new.
Entertainment reporter Joelle Garguilo caught up with him at Amali Restaurant on the East Side, and it turns out, Ja Rule has a lot to celebrate these days.
Joelle Garguilo: I smile thinking about your music because I could put myself in a certain spot, in a certain car.
Ja Rule: That's what music does. It's that memory, the moments. You share these moments, you know, throughout your life with special people. That music becomes a soundtrack to those moments, and you never forget certain moments. That's the beauty of hip hop.
Now decades later, Ja Rule is still that kid from Queens just with a few more stories to tell, and now a new title to add.
Garguilo: This is a good day to announce that you're going to be a grandpa.
Ja Rule: I don't know if I announced it prematurely.
Garguilo: I think you did.
Ja Rule: Gets to tell a big mouth dad, big mouth, big papa.
Garguilo: You spill all the beans. What are you manifesting for the future then with that said?
Ja Rule: Being the best grandfather that I could be. My father, the lesson that he taught me was his absence. So, he gave me the greatest lesson. He did. I didn't ever want to be absent. You know? Part of being a man in life is shown. Being there when you're supposed to be there.
With his first grandchild on the way and fresh off of a successful tour, Ja Rule is still finding time to lend his voice to causes close to his heart, like Monday night's Angel Ball for cancer research, and even a school.
Ja Rule: I'm a stickler on education. I didn't graduate from high school. I dropped out of 11th grade and went and got my GED in prison. For me to be able to build a school, it built a moment for me. When people come together for a good cause and have good intentions, great things happen. My opening monologue to my tour was if your dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough. Never stop dreaming.
Garguilo: Oh, that's good. And that's and that's true.
Ja Rule: When you do right and you work hard, good things do happen. And I know it sounds very cliche.
Garguilo: I believe that.
Ja Rule: But it's very, very true.
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