Ja Rule Says He Was Never Signed to Murder Inc.
The chart-topping rapper out of Queens was one of the faces of the label, though he wasn’t technically on the roster.
Ja Rule attends Swings 'N' Swigs & The Happier Hour at the Puttery on April 07, 2026 in New York City.
Photo by Joy Malone/Getty Images.
Ja Rule became one of the faces of the Murder, Inc. label in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The chart-topping rapper out of Queens scored countless hits for Murder, Inc. and forged an unbreakable bond with Inc founder, the late Irv Gotti. But during a recent appearance on Earn Your Leisure, Ja reminded everyone that he was never technically signed to the label — although he was clearly instrumental in its rise.
"I took [Irv] from $5,000 to $50,000 to $100,000 in six months,” Ja said. “And then I took him to $100,000 to $250,000 in another year … pushing the price up. Irv wasn't — that was me. That was my job.”
Tommy Mottola of Sony Music approached Irv to create what would become Murder Inc. Irv’s brother, Chris Gotti, was listed as a co-founder, but he shared that the label was born out of Irv’s production and management successes.
"It wasn't like he went to Sony and said, 'Hey, give me a record deal,'" Chris explained in an interview with Angie Martinez.
Murder Inc. would go on to sign artists such as Ashanti, Lloyd, Charli Baltimore, and more. Ja Rule, however, wasn't signed to Murder Inc. He was signed to Def Jam.
“I was Murder Inc., you know what I mean?” Ja Rule said. “I didn’t never really feel like a Def Jam artist, per se, because I did everything Murder Inc., you know what I mean? So that’s the way we built it, and that’s the way we moved it. And then it felt right because that’s how D (DMX) was moving with Ruff Ryders and that’s how Jay-Z was moving with Roc-A-Fella.”
Subscribe to Okayplayer newsletters and get more music and culture news delivered directly to your inbox. Join here.
