Gene Deal says a private jet ride to North Carolina turned into a verbal takedown of Jay-Z as Diddy and Ja Rule allegedly trashed the rapper’s early career and claimed responsibility for his rise.
Deal, a longtime associate of the Bad Boy Records founder, recalled the moment during an interview with The Art of Dialogue, saying the conversation between Diddy and Ja Rule centered on discrediting Jay-Z’s accomplishments and encouraging Ja to challenge him publicly.
“We was catching the G4 jet, and we was going to North Carolina to do a show. So somehow he had Ja Rule to go with us,” Deal said. “Him and Ja was talking. And this whole time him and Ja is talking, he talking about Ja going at Jigga. He was talking about Ja getting at Jay-Z, and he was talking bad and talking crazy about Jay Z.”
According to Deal, Ja Rule didn’t hold back in claiming he played a major part in Jay-Z’s early success.
“Ja was talking about, if it wasn’t for him, that Jay wouldn’t be the artist he was,” Deal continued. “He got him started, you know, he wrote certain things and stuff like that to put him out there. Because, you know, back in the day, nobody was even effing with Jay like that. But Puff was adamant about Ja going at Jay.”
The comments add a new layer to the long-standing but mostly quiet dynamic between Jay-Z and Ja Rule, who first crossed paths in the mid-1990s.
Alongside DMX, the two were part of the short-lived rap trio Murder Inc., a group concept created by Irv Gotti, not to be confused with the later record label of the same name.
Their earliest collaboration came in 1995 on Mic Geronimo’s “Time to Build,” a track that featured all three future stars before they broke out as solo acts.
By 1998, Jay-Z and Ja Rule teamed up again on “Can I Get A…,” a chart-climbing single from the Rush Hour soundtrack and Jay-Z’s Vol. 2… Hard Knock Life album. The song helped elevate both artists’ profiles in mainstream Hip-Hop.
Despite their shared history, the two never formed a lasting alliance, but no major public feud ever erupted. Deal’s story suggests there may have been more friction behind the scenes than the public ever saw.
His claim that Diddy was “adamant” about Ja Rule targeting Jay-Z implies a level of strategic rivalry that never fully materialized in the spotlight.
Jay-Z, who has since become Hip-Hop’s most influential mogul, has not addressed the claims either. His relationship with Ja Rule today appears cordial but distant, with both artists focusing on their respective business ventures and legacies.