Round By Round Break Down of the Ja Rule vs Fat Joe Verzuz

September 14, 2021

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Just a couple weeks before the latest Verzuz was announced someone asked me who I thought should go up against Fat Joe. There were only 2 options that made sense, based on who hasn’t had a Verzuz yet: Busta Rhymes or Ja Rule. My vote was Ja because I felt like the only options left for him were: Ma$e or Fat Joe. It just made sense to me based on what I knew of their catalogs. Swizz and Timbaland agreed and the Ja Rule vs Fat Joe Verzuz was announced.

Let me quickly take you back to the Summer of 1998. The movie Rush Hour was released, the first of the Jackie Chan/Chris Tucker collaborations. One of the songs from that soundtrack was a little gem from Jay-z called, “Can I Get A…” On the third verse of that song we were introduced to a newcomer by the name of Ja Rule who held his own on the track and started a run at the tail end of Hip-Hop’s golden era right into the first half of the early 2000s. Murder Inc., his label with Irv Gotti was originally also supposed to be the name of a group featuring Jay-Z, DMX and Ja Rule as well. The fact that it never came together in an album might be one of the biggest disappointments in Hip-Hop modern history.

Fat Joe aka Don Cartegena aka Joey Crack aka Crizzle aka the Terror Squad leader started out with Diggin’ In The Crates crew back in 1992! His first solo album Represent was released the following year in 1993 and he’s been on a tear with hit singles ever since. Joe is also responsible for helping launch the careers of Big Pun, Remy Ma, DJ Khaled and production duo Cool & Dre.

Both these artists have way more than 20 hits and its past time for them to receive their flowers and accolades.

Like we have done previously with these Verzuz battles, here’s a round by round break down of the Ja Rule vs Fat Joe Verzuz.

Previous Battles:

Round by Round of The Lox vs Dipset Verzuz

Fat Joe went first…

Round 1: Fat Joe – “Flow Joe” vs. Ja Rule featuring Jay-Z & DMX – “It’s Murda”

Sheesh. Didn’t see this start.

Winner: Ja Rule
Ja Rule featuring Jay-Z & DMX – “It’s Murda”

Round 2: Fat Joe – “My Lifestyle” vs. Jay-Z featuring Ja Rule & Amil – “Can I Get A…”

Winner: Ja Rule
Jay-Z featuring Ja Rule & Amil – “Can I Get A…”

Round 3: LL Cool J featuring Keith Murray, Fat Joe, Foxy Brown – “I Shot Ya Remix” vs. Jay-Z featuring Ja Rule & DMX – “Murdergram”

Winner: Fat Joe
“I Shot Ya Remix”

Round 4: Big L featuring Fat Joe – “The Enemy” vs. Ja Rule – “Holla Holla”

Winner: Ja Rule
Ja Rule – “Holla Holla”

Round 5: MOP featuring Remy Ma – “Ante Up Remix”/Fat Joe & Big Pun – “Twins (Deep Cover 98) vs. Ja Rule featuring Christina Millian – “Between Me & You”

I was going to give this round to Joe, but then I remembered he wasn’t on the “Ante Up Remix”! That’s just M.O.P., Remy Ma & Busta Rhymes. “Twins” was a great record, but not better than “Between Me & You”

Winner: Ja Rule
Ja Rule featuring Christina Millian – “Between Me & You”

Round 6: Fat Joe featuring Remy Ma – “All The Way Up” vs. Ja Rule featuring Case – “Livin’ It Up”

Winner: Fat Joe
Fat Joe featuring Remy Ma – “All The Way Up”

Round 7: Fat Joe featuring Nas, Big Pun, Jadakiss & Raekwon – “John Blaze”/Big Pun featuring Joe – “Still Not A Player” vs. Ja Rule featuring Charli Baltimore – “Down Ass Bitch”

Ja should have held on to this one…

Winner: Fat Joe
Fat Joe featuring Nas, Big Pun, Jadakiss & Raekwon – “John Blaze”/
Big Pun featuring Joe – “Still Not A Player”