Weeks after announcing that he was in “full album mode,” Ja Rule has offered up more information about the forthcoming project that celebrates the 25-year anniversary of his debut release, Venni Vetti Vecci.
“My album is called Can We Watch the Sunrise Together?” he told Tamron Hall in a recent appearance on her daytime talk show. Elaborating on the inspiration being the album’s name, he explained, “If anybody’s familiar with the significance of [a] sunrise, it’s new beginnings, fresh starts [and] resurrections.” Twelve years have flown by since Rule released a studio album, his last being Pain Is Love 2.
The rapper, who had airwaves on lock with Murder Inc. Records throughout the early 2000s, added that unlike his peer André 3000, who feels that his age has hindered his ability to add to the authentic and relatable narratives of Hip Hop, he still has something to offer.
“For me, I think Hip Hop is moving into that stage like how rock and roll did when we grew up — you know, this is the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop… Hip Hop is growing up, and I think it’s time for artists in my age bracket to continue making music so we have those classic, you know, Hip Hop stations and those classic, you know, Hip Hop songs,” said Rule.
The Queens-bred rapper also touched on last year’s Billboard/VIBE ranking of the top 50 greatest rappers of all time. The Grammy-nominated artists previously tweeted, “There ain’t 50 rappers dead, alive or waiting to be born better than me… Congrats to everyone on the list, well deserved, but check my résumé.” A year later, and he still stands by those claims.
“These lists — they’re meaningless because music is subjective. You like who you wanna like, [and] you know everybody has their favorite artist… This is a list, you know, comprised by Billboard. They do numbers and statistics, if I’m not mistaken. Okay, so that list is impossible to make without Ja Rule being on it… We talking about 17, 20 top 10 entries. You know, like, come on, man. There’s artists on the list that don’t have No. 1 records, don’t have No. 1 albums.”
Check out more of Ja Rule’s comments about his comeback album in the video below.