Attempted Murder

So here’s what happened:

In the spring of ‘95, I first heard Jay-Z, DMX, and Ja Rule on the same track. It was the B-side of Mic Geronimo’s “Masta I.C.” single, on a song called “Time To Build” (produced by Mic’s man DJ Irv). At that time, Mic was an underground artist on TVT Records, and yet more well-known than any of the other parties involved. The song was OK, but nothing I retained much from. Ja and X sounded like the average raspy-voiced rappers from NY during that era, and Jay was ehhh- still not fully out of that hyper shit he was on at the time.

Three years later, I heard them together again. By early-’98, things had changed. Jay wasn’t a household name yet, but he was successful, not to mention one of my favorites. X was the “new” artist everybody was checkin’ for, off the strength of his numerous guest appearances. Ja was a former member of the Cash Money Click (not that one) who was also supposed to be coming out with his debut soon. They were all in together on a Clue tape, doing the opening freestyle that later became known as “Murdergram”.

A year later, it was a whole different story. Jay was officially a superstar with his Vol. 2: Hard Knock Life album. X was on top of the world with his albums, It’s Dark & Hell Is Hot and Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood. Ja’s debut album, Venni Vetti Vecci, was highly-anticipated at this point- mostly due to his appearance on Jay’s “Can I Get A” single. DJ Irv was now Irv Gotti, and he was known as the guy responsible for putting this new movement together. The Hard Knock Life Tour was selling out city-to-city, and hip-hop in general was a HUGE deal.

So then, out comes a new issue of the relatively-new XXL magazine. The cover story is about an upcoming project, slated to hit the stores later that year: Murder Inc., comprised of Jay-Z, DMX, and Ja Rule. Wow- couldn’t have happened at a better time. They were amongst the hottest names in hip-hop, popular on the street level and mainstream-wise, and there was no way the album could fall short of its expectations from a creative or sales standpoint. I read this article, as Gotti raved about how they were about to go SO hard with this album, and how it was gonna be on N.W.A. levels of unabashed nigga-ness and so forth. I was ready to hear it, as I’m sure a lot of people were.

And of course… after the cover story, the tour, the ads… it never happened. I’m just guessing, but the thing that killed the chances of the Murder Inc. project ever coming out was likely the same thing that built the hype for it. X and Jay weren’t the same dudes who were battling each other in a pool hall five years earlier, and Ja wasn’t about to be X’s hypeman like he’d been previously. They all became top-tier stars with their own crews to lead.

Next thing you knew, “Murder Inc.” was the record label headed by Irv, and the closest we got to a Murder Inc. album was that terrible compilation. Instead of some murderously bloody Jay/X/Ja collabs, we instead got treated to the “talents” of Black Child and Vita. Then, Ja started suggesting that if not for his willingness to fall back and wait his turn, “maybe” X wouldn’t have been signed to Def Jam, and “maybe” Jay wouldn’t have had a hit with “Can I Get A”. Following that, the party was over. X dissed Ja, Ja dissed X, X and Jay shot subliminals back and forth, and Irv only cared but so much because he was busy piping promoting Ashanti and counting his cash.

So here it is 10 years later. Ja Rule scored a fair share of hits from singing his little heart out during the earlier part of this decade, but he’s finished now. DMX has gone from arguably the most popular rapper of ‘98 to whatever the fuck this is. Irv is… the guy with the reality show on VH1? Jay-Z is literally controlling the fate of his own career at this point- not to mention the richest artist in hip-hop. It’s kinda a shame that those four egos couldn’t have gotten on the same page long enough to put the album together back in ‘99. Instead, all we have is a couple tracks to indicate how it might’ve sounded… which I guess will have to be good enough.

It was probably the easiest thing in the world to get them all together when neither one knew where their careers were headed. But the bigger they got, they probably felt like they didn’t need to work together, so it could either happen or not- emphasis being on “not”. When it boils down, the Murder Inc. project was meant to happen in 1999, and 1999 only. It would’ve been less relevant any year before then, and not as urgent any year afterward. It’s one of hip-hop’s biggest never-happened moments that coulda shut the game down 10 years ago, but would mean jackshit if it happened tomorrow.

Mic Geronimo featuring Ja Rule, Jay-Z, & DMX “Time To Build” (1995)

Jay-Z, Ja Rule, & DMX “Murdergram” (1998)

Ja Rule featuring DMX & Jay-Z “It’s Murda” (1999)

-D!