Jeffery Atkins was born and raised in Hollis, Queens. Because of the leap year (an extra day added to the end of February every four years) and the fact that Ja Rule was raised as a Jehovahs witness, lil Rule actually didnt celebrate his birthday until he was 11 years old. Ja started rapping as a teenager, first as a part of a crew called Cash Money Click and then on his own. In 1998, he signed to Irv Gottis Def Jam imprint, Murder Inc. Records where he worked with the likes of future legends Jay Z, DMX and more. After gaining a buzz with his feature on Jay Zs Can I Get A
by 1999, the gravelly voiced MC dropped his debut album, Venni Vetti Vecci, which debuted at No. 3 on Billboard charts. As rap moved into the new millennium, Ja continued to dominate the charts with his albums, especially 2001s Pain Is Love, which featured some of his biggest hits to date; Livin It Up featuring Case and Always on Time featuring Ashanti
