Ashanti confirms joint album with Ja Rule on way
Ja Rule and Ashanti have gone through a lot of tribulations over the past decade and a half, thanks to the controversies around their former label Murder Inc., but the two have remained solid friends throughout, giving us some iconic crossover hits like 'Always On Time', 'Mesmerize' and 'Wonderful.' So it's a mild surprise that the two former labelmates never put out a joint album. Until now that is!
Just one day after Ja Rule offered praise to Beyoncé and JAY-Z for their new surprise album 'Everything Is Love', and suggested he and Ashanti should also put out a joint album, Ashanti confirmed that the duo is going to “make it happen.”
Speaking with Entertainment Tonight at the 2018 BET Awards on Sunday (June 24), Ashanti revealed her and Ja Rule have been thinking about creating a joint album for quite some time but the moment seems right now. "Listen, me and Rule, it's so funny because we've been talking about that for so long, but I think now he's like, 'OK, now it's time to do it,'" she said.
The singer went on to reveal that the duo will be freeing up some time in their schedule to work on the project. "So we're going to carve out the time and make it happen," she added.
The confirmation came after Rule took to Twitter to shower praise on the Carters' new collaborative album, which has been garnering high acclaim and speeding up to the top of the charts.
“Iconnic… The Carters… New album is dope!!! @ashanti I think we should do one of these joint albums haha,” Ja Rule tweeted on June 23.
Ashanti and Ja Rule last collaborated on 'Helpless' from 'The Hamilton Mixtape'. In an interview last November, Ashanti revealed that the characters of Eliza and Hamilton were actually inspired by her relationship with Ja Rule. "[Creator] Lin-[Manuel Miranda] actually had his people reach out to us, and told us backstage after we saw the play that he was inspired by Ja and I — Hamilton and Eliza were inspired by us," she said.
"So when me and Ja went to see the play and went backstage, I was just like, 'Oh my gosh, that's crazy!' So [Miranda] was really emotional just seeing both of us," she added.
But the relationship between the two artists goes back further than that. The two famously linked up in 2011 for Rule's 'Always on Time' and continued working together on songs such as, 'Mesmerize,' 'Wonderful' and 'Down 4 U.' So it's about time we got a chance to see what the duo can actually do by collaborating on a full-length studio effort. Thankfully, we won't have to wait too long to find out.