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Ja Rule has several reasons to celebrate. The multi-platinum selling artist and accomplished entrepreneur has spent the past few years developing a brand-new whiskey with his team. After teasing the liquor over the past few months, Ja Rule's Amber & Opal honey rye whiskey is finally in stores now — and it couldn't have arrived at a better time.
"I was making Whiskitos this holiday season. It was amazing," he tells iHeartRadio. "Now listen, I coined that phrase. You've never heard of a Whiskito until today. This is my version of coquito. We use our whiskey in it and it's called a Whiskito and it's amazing."
Ja Rule began his new whiskey venture in 2021 during the height of the pandemic. He teamed up with the brand's co-founders Herb Rice, Kelvin Barton, and Sandy Sandiford to concoct a golden, honey-flavored elixir with hints of orange, cinnamon and a smoky finish that stems from a black Asian tea known as Lapsang souchong. In addition to his Whiskito, the New York rapper developed other tasty cocktails using his honey rye whiskey like the Amber Rush, which is the brand's take on a Gold Rush.
"The difference is we use agave syrup instead of simple syrup," Ja explains. "It's already sweet because we have the honey, so we didn't want to top it off with the simple syrup. So agave syrup takes the edge off a little bit."
Ja Rule traveled down to Miami to celebrate the launch of Amber & Opal. He got to connect with fans and give them a taste of his Whiskey at Total Wine in Miami Beach. He signed a few bottles, took a couple of flicks and got the people hyped up for his upcoming tour. Ja Rule is preparing to hit the road this spring for the "Where's The Party At Tour" with Nelly & The St. Lunatics, Eve, Fabolous, Jermaine Dupri and more. The tour will begin in March overseas and will hit the U.S. this summer — just in time for his upcoming album. The massive international tour will wrap up in September, just weeks before the 25th anniversary of his second studio LP Rule 3:36.
"I have this concept of what I want to do on my tour," he explains. "It's out of this world. It's Matrix vibe. I don't know how to explain it, but you just got to come out and see it."
We met up with Ja Rule at Casadonna's in Miami and took a shot of Ja Rule's Amber & Opal whiskey before fans had a chance to try it. In between sips, Ja Rule shares how the whiskey was created, speaks about his upcoming tour, reveals his plans to release new music this summer and more. Scroll below for the entire conversation.
Photo: Lorri Nikkole Photography
You're here in Miami enjoying everything for the Pegasus World Cup this weekend. How did you get into horse racing?
I love horse racing. I actually own horse racing team in the National Thoroughbred League. We've had some races and we actually have been doing pretty good. Our team is pretty good. I haven't got a chance to get out to any of the races yet, but I'm looking to also have our whiskey be there.
Of course, man. So how did you get into the whiskey business?
Well, first and foremost, it started out as an investment business for me and my partner, rice. There's four of us that started this actual venture. It's me and Herb, Pro Fes and Kelvin. But me and Herb started this journey about 2021 during Covid around the time when everybody was kind of just doing cool stuff. We got into the Web3 space. We was invested in cryptocurrency and NFTs and all this type of stuff, and they was doing a lot of these Dows and a whiskey Dow came across our table and it was to purchase a warehouse full of barrells of whiskey. So me and Herb and our investment group, we invested in the bows of whiskey. We bought the warehouse of whiskey, which is out in Ohio, and we were waiting for it to age for seven years and then we were going to flip it.
What happened was once the seventh year came up, some of the guys in our group started making personal bottles for their self, busting, open their barrells and make their personal bottles for theirselves at home. So the light bulb came on for me and Herb to create a brand. We went down that rabbit hole, came up with an amazing idea to make a honey whiskey. Herb did a lot of the due diligence and he went down to the Baltimore area where they're known for having whiskey distilleries. He went down to a distillery down in Baltimore and they told us that it wouldn't be a smart idea for us to use our barrels that we had to infuse honey with because it would just water down the premium bourbon that we had aged. And so they advised us to buy these barrels from them that were aged about two to three years. These were rye whiskey barrels. So we purchased those and infused it with honey and a lot of other notes that you can taste in it.
How has the response been ever since you launched it?
It's been amazing, fellas. Like it, I've been, if you smoke cigars and you do the dip, put the cigar in. It's an amazing drink to dip with for the fellas for the cigars. It gives you that nice honey finish every time you take a pull of your cigars. Amazing. But the ladies also enjoy it because it's not as aggressive as some of the other whiskeys on the market. It's sweet. It has that flavor to it where they can enjoy it. It's more an introductory level to whiskey for those who are not whiskey drinkers. So it works for both sides.
That's dope. You're about to give some fans a taste of Amber & Opal in Miami Beach. What does it mean to you to connect with your fans just on this level, 30 years into your career?
I love the fans. That's the backbone of every artist is their fan base. I really love getting out and touching the fans whenever I can. Just being who I am and letting them get to know me on a more personal level besides just who they see on television or know from music, which is cool. They call it something different in the liquor industry. It has a slick little name, almost like how we have for in-store, but can't wait to do that on a Saturday and touch the people and have a good time.
How would you describe the taste?
Lemme tell you, man, this was worked on for a long time to get the taste that it has. You'll taste the orange and cinnamon and the smoky finish, which is a black Asian tea that we call Lapsang souchong. It's an amazing taste if you're a whiskey enthusiast or if you're whisky curious. It kind of lands somewhere in the middle for both parties. It's a work of art. The bottle, the taste, the cap. This cap also represents honeycomb and then you see the bee for the honey. If you know anything about the bee community or bees in general, their whole existence is about community and how each one has their own job to do their own role to make the comb and deliver the honey. So this is very celebrative to that. Amber and Opal, the name itself. Amber is the color and the opal is inclusive. And bottle, this is not even a bottle, this is a decantur. So you can reuse it, do things with it.
That's very innovative. So this is in stores now?
We're in 10 cities, 10 markets, over a hundred stores. Shout to our Total Wine friends out there and also you can get it on sealbox.com.
So you're going to take this on the road with you? I know you're about to go on the road for the "Where The Party At" Tour with Nelly, Eve and other legends.
Yeah. I'm going on a tour starting in April and we finish up in September. So I'll be in a city near you and we'll be doing in-store at Total Wines and different liquor stores throughout the country all summer.
What can fans expect from this tour?
This tour is going to be a lot of fun. I don't want to give too much up too soon, but the show is going to be an amazing tour. We go out, like I said, we start in April. It's me, Nelly, Eve, Jermaine Dupri, Fabulous, Chingy. So it's an all hip-hop tour. It's not a lot of all hip-hop tours that go out throughout the year, so it's going to be a lot of fun.
Along with the tour, I know you're back in the studio. You've been working on a new album since last year. Will fans get to hear something new this year?
Yeah, actually I'm thinking about dropping a new project in June right before I hit the road stateside. We hit the states tour starting in July. So I'm thinking about dropping the album in June. Trying to get it ready, trying to get it finished all up. That's the plan right now.
Between the new music and your upcoming album anniversary, you've got a lot to celebrate.
Well, this year is my 25th anniversary of Rule 3:36. So we're planning to do stuff around that. Def Jam and me, we're planning to do stuff around that. So it is a blessing to have three albums worthy of that milestone. I get to have them back to back. Last year we celebrated Veni Vitti Vici. This year we're celebrating Rule 3:36, and next year we're going to celebrate Pain Is Love. It's kind of cool to have that.
It is! What are some of your favorite memories about that era? You had an incredible run during that time.
Just good times when you look back at it. Everything was going so fast, everything was moving so fast. It wasn't something that I thought about in the moment. What's this going to look like 10 years from now? What's this going to look like 20 years from now? It was just young black men from marginalized communities creating the sound that was created in the Bronx and we were just pushing it forward. It was something that .... you don't look at, like what it was going to be and what it became. It was just something that we did and something that we felt like if we can get our foot in the door, we can make a little money feed our family. It wasn't this big picture, but it became that. I can only say thank God I was blessed to be in this position to do music and touch people in the way I've done.
With the tour and everything that you're working on, I feel like that'll all come full circle while you're on that stage.
I've been touring my whole career like a ball player or athlete. Those days have a shelf life. I don't know how long I'm going to be able to do what I do or how long I'm going to want to keep doing what I do. So I think about those things sometimes. Every tour has a special place in my heart for me. I don't know if this one may be the last one I do or the next one may be the last one I do of this magnitude. I think about those things and so as I go out on this tour, I really want to make this special for my fans and do something that they've never seen me do ever. Just take it to another level for them. I'm looking forward to this in a lot of ways.
That's dope man. I'm sure you're going to be back in Miami for ther tour. I feel like you're no stranger to this city. I believe the last time you were here was for DJ Khaled's golf tournament, right? Yeah. You came to Casadonna for the welcome party.
For sure. We was at the party.
You've been playing golf for awhile now. Talk about how you got into it.
I love golf. It's my new therapy. Music used to be. My therapy was very therapeutic. I'd go and get things out and things I was thinking daily or things I was feeling daily, I was able to go express that through songs. Now that I'm not recording as much, it's more of a woosah now. It's more of a relaxing moment that I get to have going out on the golf course. But also in my entrepreneurial stage of life, I get to go out there and think and do business and have that thought process live out. Looking out amongst the greenery of the golf course. It is just a different feeling plus the challenge of it all. You versus you, even though you're playing with other people, it's all about you. And how good are you at conquering this game. At the end of the day, golf is a game. It's just an amazing game. Studying people's character on the course is an amazing thing. You get to see how people are for four hours. You can see a lot of characteristics in a person. You see a lot of a person's emotions in that four hours. You see anger. You see sadness, you see happiness, you see all of these different emotions and how they deal with them. There's a lot of things to golf that people don't realize what's going on. It's the game within the game.
You say you're able to analyze people on the green. Who are some people you like to compete against?
Nowadays I like to play with people who are good. You play with better players, you get better. So a lot of my guys are really good golfers. I was just down here at the PGA show hanging out with my brother, JR Smith. Swish is a dog with the sticks and on the court. He's an athlete so he gets it. He picks it up quick. But I love playing with Swish, CC Sabathia. Big shout to my brother. He just made it to the Hall of Fame. Big shout. CC, first ballot. Very deserving.
Shout out to CC for sure. So you got the liquor, the tour and you're working on new music. What's next for you this year?
I don't know. I enjoy working, so I got a lot of things that I'm building and creating right now. I got ICONN that's in the Apple App store right now. And my ICONN network that I'm currently building and creating original content for and also acquiring content for. So those are some of the other things that I'm passionate about that I'm working on. Another project that I'm taking on right now is my painted house project. It's all about art. We've done a project already with the artist Nick Davis. Rest in peace. Nick. We love you man. Really, really talented artists. Me and Herb also built this and did this together during our Covid time. We did a project called Black is Beautiful NFT Project. It's amazing. You got to see Nick's art. So I'm looking to expand that this year and do something really special.