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Ja Rule reveals he’s actively browsing his catalog but has certain conditions for structuring a potential deal.
Rapper Ja Rule revealed it Bloomberg this week that he’s exploring the idea of selling his lucrative catalog – but explained his thought process involves a different deal than a typical artist deal.
Ja Rule says he hopes to sell his catalog as part of a reversion deal so some of what’s sold can be returned to his family in the future.
“I recently found out that my catalog is very lucrative,” says the rapper. “So I’m going to try (to sell). I really talked about doing a take back deal where I would probably give up half my catalog and it would revert to my family.”
“I think it’s quite difficult to put a figure on the value,” he said continues. “Usually when the artist disappears, the value of the music starts to decline. The value of the music starts to lose.”
Ja didn’t reveal what number he had in mind for his catalog, but he predicted that as the value of artists’ stream shares increased, so would the value of their discographies.
“It’s kind of weird, but what’s happening now is we’re getting less than a fraction of a cent for a stream, but that number is going up,” Ja Rule continued. “It goes up to about 15 percent. I think a lot of these companies are realizing the money that’s out there.”
The rapper also acknowledged that his unique fusion of hip-hop and R&B has been instrumental in influencing phenomenally successful artists like Drake, making his catalog all the more enticing to potential buyers.
Ja Rule has eight Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 hits to his credit – “Always On Time”, “Mesmerize”, “Livin’ It Up”, “Ain’t It Funny”, “Wonderful”, “Down 4 U”, ” Put It On Me and I’m Real – with three Hot 100 number ones and two #1 albums.