Ja Rule Speaks At NYC Public Housing Rally

(AP Photo/Peter Kramer) – Ja Rule
Ja Rule attends the premiere of “Brooklyn’s Finest” in New York, on Tuesday, March 2, 2010.

Ja Rule recently gave an impassioned speech condemning poor housing conditions in his hometown during a rally at City Hall in New York City Feb. 20.

The main theme of the rally was that nearly 80 percent of public housing tenants had failures with their heating systems this winter.

“I’m happy that my brothers here were able to bring this together. I’m here to bring these cameras here so we can bring light to the situation. This has been going on a long time, a lot of years,” the artist said, as documented by CBS news. “It’s time that we, the people stand up and let our voices be heard.”

“City Hall, New York City, the mayor, the governor, they should all be ashamed of themselves. These are Americans, New Yorkers living in third world conditions and it should not be this way. Today, this is the beginning of it. I don’t know how far this is going to take us but there’s a lot of things that need to be addressed.”

City officials said the aging heating systems are related to a lack of federal funding, according to the New York Post, but Governor Andrew Cuomo recently pledged $300 million to capital construction, a portion of which will be used make some of the necessary renovations in the coming years.

Ja Rule’s speech went on to say that more should be done by the New York City Housing Authority and pledged to continue protesting the situation, hinting involvement of other artists, according to CBS.

The rapper’s representatives couldn’t offer a comment at press time.

Ja Rule is still facing more than a dozen lawsuits with his former business partner Billy McFarland for their roles in the disastrous Fyre Festival, but of the two only McFarland has been arrested and potentially faces prison time.