Ja Rule sat down with VladTV and broke down exactly why he didn’t respond to 50 Cent’s taunts the way he wanted to back when the two Queens rappers had serious beef in the early 2000s.

Rule says that his Murder Inc family as well as legal advisors begged him not to retaliate to 50’s accusations of them being snitches and being robbed for jewelry, saying that if he were to speak on the real situations surrounding the altercation, those bars could be used against them in court, so to be safe they advised him to keep quiet.

Eventually, however, Rule addressed the situation, even bringing Dr. Dre and Eminem into the beef. Rule says he never had a problem with Em and Dre, and reveals that before 50 was in the picture, he discussed collaborating with both the Compton producer and the Detroit MC. However, they understandably rode with their guy 50 and participated in bashing him, so he was simply defending himself within the context of a rap beef.

Hear Rule break it all down above.