Rapper Ja Rule has reiterated that his long-running feud with fellow rapper 50 Cent and G-Unit affiliate Tony Yayo is unlikely to end anytime soon.

The tension between Ja Rule and 50 Cent has spanned more than two decades, with both artistes repeatedly exchanging jabs in interviews and across social media platforms.

Their rivalry has also played out musically, with each side releasing diss tracks aimed at the other.

While several high-profile hip hop disputes have eventually been resolved, Ja Rule, 49, has made clear that reconciliation is not on the table in this instance.

Speaking in an interview with TMZ on Tuesday, the New York rapper declared that he would “never” be on friendly terms with 50 Cent, 50, or Yayo, 47.

Before addressing the state of their relationship, he was questioned about his decision to apologise following a recent altercation involving Yayo and fellow rapper Uncle Murda aboard a Delta flight.

“I’m a grown man,” Ja Rule said in response to being asked why he apologized.

The interviewer further pressed him on whether he would consider a sit-down with 50 Cent and Yayo to resolve their issues.

“Never,” Ja Rule replied. “Here’s the reality, right? Sometimes in life, people have enemies, and that’s okay. You know what I’m saying? That’s okay to have enemies. Everybody can’t be friends.”

He added, “But what I’m saying is, we don’t also have to be at war. There’s room for us to be not friends and also not be at war.”

Expanding on his stance, Ja Rule said he has chosen to keep his distance from them.

“I don’t deal with that side. I don’t fck with them, they don’t fck with me,” he continued. “That’s fine. But I also don’t have to be at war. You know what I’m saying? I’m a grown man, I’m almost 50 years old. And so you know, we’re doing big things out here.”

In the aftermath of the Delta flight confrontation, Ja Rule issued a public apology addressing the incident.

“I’m not proud of my behavior, it’s goofy to me. I’m a grown man about to be a proud grandfather and I wish that video of me wasn’t out there either,” he said in the statement.

“I don’t like people taking me out of my character so for that I apologize to my wife, family, fans, business and investment partners. I want people to know at the end of the day I’m still a man and I’m going to stand my ground. I don’t start trouble,” he added.

American rapper 50 Cent's career began with a string of bitter disputes that nearly took his life.

He reflected on this period of his life in response to a video Joe Budden posted about 50 Cent's rise to fame and the disputes he encountered while embarking on a successful mixtape run.

“The ill shit is it’s true,” 50 wrote on Instagram. “I had beef with 3 different guys that had influence, real gangstas they all had crews that caught body’s running around putting in pain. I don’t know, I would just get mad, then say fuck them [n***as]. LOL we all gonna die one day!”

In the clip, Budden described 50 Cent as having, “the greatest run that I’ve ever seen in my entire life. And that will probably remain the same—that answer will never change.”

Budden continued, “I’m very aware of all the people that 50 Cent had beef with. He shouldn’t have beat any of it. They tried to kill 50 Cent for years. He should have died. He did not. He then had to deal with real live street beef with being blackballed. He shouldn’t have beat that. He shouldn’t have beat both of those things.

“He was on the greatest mixtape run that I had ever witnessed,” Budden explained. “Then he signs with [Eminem], [Dr.] Dre. They put out ‘In Da Club.’ It never went off. Never saw nothing like that. He delivered [an] album [Get Rich or Die Tryin’]—classic. I have never seen a n***a do what 50 was able to do and accomplish, and what he had to endure on his way. You’re not gonna beat it.”

50 Cent was shot nine times in 2000. He subsequently signed a publishing deal with Columbia Records while in the hospital before the label dropped him and he was “blackballed”—as Budden put it—by the music industry after his unreleased song “Ghetto Qu’ran” was leaked later in 2000.

He has been in a reflective mood. Over the weekend, 50 discussed his and Eminem’s success, comparing his album sales with the Detroit native and bragging that no one was better than the pair in the early 2000s, when they were both selling millions of copies of their albums.

Em’s The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show earned 1.78 million and 1.32 million in first-week sales, respectively. 50’s sophomore album, The Massacre, brought in 1.15 million, and his debut, Get Rich or Die Tryin’ sold 872,000 during its first week.

“The funny shit is only @eminem sold more then [sic] me. I made n****s so uncomfortable they don’t want to remember. LOL,” Fif wrote on IG.