JA RULE - JA RULE: 'I'M NOT TO BLAME FOR PARTY SHOOT-OUT'

JA RULE is distancing himself from a Christmas party shooting that left one man dead, insisting the venue was allowed to become a gangland warzone after rival thugs were invited inside.

Rule, real name JEFFREY ATKINS, insists he was a paid guest at the LQ club party and he's annoyed that his name has been linked to the shootings.

He insists troubled flared up when members of rival New York street gangs the Bloods and the Crips were allowed into the bash.

He says, "I'm a rapper and I do my concert and then the promoter books me an after-party. I get paid to go to the party and the Crips and Bloods have a bing-bang shoot-out outside.

"It's printed in the paper, 'Shoot-Out at Ja Rule's Party.' That's not right. We rappers have to endure that bad press because of the audiences we bring.

"It's our hood, that's the same ghetto that you came from, where the kids are still going through that thing that we came up out of.

"When I go back to my hood they're going through it. They're still out there banging, they're still out there hustling, and they're still out there struggling.

"So, Ja Rule throws a party and all the hood kids come. They come to the party and a fight breaks out and Ja Rule gets blamed for the situation. It's sad."