Ja Rule Released: Rapper Served 2 Years On Gun And Tax Evasion Charges

TMZ reported today that rapper Ja Rule has been released from prison after serving about two years of his sentences stemming from charges of attempted criminal possession of a weapon and failing to file tax returns over a five-year period. The rapper, whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, will remain under house arrest until July 28.

After a semi-automatic handgun was found hidden in his car by police after a 2007 concert in New York, Atkins was hit with a two-year sentence in 2010. In July 2011, he was also sentenced to 28 months for tax evasion after more than $3 million in earnings from 2004-2006 went unreported. These sentences were served concurrently, and he was released early -- he had originally been slated for release in July.

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RuleYork, Ja Rule's official website, confirmed the news in a statement which read:

"The Rule York team is very proud and excited to announce that Ja Rule has been released from prison! Let's give him a warm welcome. Ja Rule's Twitter handle is @ruleyork. Follow him and send him some welcoming tweets. We will be giving you more details of his release shortly. Stay tuned!"

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The rapper is best known for his No. 1 albums: 2000's "Rule 3:36" and 2001's "Pain Is Love," the latter of which also earned him a Grammy nomination. His duets with Jennifer Lopez, "I'm Real" and "Ain't It Funny" both hit No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard song chart that same year.

He debuted on the music scene with the album "Venni Vetti Vecci" in 1999, which hit No. 3 on the Billboard charts on the strength of its hit single "Holla Holla". His eighth album, "Pain Is Love 2", was released in early 2013, while he was still in the midst of serving his prison sentence. The rapper has also made forays into acting, most notably in the original "Fast And The Furious" movie.

The cases which landed him in prison were not his first brushes with the law. In 2003, he settled out of court with a Toronto man who sued him for punching him. A year later he was arrested for driving with a suspended license, and for possession of marijuana.

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Ja Rule had fallen out of the limelight to some extent in recent years following the rise to fame of rival rapper 50 Cent, with whom he had exchanged a long chain of diss tracks.