Ja Rule Calls Jail Amazing, "You Don't Meet Guys Like This Every Day"

Incarcerated rapper Ja Rule has provided fans with an update on life behind bars as he serves out two years on a gun possession conviction and, coincidentally, has described the experience as pleasant.

Rule credits an association with a few inmates to making jai more of an adventure than agony.

Serving two years for gun possession, Ja Rule found a new posse behind bars -- a couple of cons he calls "Hevey D" and "Koz." The Queens-raised rap star says disgraced pol Alan Hevesi and corporate greed poster-boy Dennis Kozlowski took him under their wings. From Kozlowski, he got stock tips. From Hevesi, he heard about the perennial impasse in Albany. They watched Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert together. "Outside, you don't meet guys like this every day. This place is amazing," Ja Rule told the Daily News during an exclusive interview at Mid-State Correctional Facility in upstate Oneida, N.Y. The rapper, whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, has been in prison since June for gun possession and tax evasion. He's not scheduled to get out until February 2013, but he's getting ready for his new album, "Pain is Love 2," to drop later this month -- and networking. "Koz just got out on work release. Not to say I wish he was still here," he said. "But they're both great, smart guys." (New York Daily News)

In December, the rapper inked an open letter describing his time behind bars.

"My first n*ght here was crazy inmates screaming, banging, and kicking the doors calling the male CO's b*tch a** n*ggas & f*ggots telling the female CO's how they gonna f*ck em, throwing plates of food out their cells onto the floor LOL. WELCOME TO THE GREEN MONSTER! This type of sh*t would never happen upstate at best you'd be in the box for a month at worst the infirmary. I even got into it wit these stupid n*ggas trying to assassinate my character talkin about I'm snitching to the guards and that I'm getting special treatment. I barked on these n*ggas and set em straight cause as a man there's only so much you can take before you snap. At first I tried to ignore there lil comments until they started talkin sh*t like they gonna kick my door and all this clown sh*t. But the funny thing is when I started screaming on them lettin them know they got the wrong n*gga they got excited it was like that's what they wanted to bring the hood out of me. That's when I realized that I'm dealing wit kids they can't be n*ggas my age cause that would've lead to instant confrontation not instant admiration." (VIBE)

A month prior, the rapper released an open letter detailing a failed suicide attempt.

"Today I can truly say I've been through it all. A young kid comes in today they put him in the 18 cell right next to mine he looked kinda depressed coming in but nothing out of the ordinary a few hours go past and all of a sudden I hear someone choking he's trying to kill his self. We all heard it everyone runs to their cell doors and start kicking,banging, calling the CO's. Now I've seen a person get shot and I've even seen someone die from a drug overdose but this was different this was suicide. It was like I can hear the life leaving his body the CO's rush in the cell they saved him. I didn't even think some sh*t like this was possible in these cells. He tied his bed sheet to a pole that's attached to a sink which is about 3 feet off the ground made some sort of noose wrapped it around his neck then threw himself forward into a boston crab carmel clutch type position. I never understood why a person would wanna kill themselves life is love & love is living it's gods most precious gift. After they brought him back to his cell in the suicide suit he cried for hours we tried to console him telling him it's never that bad to wanna kill yourself." (Jailhouse Journal Entry)

Already serving two years for his 2007 gun conviction, Rule was issued two additional charges for tax evasion last July.

Rapper Jeffrey Atkins, also known as Ja Rule, was sentenced Monday to 28 months in prison for failing to file tax returns with the IRS after admitting that he did not file his taxes for five years, the Justice Department said in a news release Monday. The 35-year-old performer from Saddle River, New Jersey, had pleaded guilty to three of five counts before U.S. Magistrate Judge Patty Shwartz, who imposed the sentence in Newark federal court. (CNN)