Only a privileged few get to ride in the back of a Maybach (It’s pronounced MY-bock, understand?).

It’s not the type of car that seats multiple people. In fact, this German import can only seat two (in the back), which makes the atmosphere for anyone riding in it—with its sliding curtains to block out gawking people, a sunroof with intricate details and a partitio that separates driver from passenger—a lot more intimate than most vehicles.

“Lean your seat down,” Ja Rule instructs me as I enter the backseat of his $400,000crib-on-wheels. “Get a little comfort joint on the side right there,” he says, pointing to the buttons on the side panel that give me that reclining feel, the multi-platinum rapper slyly chimes in his gravel-like voice, “Don’t look so stuffed up.”

It’s the rare celeb who cares whether anyone besides themselves is comfortable. Back in 2001, very few people were more comfortable than 28-year-old Ja Rule, who was rolling in the dough and the love (thanks to the omnipresent J. Lo duet “I’m Real” and The Inc’s producer, Seven, pop-friendly musicals, one could argue), only to have his credibility as an artist and man torn down by DMX, Eminem and the one who spearheaded the whole smear campaign, 50 Cent. But Ja squashes such talk on this sunny afternoon, reasoning, “We’re in a new era.”

On how his rides reflect the real Ja Rule:

“The 600 is fast and agile. I used to box. I like the speed of it—dipping in and out between cars real quick. The Range feels big, and it can damn near go over any curb or any mountain of snow. So that’s the “little nigga, big nigga” vibe, know what I’m sayin’? Cause it rides like a car, but it got that all-terrain capability. It’s gonna do what you need it to do. The Maybach…this is me when I’m chillin’. This is how I feel about myself. I’m a fly nigga, and this is some fly shit.”

On the cars Ja feels represent the hood best these days:

“That’s hard, cause we drive everything now. Denalis, Escalades, Ranges, Rimmed-out—that’s a hood nigga getting money. Then you can’t say that, because hood niggas are copping Benzes and everything. It ain’t hard to get a ca. Niggas be out there leasing and shit. I don’t even have a license.”

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