Ja Rule's second album, Rule 3:36, was released on October 10, 2000, and took a much different artistic direction to Ja Rule's previous work, including Venni Vetti Vecci, eschewing the hardcore hip-hop style he had become known for in favor of a mainstream-oriented pop-rap sound to greater success, debuting at #1 on the Billboard 200 with 276,000 copies sold in its first week, making it Ja Rule's first number one album.