Ja Rule Pleads Guilty to Gun Charge, Rapper Expected to Get 2 Yrs. in Prison

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) "Uh Oh" is one way to put it.

Rapper Ja Rule pleaded guilty Monday to attempted criminal possession of a weapon stemming from the night of July 2007 in which the Murder Inc. star and rapper Lil Wayne were arrested - separately - following a New York City concert performance.

"This isn't a good day," said the Queens-born Ja Rule as he left a Manhattan courtroom.

According to police, the rapper, born Jeffrey Atkins, was leaving the Beacon Theater when he was stopped in his luxury sports car for speeding. Authorities reportedly smelled marijuana coming from his car and found a loaded .40-caliber semiautomatic gun in the rear driver's side door.

The 34-year-old performer could have faced up to 15 years in prison if convicted by a jury. He was instead promised a two-year prison sentence and remains free until sentencing. He wasn't charged with drug possession, and a judge threw out his statement to police claiming that he only had "a little bit of weed" in his pocket.

"Because of your guilty plea here today, you'll have a record of having committed a violent felony. This is a very serious matter," Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Richard Carruthers told the rapper.

In a separate incident that night, New Orleans rapper Lil Wayne was also arrested on a gun-possession charge after the same concert, which he headlined. At the time, Ja Rule and the Young Money star had recently teamed up on a singled called "Uh Oh."

Lil Wayne, 28, pleaded guilty last year to attempted criminal possession of a weapon and spent eight months in the city's Rikers Island jail complex, releasing an album, "I Am Not a Human Being," while incarcerated. He was released last month.

Known for his raspy voice and collaborations with recording artists including Ashanti and Jennifer Lopez, Ja Rule achieved great commercial success with his third album "Pain is Love," which scored a 2002 Grammy Award nomination for best rap album.