2 rappers arrested in separate incidents

NEW YORK - Ja Rule and Lil Wayne have been arrested and charged with criminal possession of a weapon in separate incidents, police said.

The best-selling rappers were arrested Sunday night shortly after Lil Wayne's concert at the Beacon Theatre. It wasn't immediately clear whether Ja Rule had also performed.

Ja Rule, whose real name is Jeff Atkins, lives in Saddle Brook, N.J. Lil Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Carter, is from Miami.

Contact information for their managers could not be found early Monday, and there was no immediate response to messages left with their record company, Universal Motown.

It also wasn't immediately clear whether they had attorneys.

Officers spotted Carter, 24, and another man smoking marijuana by a tour bus near 61st Street and Columbus Avenue at about 11:30 p.m., police said. The officers took the two men into custody, finding a .40-caliber pistol. Both were charged with criminal possession of a weapon and marijuana.

Atkins, 31, was arrested about an hour earlier on West End Avenue. Police said he was in a luxury sedan that was going too fast. Officers stopped the car and arrested the occupants — Atkins, the driver and another man — and found a .40-caliber gun, police said.

Atkins rose to fame in the mid-1990s after appearing on a hit song with Jay-Z and later going on to record platinum-selling solo albums.

Carter's albums include "Tha Block Is Hot," "Lights Out," "Tha Carter" and "Tha Carter II."

"Uh Oh" is the name of a new song by the rappers.

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