Metro

Springtime for Ja Rule: Gun-slinging rapper to stay out of jail until June to finish album, taxes

Rapper Ja Rule — who pleaded guilty to attempted gun possession and agreed to a two-year prison term back in December — now doesn’t have to turn himself in until June 8, a judge decided this morning.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Richard Carruthers agreed to extend the rapper’s “furlough” to a total seven months over objections by assistant district attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon.

The extra time will allow the 34-year-old performer to settle a lingering federal tax matter and finish his latest album, said his lawyer, Stacey Richman.

Ja Rule — caught with a loaded, unlicensed gun back in July, 2007 — left court smiling broadly.

“We want to finish the album, and there’s also a tax issue,” said Richman. “Somebody, an accountant, had filed an incorrect form, and this is to correct what was done in the past,” she said.