Ja Rule accompanied us throughout the whole summer along with Jenny Lopez on “I’m Real”, definitely one of this year’s smash hits in Black Music. After the multi- platinum success of the Irv Gotti produced “I’m Real” Ja dropped “Livin’ It Up” featuring label mate Case. At that time you were already able to predict what Ja Rule’s third album would sound like.
And, yep, we guessed right, the little man from Queens and his main man Gotti basically stuck to the same successful formula on the long player “Pain Is Love”. Entirely produced by Ja’s Murder Inc. producers Irv Gotti and Lil’ Rob “Pain Is Love” is mainly smooth and radio friendly. Nothing wrong here, Ja Rule’s raspy voice perfectly matches the female counterpart singing a hook. The results are smooth and sexy tracks such as “Always On Time” (featuring Ashanti) and “X” (featuring Missy Elliott) that all sound pretty much alike. On the rougher tracks Ja usually features his Murder Inc. camp but they all lack the lyrical ability to get the listeners unrestricted attention by just emceeing. One last track that needs to be mentioned is “So Much Pain” featuring one of my personal heroes, the late, great Tupac Shakur. It contains parts from Pac’s “Pain.” Adopting 2Pac’s signature way of spitting Ja Rule amazingly resembles 2Pac not just by the way he looks.
But unlike on a 2Pac album you’re missing the songs you wanna hear over and over again. And although Ja Rule tries to balance out his album it lacks a certain depth. If you’re a big fan of Ja’s and the Irv Gotti stuff you’ll probably like “Pain Is Love” as well. If you’re on the other hand expecting a little bit more of an album than a handful of glossy radio tracks and some fillers you might as well live without calling “Pain Is Love” your own.