There are some artists that have created the Hip Hop audience that we have today, mainly the mainstream rappers. To bring a few to mind, most of those first became exposed to rap music by hearing music from Eminem, Nelly, 50 Cent, P Diddy, 2Pac, Biggie, and of course Ja Rule.
I remember the late 90's, and early 2000's when a new Ja Rule album meant a couple of top ten hits. These were the days when Ja was often collaborating with the likes of Ashanti, R Kelly, and Jennifer Lopez. However, as 2009 is now upon us, Ja Rule'sstring of hits has seemed to dry up, with now major release in over five years, and no major collaborations. In this time, rap music has changed, in a worldof Auto-tune, Flo Rida and record labels pushing album titles back, and it seems Ja has become victim of board room politics in the last couple of years.
2007 was suppose to be the return of Ja Rule. The Mirror was going to drop in the summer, along with Papoose, Nelly, 50 Cent and much more. By September, only 50 Cent had released an album from this list, with nothing in sight from the others, and a year later, we were gifted by a poorly promoted Nelly album, which many fans will say is below par in comparison to previous releases. Yet, Ja had released a couple of singles - 'Free' which features a new RnB voice, Ashley Joi, 'Uh Oooh' which had vocals from Lil' Wayne (later to have verses from Murder Inc members as well) and finally, 'Body' with Ashley Joi again. All received average ratings, and poor chart positions.
Early 2009, and there was still no official release in sight, but now a song with Robin Thicke had leaked across the internet. Was this a sign that it was on its way? Soon after, a mixtape entitled 'The Atkins Files Vol.1' was released for a free download on his Myspace page. Fans were hoping that this wasn;t a case of Ja Rule releasing all of his material away for free, and had simply given up of having a record label, promotional companies and advertisers trying to work together to get him back up the charts. Looking back now, it was.
By now, much of the album had leaked, although the source was still unkown.
However, at the end of last week, various news sources (MTV included) were reporting the the full album would become available for free download. For me, this was a sad sight, as although I am a huge fan of Ja and could not wait to hear another installment of the Queens rapper's life, it also means that any chance of getting himself back up on BET, MTV, The Hits, TMF and other music video channels, along with regular spins on Hot 97, BBC Radio 1 in the UK now look very unlikely.
The material that has leaked (whether or not this was going to be the official album or not) lacks substance. Ja Rule has failed to deliver any classic material, despite having five years to come up with something. There are no top producers involved with this, and a lot of the beats do not sound like something that a rapper that was once on MTV Cribs would think to be good enough for people to buy.
The track 'Free' actually turns out to be a bonus track, and for me, this is one of the best songs on the album. The other song which stands out for me, is 'Judas' - a bizarre diss towards former collaborator, Ashanti, who has since left The Ink to do her own thing, as well as a verse dissing DMX. There is also a subliminal diss towards 50 Cent, as Ja raps "Up in da club....I'll put that tenth bullethole in the top of your head." Whether or not 50 Cent can be bothered to attack back to someone he feels lost the feud years ago remains unlikely.
So are the glamour years over the Ja Rule? It looks like it. The record label dont want to waste money on a project they do not think will sell, and unfortunatly one of raps biggest stars is the victim. Dedicated Ja Rule fans will claim that Ja will return with something else in the future, but considering the only way to get played today, is to put music for the clubs out, this is something which is nothing but a memory for Ja.
I admire Ja for thinking of his fans first. It seems that they mean more to him than trying to make more money. However, the quality of music itself may disappoint many of them.
3/10
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