Ja Rule... Pain is Love

[African Peasant]

Pain is Love.

I listened to it more than GRODT

 

[Blessings]

classic album

 

[julesocean]

I agree that Ja is hard to rate but for completely different reasons than you. To be somewhat brief, while the culture has changed drastically since the inception of rap, standards for tiering rappers haven't changed that much from past traditions imo. The perception of Ja's legacy being rooted in commercial success and girly records instead of critical acclaim rap albums like a Nas prevents most circles from taking a high opinion of his career output seriously.

shyt, I actually got push back in the past for putting Ja on a higher queens rapper tier than Mic Gernimo, Lost boyz, Royal Flush, and Onyx which seems insane to me. It seems you can't rate him high mainly due to superficial factors but at the same time you can't rate an artist with his success and consistency low either which makes it hard for many to find a fair position to place him.



I take issue here. I can see the claim that his hit singles are vastly more popular and known, which really isn't that abnormal for any artist especially for a consistent hit-maker. But in terms of his hit singles being the most highly rated work on his albums, i'm just not sure how you reached that conclusion, or at-least i'm not seeing this drastic divide between his album singles and album cuts that I think you're tying to paint? Because most people who I've come across who are familiar with his albums can usually cite multiple non-single cuts as one of their favorites for a given Ja project.

For example, I've never seen anyone say Holla Holla is the best tack on VVV or even one of the best; its usually tracks like Suicide Freestyle, E-Dub & Ja, or Race Against Time that's highly rated and none of those were hit singles. And I would argue the same thing can be seen -- to a lesser degree but still significant -- with his others works too were his singles are the female oriented tracks you're referring too. I can't count the amount of people who rank 6 Feet Underground as either the best track on 3:36 or at-least one of the best. The same can be seen with Dial M for Murder and Pain Is Love.

On VVV I like Race Against Time, We Here Now, Worlds Most Dangerous the most. His next albums he really got into his sweet spot and the singles are definitely the highlights of those projects. Up until Mirror, which had the atrocious Uh-Oh with Wayne and non-impactful Body. Judas was the highlight song there, and had some decent album cuts actually. PIL2 was really bad and I only listen to Parachute off it.

I still stand that prime Ja's bread and butter was crossover hits, and I'm someone that likes Ja. His street shyt wasn't bad it just isn't top tier and it doesn't make his albums 4 out of 5.

 

[Rev Leon Lonnie Love]

Just finished listening to this shyt front to back, and my gawd shyt is FLAMES

 

[Mickey Kane]

Lost Little Girl >>>

 

[OHSNAP!]

I can't see him lower going by his discography. Who would you put above him? I'm talking impact on a consistent level with albums... I'm curious as to who you would put.

FOH u clown

Jay, Nas, Ye, ATCQ, Outkast, Scarface, Rakim, Kool G Rap, Snoop, Dre, Kurupt, X, Big, Pac, E-40, Spice 1, Juvenile, BG, Weezy, I can go on and on, all above Ja Rule

 

[L $ C]

I said it before and I’ll say it again...



Rule has 3 classics.

 

[ℒℴѵℯJay ELECTUA]

still in pain...wow they blended it well..

 

[jerzboy]

FOH u clown

Jay, Nas, Ye, ATCQ, Outkast, Scarface, Rakim, Kool G Rap, Snoop, Dre, Kurupt, X, Big, Pac, E-40, Spice 1, Juvenile, BG, Weezy, I can go on and on, all above Ja Rule

damn, u mad. Few folks on that list I highly disagree on. Again, I’m not going out and saying Ja was the best MC, I’m talking songwriting and music you constantly revisit. Ja made great music, and is a pretty good SONGWRITER. I’m not talking lyricist, just talking about his songwriting. Nas is my favorite rapper all time. He’s my goat.... but I’ll say this, from that list you put up, the only discographies I listen to more on ur list are prob Big, OutKast and Ye (I play tribe a lot too). Ja has music u can play for any moment at any time. Dude has timeless classic. Hate if u want.... *goes and bumps “New York”

 

[OHSNAP!]

damn, u mad. Few folks on that list I highly disagree on. Again, I’m not going out and saying Ja was the best MC, I’m talking songwriting and music you constantly revisit. Ja made great music, and is a pretty good SONGWRITER. I’m not talking lyricist, just talking about his songwriting. Nas is my favorite rapper all time. He’s my goat.... but I’ll say this, from that list you put up, the only discographies I listen to more on ur list are prob Big, OutKast and Ye (I play tribe a lot too). Ja has music u can play for any moment at any time. Dude has timeless classic. Hate if u want.... *goes and bumps “New York”

You're in the VAST minority with your opinion

 

[Smitty Belafonte]

Only kids and weirdos let 50 and Ja beef determine that aka was no longer relevant. His discography shyts on 50’s. This might be the biggest misconception in hip hop that 59 was a better artist than Ja

 

[mson]

 

[KingsOfKings]

 

[JA_Carter]

Classic, never got why Ja got hate for making bangers for women, those songs are timeless now

 

[Rev Leon Lonnie Love]

Classic, never got why Ja got hate for making bangers for women, those songs are timeless now

Same reason Nelly and Drake got hate.