Just how bad are the new Ja Rule & Jeru The Damaja albums?


Let’s face it, while I was never crazy about Ja, and Jeru’s first two albums were stellar (for this we can thank a man who bears the same moniker as the lead singer of Coldplay and the darker half of Kid n Play) but I think we can all agree that they’re past their respective primes in 2007.

I champion the underdogs, so I’d really like to see both of them drop solid releases. Ja has to prove 50 didn’t completely knock the wind from his sails, and Jeru is fighting to show the underground he deserves recognition more than a decade after “Come Clean” and “Ya Playin’ Yaself”.

Let’s go to the tape, if we will

Ja Rule : Love Is Pain – Oh wow if someone from Bone Thugs didn’t ghostwrite “Free” then this is a major bite, there are even parts that take the melody from “The Crossroads”. Curtis is sitting back having a good laugh right about now. Maybe if I was 18 some of this would sound good (“The Countdown” is alright but I’m grown). I wanted him to come with it, he didn’t even pick terribly interesting beats. I couldn’t sit through most of the songs completely, he’s still the gravelly voiced thug baller and that personality wore thin a long time ago. “All I Need” manages to jack the concept of 2Pac’s “Me & My Girlfriend” and it re-hashes the Method Man/Mary J. Blige hook. “New York Is Back” features Jadakiss and Fat Joe, but it sounds like a Southern track. He didn’t even attempt an honest track about coming back to the game after being counted out. There are a few club bangers on here though. On the scale of trash-mediocre-good-great-classic this registers between trash and mediocre

Jeru The Damaja : Still Rising – “Oh shit, it’s not even wack” © Dame Dash on Kanye’s “Last Call”. Dude can still rhyme, he was given a decent selection of beats. It’s not classic material, but it’s solid for a Jeru release in 2007. This song “Juss Buggin” has him rhyming like he’s on helium, who cares what he’s saying the beat is CRAZY. There are a lot of good song concepts from introspection to righteousness and history. This will be a sleeper for the year. I'm glad to see he isnt washed up and is still sharp.