Date: Mar 9, 2002
Weeks: 6
The song leads off with Ja Rule's really unpleasant voice screeching the word "ass" at me. Lovely. His voice is really grating and hard to listen to. Thankfully he only has two rap verses and Jennifer Lopez handles the rest of the song.
The next thing I notice is the backing music, which I really enjoy. It's sampled from another song, but I think this song improves on it by adding more sound layers and variety. This is a pleasantly understated and elegantly simple backing track. I think you could read a phone book to this track and come out with an entertaining song.
I'm not sure how much raw singing talent Jennifer Lopez has, but her voice is well-matched to the music here. The whole song is nicely cool and laid-back and understated, which is part of what makes Ja Rule's loud, grating voice so unpleasant. He just doesn't match the laid-back tone that the rest of the song establishes.
The part at the end about "is that your girlfriend?" is where that switches. Lopez's voice starts to sound like a whiny schoolyard taunt. But when Ja Rule sings during this part, I actually enjoy his voice. That makes me wish he had spent less time rapping and more time singing. Or just that they'd found someone else to do the rapping.
The lyrics are pretty good. Ja Rule's rap lyrics are nonsense, but the rest of the song is about getting one over on the ex who dumped you and the nice feeling you get when you tell them you don't want to take them back. I like that sentiment, and there aren't really any lyrics that stand out as undermining the idea.
My verdict: Like it. Overall I feel the positives (the excellent backing track) outweigh the negatives (Ja Rule's grating voice).
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