4. Put It On Me feat. Vita

11. Extasy feat. Tah Murdah, Black Child, Jayo Felony

And yes, we enjoyed the first album. At least much of it. Ja Rule managed to capture a soulfulness within his songs, that was a parallel to other artists with depth. But just like in real life, the angry frowns he wore on the street, he only took off, once home and among friends and family. The people you'd invite to pray, the one's that care about you, the ones that are worthy of your caring. We had the chance to catch a glance off that side to Ja, the one behind the 'it's mudrdaaaaa' yelling. And that side was what we enjoyed and what made us enjoy his company. So we were wondering, if Ja will again face his struggling and his serious and vulnerable side, or if it's all just about posing, if he will follow the army of growling thugs and becoming a one dimensional character. The question also hangs over our heads, how much of an 'industry album' this is, one of those albums that just rides trend bandwagons, and you can tell, that this was forced onto the artist.

Ja actually starts with a ghetto prayer. On the "Intro", things seem to follow in the same vein that "Watching Me" follows. Rule expresses his street struggles, going: "I'm legally considered crazy / but if that's the way that God made me / this world can't change me / and that's the way it'll be". But things quickly change to less serious matters, when on the popish "Between Me And You" (feat. Christina Milian), Ja is running his game, blinking charmingly in the direction of passing by females.

Keeping the production duties within a close circle, Irv Gotti lends his hands to the third beat out of three track, when he teams up with Tru Stylze to do "Put It On Me". Vita lends her voice to this (once more a) Pop track, that again is catered to the female audiences, with Ja rhyming about his lady, and the thick and thin relationship they have. In true gold digger fashion, Vita rhymes as one of those, only showing little skills and adding little to the track, that otherwise at least would have a topic that ,as expressed respect to females, would be worth elaborating on. In a keyboard nightmare kind of way, "6 Feet Underground" is okay and Ja addresses all the people that don't roll obstacles in his way, but themselves operate as such. Lil Rob & Irv Gotti go the easy to appeal melody route on "Love Me, Hate Me". Once again, Rule talks to his lord and this is given relevance to, with the personal values of a "what you want from me? / Lord I'm only a human / though I bear your name, I'm a devil in chains / release me, cause Lord only knows it ain't easy / when I'm scarred for life, I know that he sees me".

After such a track, it is ridiculous to hear Tah Murdah say "we about money and murder / the fuck y'all want to do", on the Murder Inc collabo "Die" with Tah Murdah, Black Child & Dave Bing dropping lines. The track is only bearable due to an okay beat. There's little exciting going on on "Fuck You" featuring 01 and Vita. So we progress to "I'll Fuck U Girl (Skit)" and "Grey Box (Skit)", actually passing them by quickly, as the first is a wannabe Bass parody, the latter some dialogue babbling. So we stop the fast forwarding at "Extasy" featuring Tah Murdah, Black Child and Jayo Felony. This is strictly for the clubs, and it will get you moving automatically, really and absolutely getting you dancing, and we like that. So with a good feeling we enter the Caribbean inspired "It's Your Life" featuring Shade Sheist. These drug tales take away from the island and summer appeal this otherwise would have. What has us progress to the Lil' Mo featured "I Cry". She has a really stupid name, but actually a really beautiful voice, that makes the chorus work well, while Ja again making something succeed, curiously enough, another track for the ladies.

Finding the God topic again, "One Of Us" features praying lyrics. The Rob / Irv beat is disgustingly keyboardy though. Passing through the "Chris Black (Skit)", we enter the last cut "The Rule Won't Die". Again he addresses us through prayer like words, when he goes "I'm the black rose nigga that grew from concrete / it's the Rule, get it right or get it real hot / a whole lotta shots sent flying through your block / the one I need, and oh, before I leave / does anybody else fell they don't wanna breathe / been menacing this society since conceived / and nigga you know cold hearts don't bleed".

And so the conclusion to this is easy. The corrupted soul of Ja contains the devil, but in the same breath, praises the lord. We are challenged with both sides on this record, but that makes the album interesting, before it makes it weak. And that's not what it is: it's not weak, neither strong though too. It's held back with music that lacks any artistic vision and held back by not continued progress of its theme. No sophomore jinx, but no reason to embrace Ja into the pantheon of supreme lyricist and classic album providers. But as said, this is an industry album, much rather guessing what the audience would like, trying to cater to the cheapest and lowest needs, rather then giving Ja a chance to express himself in ways, that allow him to find his voice and ways of using it.