producers: irv gotti, lil' rob, tyrone fyffe, self, erick sermon, tai, dl.

20. The Murderers feat. Black Child & Tah Murdah

Me, as a conscious, underground hip hop loving, thug and player disliking, backpacker hip hop cat, can not like this. Or can I? Yes, apparently. See, Ja Rule didn’t innovate this, he’s not the best emcee, naw, he’s a rapper. His beats are not musically inclined. So why like this? Because he’s honest. Because he admits: "and my ignorance, I charge to the game", when he rhymes "and get in line for the torture / I swear, run any closer to air / my bullets travel wit' prayers". Because it’s heartfelt when he says: "for what it's worth everything that I believe in / my Lord, if they saw where a nigga been / would they applaud my achievements?". If you grow up like him, then "cause God when you really need it, where the love at? / that's why a lot of niggaz got more faith in they gat". Maybe that’s why we can forgive him for his thugness. Can we?

Even though Ja Rule is wack sometimes. Like with his wannabe southern rhymes style on "Let’s Ride", that also has this unsatisfying beat. Or the nowadays so often heard keyboard beats of a "Holla Holla". Or basically every rhyme that he spits about gats, money, bitches, sluts, etc. etc. The violent braggin’ and boastin’ on tracks like "E-Dub & Ja". That’s wack. We don’t want that.

But we want the beat to "Worlds Most Dangerous" and the gospel feel to "Suicidal Freestyle". We enjoy the chemistry between DMX, Ja˙-Z and Ja: the Murder Inc. We enjoy the beat to "It’s Murda" they spit over. We see the potential he has with all these deep, thoughtful, heartfelt tracks like "Daddies Little Girl", where Ja rhymes from deep within: "I realize why Brittney's so rare to me / she came at the time when nobody cared for me / this world's tough, I'ma guide you through it carefully". But the Dr. Dre-like production of past on "Count On Your Nigga" is nice. And especially nice is "Race Against Time". And we can hear his pain when he rhymes: "the only thing that ever made me click was ‘Cash Money’ / so that I lust for / be it one of my deadly sins / you know the seven / I got all of them deep within". We do.