Pain Is Love

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Pain Is Love
Ja-rule-pain-is-love.jpg
Studio album by Ja Rule
Released October 2, 2001
Recorded 2000–01
Genre East coast hip hop, R&B
Length 62:07
Label Murder Inc., Def Jam
Producer Irv Gotti, Lil' Rob, Ty Fyffe
Ja Rule chronology
Rule 3:36
(2000)Rule 3:362000
Pain Is Love
(2001)
The Last Temptation
(2002)The Last Temptation2002
Singles from Pain Is Love
  1. "Livin' It Up"
    Released: July 3, 2001
  2. "Always on Time"
    Released: October 30, 2001
  3. "Down Ass Bitch"
    Released: March 19, 2002

Pain Is Love is the third studio album by American rapper Ja Rule. Produced by Irv Gotti, it was released on October 2, 2001, by Def Jam and Murder Inc Records. The album received a mixed reception from critics. Pain Is Love debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and was supported by three singles: "Livin' It Up", "Always on Time" and "Down Ass Bitch". It was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for selling over 3,000,000 copies. The sequel of the album was set to be released on February 28, 2012, titled Pain Is Love 2.

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source Rating
Metacritic 59/100[1]
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 4/5 stars[2]
The A.V. Club Unfavorable[3]
Entertainment Weekly B+[4]
HipHopDX 4/5 stars[5]
Los Angeles Times 2.5/4 stars[6]
PopMatters Mixed[7]
RapReviews 7.5/10[8]
Rolling Stone 3/5 stars[9]

Pain is Love received generally mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 59, based on 10 reviews.[1]

Jason Birchmeier of AllMusic praised the album for fine-tuning the formula set by Rule 3:36 of having R&B crossover singles and hardcore rap tracks to balance out the whole record.[2] HipHopDX said that hardcore tracks like "Dial M for Murder" and "Worldwide Gangsta" felt like forced attempts to bring back Ja's thug persona, but praised the album for having tracks that contain ear-grabbing lines and good beats, saying that "Pain Is Love is another positive establishment that will indeed create more popularity and more fan acknowledgement for Ja Rule."[5] Steve 'Flash' Juon of RapReviews found Ja's singing voice on some tracks intolerable but gave the album credit for containing tracks that display Irv Gotti's producing talents and Ja's adequate lyricism, concluding that, "Ja Rule will live up to the latter half of his name and dominate the charts for the latter half of 2001 with an album that is undoubtedly his most solid release to date."[8]

Soren Baker of the Los Angeles Times gave credit to the singles "Livin' It Up" and "I'm Real" for being the album's strong points but criticized tracks like "The Inc" and "Worldwide Gangsta" for being bland and less effective, saying they "recycle hard-core themes without adding any clever phrasings or creative beat work to compensate for their ordinariness."[6] Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club criticized the album for lacking substance to go with the catchy pop hooks and Ja for making failed recycled attempts to copy 2Pac, specifically on the penultimate feature track "So Much Pain" concluding that "even at less than his best, 2Pac still conveys a sense of urgency and purpose that illustrates incontestably the huge chasm separating the real deal from a canny imitation."[3]

Commercial performance

Pain is Love spawned two number one hit singles, debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart with sales of 361,000 copies in the first week and was certified triple platinum in the United States.[10] It also received a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album in 2002 but lost to OutKast's Stankonia.[11]

Track listing

No. Title Producer(s) Length
1. "Pain Is Love (skit)"     1:18
2. "Dial M for Murder"   Irv Gotti, Ty Fyffe 3:32
3. "Livin' It Up" (featuring Case) Irv Gotti, Lil' Rob 4:17
4. "The Inc." (featuring Caddillac Tah, Black Child & Ashanti) Irv Gotti 3:56
5. "Always on Time" (featuring Ashanti) Irv Gotti 4:05
6. "Down Ass Bitch" (featuring Charli Baltimore) Irv Gotti, 7 Aurelius 5:31
7. "Never Again"   Irv Gotti 4:19
8. "Worldwide Gangsta" (featuring Caddillac Tah, Black Child, Boo & Gotti) Irv Gotti 3:20
9. "Leo (skit)"     2:18
10. "I'm Real (Murder Remix)" (featuring Jennifer Lopez) Irv Gotti 4:12
11. "Smokin' & Ridin'" (featuring Jodie Mack & O-1) Irv Gotti 4:51
12. "X" (featuring Missy Elliott & Tweet) Irv Gotti 5:02
13. "Big Remo (skit)"     0:19
14. "Lost Little Girl"   Irv Gotti 5:00
15. "So Much Pain" (it contains 2Pac's third verse and elements of his first from "Pain") Irv Gotti, Lil' Rob 5:03
16. "Pain Is Love"   Irv Gotti 5:04
Sample credits

Dial M for Murder

  • "Castle Walls" performed by Styx

Down Ass B****

Livin' It Up

Pain Is Love

Pain Is Love (Skit)

So Much Pain

Charts

Certifications

Region Certification Sales/shipments
Canada (Music Canada)[25] 3× Platinum 300,000
United Kingdom (BPI)[26] Silver 60,000
United States (RIAA)[10] 3× Platinum 3,000,000

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone
xunspecified figures based on certification alone

See also

References

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  12. "Australiancharts.com – Ja Rule – Pain Is Love". Hung Medien.
  13. "Longplay-Chartverfolgung at Musicline" (in German). Musicline.de. Phononet GmbH.
  14. "GFK Chart-Track Albums: Week 9, 2002". Chart-Track. IRMA.
  15. "Charts.org.nz – Ja Rule – Pain Is Love". Hung Medien.
  16. "Swisscharts.com – Ja Rule – Pain Is Love". Hung Medien.
  17. "Ja Rule | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart
  18. Template:BillboardEncode/J/chart?f=305 "Ja Rule – Chart history" Billboard 200 for Ja Rule. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
  19. "Template:BillboardEncode/J/chart?f=333 Ja Rule – Chart history" Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums for Ja Rule. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
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