J-Lo: C/D?

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Having been mildly disturbed by the paparazzi-footage video for "Jenny from the Block" over the weekend I was wondering why people are wasting time fighting about Justin Timberlake (wtf?) and yet little Jenny gets nary a mention. Seriously, every other major label-pop-whore gets lip service around here, and yet I don't think I've ever seen anyone mention Ms. Lopez. What the dilly yo?

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 5 December 2002 01:26 (twenty-two years ago)

she's been consistent since 'waiting for tonight.' she hasn't stopped. there hasn't been a bad single. i can't name a bad single! not one. unless i'm forgetting a bad one, she has a pretty good record. she's like the american kylie minogue.

― d k (d k), Thursday, 5 December 2002 04:51 (twenty-two years ago)

*mouth agape - completely stupified*

dk, i pray sir or madam assure me that you speak only sarcasm.

― jason elliott, Thursday, 5 December 2002 04:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Classic: "Jenny From The Block"

Dud: The rest

― Colin Beckett (Colin Beckett), Thursday, 5 December 2002 04:58 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah. i'm glad you picked up on it, jason!

― d k (d k), Thursday, 5 December 2002 05:02 (twenty-two years ago)

dk you forget "my love don't cost a thing" which is like the only song a Hex Hector remix actually improved.

But other than that, yeah. Jenny From The Block is way up on my best of year list, and Play is goddamn prescient.

"I'm Real" ruled the world of like half ILM for a few glorious months.

But I think she's anonymous enough as a prototypical celeb that there's no exciting genre frission etc. about her anymore to spark controversy -- back when her first album came out it was a different story, when it seemed like other filmstars like J Love Hewitt might also make the jump successfully.

How savy was it to go for the "J. Lo" name thing? I mean it makes a nice seperation between her film and pop careers.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, 5 December 2002 05:08 (twenty-two years ago)

She's more like the American Robbie Williams I think.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, 5 December 2002 05:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Im Real is her only bad single, and the bit where she brings it back for Jenny From the Block is the worst outta the whole song

― Chupa-Cabras (vicc13), Thursday, 5 December 2002 05:11 (twenty-two years ago)

i don't know, ripping off the beatnuts' biggest single and getting the snooze-inducing though charmingly named The Lox to rap on it - not that cool. i mean i don't really give a fuck, but if the point of the whole song is how down she is with the south bronx code of honor, etc. then biting a hook kinda kills it.

still the "i'm real even on oprah" line cracks me.

I like "ain't it funny" though. "it must be the ASS!" is a pretty good opening line for any song.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Thursday, 5 December 2002 05:32 (twenty-two years ago)

'DJ play that song' or whatever it was called was her only good single ever. and that was due to the production. her voice has a very limited range and dynamic = she is a very boring, almost amateurish singer. she should have stuck to acting, which she is actually pretty good at, don't you think?

― Jay K (Jay K), Thursday, 5 December 2002 12:17 (twenty-two years ago)

"Jenny From The Block" is a great single, hook-biting or no (and guest verses by rappers on pop records are more sonic dressing than content-carriers, so The Lox do fine). It's switched J-Lo from Dud (as in "she's made a lot of OK records but nothing amazing") to Classic (as in "this wonderful single is making me look more kindly on all her others").

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 5 December 2002 12:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Her ass is classic and thats about it.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Thursday, 5 December 2002 13:33 (twenty-two years ago)

"I'm Real (Remix)" = best song e-vah. "Play" not far behind. I'm currently warming to "Jenny From The Block", which I never disliked but have been formerly mildly indifferent to. "Ain't It Funny (Remix)" is quite good too, but as with "Jenny From The Block" the fun is mainly in its inability to convince. The rest hasn't impressed me awfully but it's rarely actively offensive.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 5 December 2002 13:37 (twenty-two years ago)

if influence existed, I would say that "My Love Don't Cost A Thing" was hugely influential

all her movies since that one with Clooney suck tho'

― Jeff W, Thursday, 5 December 2002 13:40 (twenty-two years ago)

"if influence existed, I would say that "My Love Don't Cost A Thing" was hugely influential"

In what sense Jeff?

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 5 December 2002 13:48 (twenty-two years ago)

in the sense that several (mostly French) rap/R&B songs ripped off its hook this year

(of course, no doubt someone will now tell me that J-Lo bit that from somewhere else)

― Jeff W, Thursday, 5 December 2002 13:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Poor J. Lo. Her ass is so amazing that people are willing to overlook the fact that most of her music is really poor. I can count her good singles on one hand: "Ain't It Funny", "Play", "Waiting For Tonight", "It's Gonna Be Alright". The rest range from generic ("If You Had My Love") to painfully embarrassing ("Jenny From The Block", "My Love Don't Cost A Thing", "I'm Real"). The co-dependency neurosis doesn't help much, either.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 5 December 2002 14:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm Real (remix) and I'm Gonna Be Alright are two of the worst songs of the year in my book...

but 'Play' and the new one cancel them out i guess - oh but there's Aint It Funny too of course - both versions of which I cant stand either - and 'Waiting For Tonight' is fucking awful! dont you find the way she switched from Latino bombshell to urban pop diva just a tad cynical, and not very 'real' at all?

she's too over-exposed and self-obssessed to be anything other than Dud now, her and her big plate face

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 5 December 2002 14:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I kind of like "Jenny From The Block." Definitely like it more than her other songs by her mentioned on this thread.

"Waiting for Tonight" enough used to get played regularly toward the end of the evening at a Latin club I used to go that mostly plays salsa/merengue/bachata/[token pop cha cha cha, usually by Marc Anthony].

― Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 5 December 2002 16:57 (twenty-two years ago)

"Jenny From The Block" is a total and utter dud. Any time someone that famous claims such nonsense, in an interview or song or whatever, it's a total dud.

Plus, Ben Affleck = total shit-eating-grin tool of a dud.

― hstencil, Thursday, 5 December 2002 17:03 (twenty-two years ago)

J Lo has one of the thinnest voices I've ever heard. There's no body to it at all -- just cautious gasping, all air. I really dislike that vocal style (which Janet Jackson and Toni Braxton have been using for a few years now), and, for me, it greatly detracts from her singles. I always liked hearing "If You Had My Love" while I was bowling, and music-wise, that was about as strongly as I felt about her. Heard "Jenny From the Block" for the first time yesterday and I enjoyed it enough...

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Thursday, 5 December 2002 17:09 (twenty-two years ago)

her taste in men is quite possibly the worst ever.

― gygax!, Thursday, 5 December 2002 17:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I dunno, P. Diddy's so dreamy!

But not as dreamy as you, gygax!

― hstencil, Thursday, 5 December 2002 17:52 (twenty-two years ago)

the intro to 'Jenny From The Block' is classic (its downhill soon after really) - what is that 'children come and women produce and men go work in something something' line from? it was also used in the Urban Takeover mix of Jungle Brothers' 'Jungle Brother'

the massive difference of opinion on which J Lo tracks are good and which are bad is what makes ILM so great

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 6 December 2002 01:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I can't wrap my head around "Jenny From the Block". The chorus melody just seems so anti-catchy (almost so much that I remember it -maybe it'll grow on me). That said, I've liked a lot of her other singles: "Play", "I'm Real (remix)", "Waiting for Tonight", "Love Don't Cost a Thing", "Ain't It Funny".

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Friday, 6 December 2002 01:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Ew, all of her hip-hoppy songs are duds, except I like "Play." "My Love Don't Cost a Thing" wuz good too, otherwise everything dud, dud, dud, even the ass is overrated. All of those hip-hop beats on tracks like "I'm Real" sound really flat and tired and just banal, in a musical sense, and anyone who 's done that many things with Ja "the Antichrist" Rule HAS to be a dud. The whole Puffy link: b-o-r-i-n-g, as is her attempt to maintain a "street" appeal. Can you think of any other singer who'd be involved in a nightclub shooting/hostage case w/ famous hubby and have it play out as something duller than a In Living Colour dance routine?

And isn't Maid in Manhattan just like The Wedding Planner but with Ralp Fiennes instead of Matthew McCauicantspellit? What the hell was he thinking? Not like her movie career was really any good before her J-lo/"On the 6" persona morphed out of her, I mean yes she may have been good in Soderbergh's Out of Sight which everyone hails on about, but she was alsao making such stuff like Anaconda, remember? It's not like she was ever a noteworthy or specially "good" actress, just competent: she comes across as being somewhat talented since the competition in musicians-turned-actors (Madonna, Mariah, etc.) is really weak.

And Selena was so cheesy! But at least it had entertainment value, evem if it gave her mass delusions while playing a singer that "hey! I think I should start salsaing too!". So...

Classic: "Play," :Love Don't Cost a Thing," campy parts of Selena

Dud: everything else, especially that shit-ugly Grammy "dress"

― Vic, Friday, 6 December 2002 01:30 (twenty-two years ago)

The new single, "Jenny from the Block" could quite possibly be the most pretentious thing I've ever heard. GET OVER YOURSELF, Jennifer! She's just not that interesting, ass or not (I think her ass is a bit overrated, personally). I mean, who fuckin' buys this stuff?

It's all crap.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 6 December 2002 01:33 (twenty-two years ago)

One of the biggest duds in music today. "Jenny From The Block" is catchy enough, but "Play" is krap (especially that oh-so-full-of-herself OMG CONTROVERSIAL "play my mother(bleep)ing song" moment, followed by that unnerving giggle), "Waiting For Tonight" sounds like awful Europop, "I'm Real" and "My Love Don't Cost A Thing" prove that lying isn't always funny and clever. Also, she sez that she'd rather be called sexy than inteligent, which makes me hate her (because being sexy is a drag and I wish I was smarter)

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 6 December 2002 01:38 (twenty-two years ago)

she sez that she'd rather be called sexy than inteligent

Uh, she really should get dangue fever and die then, nothing to be ambivalent about anymore. As for who fuckin;' buys this stuff, I guess it's a sign of societal progression that a Hispanic woman could be successful across racial lines today and appeal to both the urban/r&b and pop crowds. That may the only good or significant thing about Jennifer Lopez, in the end - maybe she's opening multicultural doors...

Me, personally, sorry, I STILL PREFER GLORIA ESTEFAN. COME BACK, GLORIA, COME BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WANT YOUR RHYTHM TO GET ME!!!!

― Vic, Friday, 6 December 2002 01:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, if she said she'd rather be CALLED sexy than intelligent, I'd have to agree with her. I don't mind if no one else thinks I'm intelligent, I think so and that's good enough for me. On the other hand, it's much harder to be smug about being sexy if no one agrees with you. I'd much rather BE intelligent than sexy, though.

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Friday, 6 December 2002 02:42 (twenty-two years ago)

eleven years pass...

can we talk about this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4oiEhf9M04

― all is fair in love and womp (monotony), Monday, 17 March 2014 11:10 (eleven years ago)

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