Pain Is Love

Pain Is Love is the third studio album by American rapper Ja Rule, released on October 2, 2001 via The Island Def Jam Music Group, Def Jam Recordings, and Irv Gotti's Murder Inc. Records. Although, the album received a mixed reception from critics, Pain Is Love debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and was supported by four singles: "Livin' It Up", "I'm Real (Murder Remix)", "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. Pain is Love received numerous awards and nominations including a nomination for Best Rap Album at the 44th Grammy Awards. The album's first two singles "Livin' It Up" featuring Case and "Always on Time" featuring Ashanti collected nominations for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration in 2002 and 2003.

Pain Is Love
An image of a shirtless man wearing a white doo rag with the album title tattooed on his left chest breast, standing behind a red brick wall.
Studio album by
Ja Rule
ReleasedOctober 2, 2001
Recorded2001
Genre
Length62:07
Label
Producer
Ja Rule chronology
Rule 3:36
(2000)		 Pain Is Love
(2001)		 The Last Temptation
(2002)
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

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic59/100[1]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
Entertainment WeeklyB+[3]
Los Angeles Times[4]
Pitchfork7/10[5]
RapReviews7.5/10[6]
Rolling Stone[7]

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]

AllMusic's Jason Birchmeier 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] An editor from 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."[8] 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."[6]

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."[4] Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club criticized the album for lacking substance to go with the catchy pop hooks and Ja for making what they perceive as failed 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."[9]

Commercial performance

Pain Is Love spawned two number one hit singles and managed to debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, thus giving Ja Rule his second US number-one album in his career and also ending the three-week reign of fellow Def Jam artist Jay-Z's fifth studio album, The Blueprint, which was released on the same day as the September 11 attacks.[10] With first-week sales of 361,000 copies, Pain is Love was certified three times platinum in the United States, as of June 2002.[11] It also received a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album in 2002 but lost to OutKast's Stankonia.[12]

Track listing

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.[13]

No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Pain Is Love" (skit)  1:18
2."Dial M for Murder"
3:32
3."Livin' It Up" (featuring Case)
  • Irv Gotti
  • Lil' Rob
4:17
4."The Inc." (featuring Caddillac Tah, Black Child & Ashanti)
Irv Gotti3:56
5."Always on Time" (featuring Ashanti)
  • Atkins
  • Aurelius
  • Lorenzo
Irv Gotti4:05
6."Down Ass Bitch" (featuring Charli Baltimore)
Irv Gotti5:31
7."Never Again"
  • Atkins
  • Aurelius
  • Lorenzo
Irv Gotti4:19
8."Worldwide Gangsta" (featuring Caddillac Tah, Black Child, Boo & Gotti)
Irv Gotti3:20
9."Leo" (skit)  2:18
10."I'm Real (Murder Remix)" (featuring Jennifer Lopez)
Irv Gotti4:12
11."Smokin' & Ridin'" (featuring Jodie Mack & O-1)
  • Atkins
  • Aurelius
  • Lorenzo
  • Christopher Bristol
  • Otha Miller
Irv Gotti4:51
12."X" (featuring Missy Elliott & Tweet)
Irv Gotti5:02
13."Big Remo" (skit)  0:19
14."Lost Little Girl"
  • Atkins
  • Aurelius
  • Lorenzo
Irv Gotti5:00
15."So Much Pain" (featuring 2Pac)
  • Irv Gotti
  • Lil' Rob
5:03
16."Pain Is Love"
  • Atkins
  • Aurelius
  • Lorenzo
Irv Gotti5:04

Notes

  • some editions of the album add the song "Put It on Me" as track 17.
  • ^[a] signifies a co-producer

Sample credits[13]

Charts

Certifications
Certifications for Pain Is Love
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[49] Platinum 70,000^
Canada (Music Canada)[50] 3× Platinum 300,000^
Netherlands (NVPI)[51] Gold 40,000^
New Zealand (RMNZ)[52] Platinum 15,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[53] Platinum 300,000^
United States (RIAA)[11] 3× Platinum 3,000,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

See also

References
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  2. Birchmeier, Jason. "Pain Is Love - Ja Rule". AllMusic. Retrieved June 17, 2011.
  3. Browne, David (October 8, 2001). "Pain Is Love". Entertainment Weekly. Time Inc. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
  4. "Musicians Craft Sounds That Transcend Pop". Los Angeles Times. September 30, 2001. Retrieved June 17, 2011.
  5. Brickner-Wood, Brady (July 17, 2022). "Ja Rule: Pain Is Love Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
  6. Juon, Steve 'Flash' (October 2, 2001). "Feature for October 2, 2001 - Ja Rule's "Pain Is Love"". RapReviews. Retrieved June 17, 2011.
  7. Sprague, David (October 2, 2001). "Recordings: Ja Rule, Pain Is Love". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media. Archived from the original on October 31, 2001. Retrieved June 17, 2011.
  8. DX Staff (October 12, 2001). "Ja Rule - Pain Is Love". HipHopDX. Cheri Media Group. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
  9. Rabin, Nathan (October 3, 2001). "Review: Ja Rule: Pain Is Love". The A.V. Club. Retrieved May 7, 2015.
  10. Dansby, Andrew (October 10, 2001). "Ja Rule Lands Second No. 1". Rolling Stone. Retrieved June 13, 2022.
  11. "American album certifications – Ja Rule – Pain Is Love". Recording Industry Association of America.
  12. "2002 Grammy Winners". MTV News. Retrieved June 25, 2015.
  13. Pain Is Love (booklet). Murder Inc., Def Jam. 2001.
  14. "Australiancharts.com – Ja Rule – Pain Is Love". Hung Medien.
  15. "ARIA Urban Chart – Week Commencing 10th June 2002" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association (641): 14. June 10, 2002. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 26, 2002. Retrieved April 16, 2023 – via Pandora Archive.
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  21. "European Top 100 Albums" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 20, no. 9. February 23, 2002. p. 12. Retrieved April 10, 2023 – via World Radio History.
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  32. "Canada's Top 200 Albums of 2001 (based on sales)". Jam!. Archived from the original on December 12, 2003. Retrieved March 26, 2022.
  33. "Canada's Top 200 R&B; albums of 2001". Jam!. January 8, 2002. Archived from the original on November 22, 2002. Retrieved January 22, 2023.
  34. "Top 100 rap albums of 2001 in Canada". Jam!. January 8, 2002. Archived from the original on November 22, 2002. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
  35. "The Official UK Albums Chart 2001" (PDF). UKChartsPlus. Retrieved August 28, 2020.
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  38. "ARIA Charts - End of Year Charts - Top 100 Albums 2002". ARIA. Retrieved June 14, 2015.
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  49. "ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 2002 Albums" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved December 27, 2021.
  50. "Canadian album certifications – Ja Rule – Pain Is Love". Music Canada.
  51. "Dutch album certifications – Ja Rule – Pain Is Love" (in Dutch). Nederlandse Vereniging van Producenten en Importeurs van beeld- en geluidsdragers. Retrieved July 5, 2022. Enter Pain Is Love in the "Artiest of titel" box. Select 2002 in the drop-down menu saying "Alle jaargangen".
  52. "New Zealand album certifications – Ja Rule – Pain Is Love Show". Recorded Music NZ. June 18, 2017. Retrieved June 18, 2017.
  53. "British album certifications – Ja Rule – Pain Is Love". British Phonographic Industry.
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