AJaRuleStan
All Star
I don't think blood in my eye mattered, and in all honesty, there was nothing Ja could've done to counter the harm that was being done to him in that era, because what made Ja such an easy target in the first place was the culture norms of the time period, Ja's music, and the type of artist he was presenting himself as. In short, Ja re-inventing his image and sound after VVV from a more traditional NY street artist into a sing-songy, female oriented artist that did duets and emotional relationship records is what did him over. In retrospect, the culture, specifically the male element, just wasn't open for anything perceived as "soft" as the singles, music videos, and pics in magazines/posters that Ja was putting out.
And sure, you had LL cool J before Ja, but LL was aware enough to realize he had to insert street records in between his female-oriented records as way to protect his image. In point, LL never let himself get blinded by the sales of his pop/female records like Ja&Irv did. And even worse, Ja's music was overexposed, and Ja&Irv was still sending out mix signals. Like, they still wanted hood culture to be the back drop of their brand while at the same time putting out singles&imagery that catered to mainly females and pop audiences. This just killed Ja's believability and likability among the male-audience. So when 50 came back out in 02, he was just saying what most people were already feeling about Ja.
This is why I say there was nothing Ja could've done, he just had no believability. Like, Ja&Irv could've literally went up to hot 97 with paper work showing 50 made a statement to police about them, read said paper work verbatim on air, and then leave it with the radio station so they can verify the authenticity of the docs themselves, and still not a single soul would believe fif snitched on them.
And sure, you had LL cool J before Ja, but LL was aware enough to realize he had to insert street records in between his female-oriented records as way to protect his image. In point, LL never let himself get blinded by the sales of his pop/female records like Ja&Irv did. And even worse, Ja's music was overexposed, and Ja&Irv was still sending out mix signals. Like, they still wanted hood culture to be the back drop of their brand while at the same time putting out singles&imagery that catered to mainly females and pop audiences. This just killed Ja's believability and likability among the male-audience. So when 50 came back out in 02, he was just saying what most people were already feeling about Ja.
This is why I say there was nothing Ja could've done, he just had no believability. Like, Ja&Irv could've literally went up to hot 97 with paper work showing 50 made a statement to police about them, read said paper work verbatim on air, and then leave it with the radio station so they can verify the authenticity of the docs themselves, and still not a single soul would believe fif snitched on them.
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to Jada and Fat Joe for doing a song Ja after the whole Hip Hop culture turned on Ja.
