jennifer lopez feat nas - "i'm gonna be alright"
it's the "i got five on it" bassline! which should have been resurrected before but i don't think it has been. nas always sounds out of place when he guests on r'n'b tunes, always sounds ill at ease on beats that arent like the grime-hop shit from illmatic, but sometimes that awkardness can be nice - or i just like when rappers try to make their guest verses fit the narrative of the song. this is kind of ambiguous, i'm not sure if j-lo is angry at nas because he is a criminal or he's cheating or something even more sinister(as suggested by "mysterious tragedy" synths)! muddying the issue is another version of this mix which features 50 cent (the dude who made his name dissing pop-rap on "how to rob"!). where does he fit in with this story?? i can't work it out.

j-lo's voice is a bit different on every song - i suspect she is a genuinely terrible singer, but it could be she just follows the guide vocal too closely, like on "play" when she phrased everything like christina milian (who just happened to write the song!), and on the murder inc remixes it might as well be ashanti singing. she is also by quite a distance the worst dancer i have seen on mtv in a while. but since she releases so many singles and follows the codes of 2002 r'n'b so closely, slotting in politely to whatever's going on, her lameness has become endearing - i probably won't ever expect much from her songs, but that means they can pleasantly sneak up on me like "its gonna be alright" and "i'm real" have done. and so it follows that they're a good yardstick for the current quality of songwriting and arranging (even the quality of guest rappers!) in pop since j-lo fails to exert any individuality on her tunes. but j-lo you're ok by me! now i actually want to buy that remix record and ruin it all.