Ain't It Funny by Jennifer Lopez (featuring Ja Rule)

Album: J.Lo (2001)

Charted: 3 1

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Songfacts®:

This was co-written by Jennifer Lopez and Cory Rooney for the 2001 Adam Shankman-directed romantic comedy The Wedding Planner. Cory Rooney recalled to Songwriter Universe: "Jennifer and I were in Canada, and we wanted to write a song [which was originally intended] for her movie, The Wedding Planner. The music popped in my head, and I went home and worked on the track. Then I sat with Jennifer and we banged out the song."

"Tommy (Mottola) was even involved with writing the song," Rooney added. "He was so enthusiastic about the track, that he contributed melody ideas to the song."
Adam Shankman felt that the song had too much of a Latin influence to be featured in The Wedding Singer. However, the song was included on Lopez's second studio album J.Lo. Released as its third single on June 20, 2001, it was a commercial success, peaking within the top ten in multiple countries, though it didn't originally chart on the Hot 100.
Sales of the song were boosted by a remix by Irv Gotti and 7 with additional vocals from Ja Rule and Caddillac Tah. The remix peaked at #1 on the Hot 100 and Airplay for the week ending March 9, 2002 giving Lopez her third chart-topper following "If You Had My Love" and "I'm Real."
R&B singer-songwriter Ashanti Douglas wrote several verses for the remix and also supplied background vocals. During April 2002, Ashanti had a hand in the top three singles in the United States. This song, "What's Luv?" by Fat Joe featuring Ashanti, and her own solo hit "Foolish."
Although Ashanti had recorded the chart-topping duet "Always On Time" with Ja Rule, she stumbled into this project by chance. She was at the studio picking up a check when Irv Gotti's brother, Chris Gotti, invited her into the songwriting session.
Lopez performed part of this song when she was the halftime entertainment at the Super Bowl in 2020.
Record executive and rapper Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs broke up with Jennifer Lopez shortly before the release of "Ain't It Funny (Murder Remix)." As the lyrics are about a boyfriend who messed around his girl, the Bad Boy mogul thought they were directed at him.

"Before I was signed to Murder Inc., I wrote this record for J Lo. Ja wrote the hook, I wrote the verses," explained Ashanti during her Verzuz battle with Keyshia Cole. "So when Puff heard the record [Laughs] he called, Gotti put him on the phone, and he's like, 'Is that record about me?' 'No, I promise you it's not about you, I promise you.' Puff, I told you millions of times it's not about you, it's all love."

Comments: 1

Steveazo from San Mateo, CaYou're right that the remix peaked at #1 on the Hot 100, but it's a totally different song than the original; i.e., the version without Ja Rule. The video you have playing for this is the original without Ja Rule that did peak at #3 in the UK. There is a different video for the "Murder Remix" featuring Ja Rule - the version that topped the charts in the U.S.

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