Almost hit of the week 7/1/24 - Ja Rule's "Clap Back"...

 

 

"Clap Back" - Ja Rule

from the album Blood In My Eye (2003) 

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #44

This week's "almost hit" comes from rapper Ja Rule, whose fourth album on Murder Inc. Records, The Last Temptation, had landed a #2 hit with the single "Mesmerize" in the beginning of 2003. But that album was rife with issues with lead single "Thug Lovin'", a supposed high-profile duet with Bobby Brown, stiffing and the record on a whole getting a better reception overseas espectially in the United Kingdom than at home. Also, his hitmaking prowess, powered by collabs with Jennifer Lopez and Ashanti (the latter featuring on "Mesmerize") getting overshadowed by newcomers Eminem and 50 Cent. That was compounded by the Murder Inc business getting raided by the feds for money laundering around the time "Mesmerize" was climbing the chart. In response to accusations of him getting "soft", Ja Rule released Blood In The Eye, which had Rule going back to his gangster-like original style. The first single from the set was "Clap Back", meant as a response to 50 Cent's disses. Written by the rapper (as Jeffrey Atkins) with producer Scott Storch, the track starts out with Ja Rule calling out the New York City 'hoods (and Jersey FWIW), trying to cement himself as the voice of the "East Coast". Rule then has an obvious rage for the success on "In Da Club", name-checking the soft while calling out the rapper as phony, before moving on the Eminem with some homophobic taunts. The production from Storch is trying ever so hard to be "hard", and giving credit Ja Rule sounds like he means it, but in retrospect it's a fight that didn't really carry the weight like a Biggie/2Pac skirmish. The music video is sufficiently dark, bringing the women to his lair to prove something I guess. But in the end Rule ended up coining a phrase that lasted way longer than this song did...

While "Clap Back" rose to #17 on Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart and #12 on the Rap Singles list, it stalled under the top-40 on the all-genre Hot 100 in November of 2003. Internationally, the single was another top ten success in the UK, and reached the top 40 in Ireland (#20) and Germany (#39). The Blood In My Eye album, released in November as the single was cresting, came in at #6 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and was his fourth (and final) #1 set on the R&B Albums list, going on to sell less than a half million copies. 

A second single from the record, "The Crown", stalled down at #67 on the R&B Singles chart. 

(4/10)

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Rule brought back "Clap Back" on his Verzuz battle with Fat Joe...