| "I'm Real" | ||||||||||
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CD 1 cover |
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| Single by Jennifer Lopez | ||||||||||
| from the album J.Lo | ||||||||||
| Released | October 16, 2001 | |||||||||
| Format | CD single | |||||||||
| Recorded | 2000 Sony Music Studios (New York City, New York) |
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| Genre | Dance-pop, R&B | |||||||||
| Length | 4:57 | |||||||||
| Label | Epic | |||||||||
| Writer(s) | Jennifer Lopez, Troy Oliver, Cory Rooney, L.E.S | |||||||||
| Producer | Tory Oliver, Cory Rooney | |||||||||
| Certification | Platinum (ARIA) Gold (RIANZ) Silver (SNEP) |
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| Jennifer Lopez singles chronology | ||||||||||
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| "I'm Real (Murder Remix)" | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Single by Jennifer Lopez featuring Ja Rule | ||||||||||||||||||||
| from the album J.Lo (special edition), J to tha L-O!: The Remixes and Pain Is Love | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Released | October 16, 2001 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Recorded | 2001 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Genre | R&B, hip hop | |||||||||||||||||||
| Length | 4:19 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Writer(s) | Jennifer Lopez, Troy Oliver, Cory Rooney, L.E.S., Jeffrey Atkins, Irving Lorenzo, Rick James | |||||||||||||||||||
| Producer | Irv Gotti, 7 Aurelius | |||||||||||||||||||
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"I'm Real" is the name of two songs by Jennifer Lopez. One is the song taken from her second studio album, J.Lo (2001), and the other is "I'm Real (Murder Remix)", which features rapper Ja Rule of The Inc. Records (formerly known as Murder Inc. Records), included on the special edition of J.Lo, Lopez's remix album, J to tha L-O!: The Remixes (2002), and Ja Rule's third studio album, Pain Is Love (2001). The remix contains an interpolation of "Mary Jane" by Rick James. Both versions reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 on September 8, 2001, and remained there for five non-consecutive weeks. Ja Rule had been brought in after the moderate U.S. performance of "Play", the second single from J.Lo. Singer Ashanti (also on The Inc.) also provided backing vocals on the Murder Remix. The two songs are essentially different songs with the same title.
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The music video for "I'm Real" followed the release of the single in the U.S. It depicts Lopez driving a motorcycle throughout the highway. The video also featured a cameo appearance by underwear model Travis Fimmel and a dance-break (to "More Bounce to the Ounce" by Zapp) with Lopez's soon-to-be husband Cris Judd appearing as the lead dancer. The video for the "I'm Real (Murder Remix)" featured Ja Rule and Irv Gotti, and won the award for Best Hip-Hop Video at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards.
Despite the success of "I'm Real", there was a bit of controversy over the use of the single's sample and the structure of the song. The song contains an uncredited sample from Yellow Magic Orchestra's 1978 hit "Firecracker" (an electronic synthpop cover of Martin Denny's 1959 melody of the same name), while the remix on the other hand officially interpolates the Mary Jane Girls' 1983 song "All Night Long". There have been reports that the "Firecracker" sample was originally planned to be used for Mariah Carey's "Loverboy". According to the music publisher of "Firecracker", Carey called to license a sample of the song which had never been sampled before and within a month Lopez called to do the same. Carey felt that former husband and music executive at Sony Music (Columbia Records), Tommy Mottola, was interfering with her career by arranging for the sample to go to Lopez. Upset by the conduct of Lopez and her ex-husband, Carey featured a reference to the song on her single "Loverboy", her first single released by her then-record company, Virgin Records. The verse can be heard in Da Brat's rap section, where she sings, "Hate on me, much as you want to, you can't do what the fuck I do, bitches be, emulating me daily" over the melody of "Firecracker". The word "bitch" was used in the song, but when the song aired on the radio, the word "bitch" was deleted and the song was cut down to three and a quarter minutes long.
Irv Gotti, who produced the remix of "I'm Real" featuring Ja Rule, openly admitted during an interview with XXL magazine that Mottola contacted him with instructions to create a song that sounded exactly like a song he had made with Carey for the Glitter soundtrack[1] entitled "If We" also featuring Ja Rule.
Furthermore, some in the African American community were outraged by Lopez's use of the word "nigga" in the Murder Remix.[2]
"I'm Real" debuted on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 at number sixty-six the week of July 7, 2001. By its fourth week, the song had reached the top twenty, fueled by increasing airplay of the single. By September 8, 2001, the single topped the chart, dislodging Alicia Keys' "Fallin'" from a three-week stint at number one. "I'm Real" spent the next three charting weeks at the summit (thereby having the distinction of being #1 when the World Trade Center fell), and was subsequently knocked out of the top spot by "Fallin'", which boasted an additional three consecutive weeks at number one. After three weeks stalled at number two, "I'm Real" returned to number one again for a final two weeks, through October 27, 2001. "I'm Real (Murder Remix)" was a staple on R&B/hip hop and pop radio during the summer and fall of 2001, spending fifteen weeks on the top five of the Billboard Hot 100. In 2009 the single was named the 30th most successful song of the 2000s, on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs of the Decade.[3]
The chart position of the Murder Remix was boosted by radio play of the album track, which led to complaints of unfairness and change of Billboard policy in 2002. Afterwards, airplay of identically named songs but with substantially different melodies was not combined when computing chart positions. Lopez's follow-up was "Ain't It Funny (Murder Remix)", another Ja Rule-featured remix, which also reached number one on the Hot 100.
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| Territory | Certifier | Certification | Sales |
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| Australia | ARIA | Platinum[12] | 70,000 |
| France | SNEP | Silver[13] | 171,000[14] |
| New Zealand | RIANZ | Gold[15] | 7,500 |
| Preceded by "Fallin'" by Alicia Keys |
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number-one single September 8, 2001 – September 22, 2001 October 20, 2001 – October 27, 2001 |
Succeeded by "Fallin'" by Alicia Keys "Family Affair" by Mary J. Blige |
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