The winning remix will be featured on the digital copy of PIL2, so vote carefully!!

The finalists are as follows:

http://soundcloud.com/djdireckt/ja-rule-parachute-flp-remix

http://soundcloud.com/kingloza777/ja-rule-parachute-remix-by-3

http://soundcloud.com/lawrence_claessens/ja-rule-parachute-lawrence-1

http://soundcloud.com/jamiecard-2/ja-rule-feat-leah-siegal

http://soundcloud.com/mestrecuco/ja-rule-feat-leah-siegal-5

http://soundcloud.com/deron/ja-rule-parachute-palisade

http://soundcloud.com/nic-nash/ja-rule-parachute-nic-nash

Which one are you feeling? Let us know on our forum
Best of luck to all of the finalists!

Although the most recent pushback wasn’t very well received by eager fans, the decision has certainly proved to be a winner. The reason for the pushback was simple, according to Seven; they just needed more time to promote the album. And promote they did. In the weeks following this interview, fans witnessed something unprecedented: people were talking about Ja Rule again. The release of Real Life Fantasy on iTunes in December and the video for the Jon Doe (700 Hit Season artist) assisted Never Had Time on Christmas eve had already generated a bit of a buzz for the project. But it was the release of Parachute, the powerful track featuring and almost eerie Leah Siegel, on New Year’s Day which really caught the ear of the public. The ball was firmly in Ja’s court, or in the case of the incarcerated rapper, the court of manager Ron “Gutta” Robinson and collaborator and the creative force behind PIL2, Seven Aurelius. Aside from the announcement of a Parachute remix competition open to all producers and DJs, things got a little quiet, too quiet in the minds of many diehard fans, until we got the word that the long awaited, Hype Williams directed video for Real Life Fantasy was to be released on February 1st.

The game changed on February 1st. In less than 24 hours Real Life Fantasy had garnered over 3 million hits on Worldstar Hip Hop, where it was exclusively released; it seemed the world was ready to listen to Ja Rule again. Then on February 2nd the New York Daily News ran a piece on Ja Rule and his life behind bars, where Ja described jail as an “amazing” place. Poor choice of word, or clever marketing ploy? Either way, the story went viral. Picked up by the Washington post, the Huffington Post and over 2700 blogs around the internet, the word amazing catapulted Ja Rule back into the public eye, becoming a trending topic on both Yahoo! and twitter. Of course Ja later clarified his comments, saying that “Jail is not cool,” but it was too late, the story was out there and the public were talking; proving the age old saying “there’s no such thing as bad publicity.” Real Life Fantasy went on to debut on BET’s 106&Park on February 8th causing Ja Rule to immediately trend worldwide on twitter, couple that with positive reviews from the likes of Rolling Stone and Allhiphop.com and I think we have the makings of a comeback on our hands! We have been promised the release of singles: Believe, Parachute (music video) and Superstar before is PIL2 finally unleashed on February 28th, so it’s shaping up to be a great time for Ja Rule fans.

In addition to producing PIL2, which was very much a collaborative effort between Seven Aurelius and Ja rule, Seven has recently started his own imprint (700 Hit Season) which he will discuss in more detail here, and will be introducing the world to 4 new recording artists as well new visual artists on the PIL2 project solidifying Seven’s role as a forecaster in the music industry with the aim to break new artists of all genres on a global level. PIL2 is much more than a musical experience, Seven reminds us, the artwork and supporting videos are as much a part of the project as the music, and most notable is the “F*ck Fame” portrait, a controversial image by French artist Marcel Bornstein, which will be included in the first 15,000 copies of PIL2.

This brings us back to where we started, the calm before the storm, January 23rd, in a quiet bar in downtown Manhattan. The call which we were waiting for was from Melanie Bonvinco, spokesperson for Ja Rule and Seven Aurelius, setting up the interview that MIO and Ja Rule fans everywhere had been waiting for – an in depth interview with the man behind the music, Mr Seven Aurelius where we discuss all things PIL2 and what the future has in store for Seven.

Read the full interview here.

Ja Rule – cigar ablaze and drink in hand – stares down and caresses a bound and gagged woman with the word “Fame” tattooed across her bare chest. The back cover art for his forthcoming Pain Is Love 2 (due February 28th) is an apt representation of the rapper and how he views his own celebrity: constraining, toxic, but ultimately seductive.

Grappling with fame was the overarching theme as a small group of writers previewed PIL2 Tuesday night (February 7th) with executive producer Seven (7 Aurelius) at Manhattan’s Quad Studios. Seven was a fitting surrogate/guide – Ja is currently incarcerated and serving two years at Mid-State Correctional Facility in Oneida, N.Y. for gun possession and tax evasion – having worked with the rapper for a number of years on their collective biggest hits (“Always on Time” featuring Ashanti, “I’m Real (Remix)” with Jennifer Lopez).  They recorded PIL2 in two months, finishing the final song “Pray 4 The Day” ironically the day before Ja was locked up.

“Rule and I made history,” Seven mused nostalgically before playing the album.

The operative word of course, is “made”, as Ja Rule’s fall from grace reads like a textbook rolling of heads from HBO’s Game of Thrones. Ja reigned supreme in the late 1990s/early 2000s with a myriad of hits that straddled that all-important line, appeasing women without leaving male fans feeling emasculated. His spot was usurped by newcomer and fellow Queens rapper 50 Cent when 50 threw a string of jabs and marked Ja the pariah du jour. In hip-hop, you were either a 50 Cent fan or a Ja Rule fan and there was no in between. Once Ja was completely marginalized, 50 dealt the real coup de grâce, co-opting an identical musical style and garnering tremendous success.

PIL2 is a loose concept that follows this trajectory. Ja swallows one pill (“pil” stemming from the acronym for Pain Is Love) and becomes immensely successful. He then downs another and finds himself on a bad trip, surrounded by haters and superficiality. “I’m crying everyone’s tears,” moans Ja on the album opener “Fuck Fame” featuring Leah Siegal, which quickly moves into the thumping, angry percussion of “Real Life Fantasy” featuring Anita Louise. “I’m a rock star/Rick James Mick Jagger/Bright light big stages bad habits/Get high got to prison and evade taxes/This is not what I envisioned/when I started rapping,” he gruffly spits with the utmost conviction. “Parachute” and “Drown” further outline the despair of a man spiraling. “You should be smarter/don’t jump off the deep end”, the rapper says on “Parachute” to his fickle fans and then laments, “Only the flyest niggas get to fall.”

Seven’s adept production adds heft to every track and melds with Ja’s still-pristine bark. On “Never Had Time,” which samples “The Way It Is” by Bruce Hornsby and the Range that 2Pac famously flipped on “Changes,” there are moments when Ja’s timbre emits the same vulnerability as Pac.  Lush violins, pounding drums; everything sounds bigger at the hands of Seven. “Spun A Web” featuring Amina cleverly intersperses parts of Coldplay’s “Trouble” and when the band refused to clear the sample, the producer reinterpreted the instrumentals on his own with stellar results.  Features are relegated mostly to newcomers, aside from Kalenna of Dirty Money, because according to Seven, rapper Rick Ross was the only notable who agreed to contribute to the album (Ross’ recent health ailments deterred him from actually recording).

The album’s concept deviates briefly, specifically on “Black Vodka” and “Superstar”. “Black Vodka” is more reminiscent of traditional Ja fare, a female-friendly cut that draws the metaphor between a sexy woman and vodka with lines like “She goes down so smooth.” The bouncy “Superstar” is requisite braggadocio about “Living life like a movie star” and “Making love like a porn star.” Not groundbreaking exactly, but they’re sonically welcome and cut through what could otherwise be 13 tracks of downers.

The concept comes full circle in the end on the introspective stand out “Pray 4 The Day” featuring Leah Siegal. Ja raps plaintively to his fans to remain steadfast during his sabbatical,  “Love is pain and all I ask is y’all to keep Rule in your prayers.”

This mirrors real life in which, according to a statement, Ja has undergone a full mental and physical transformation in prison including starting college courses, working on a biographical television show concept and penning a series of letters to possibly be published.  Whether PIL2 will resurrect the fallen king and return him as a formidable force in hip-hop remains to be seen.

Dont forget you can purchase the single on iTunes here. PIL2 will be released February 28th so make sure you pick up your copy.

Bones was also nice enough to spit a quick freestyle for us, check it out below.

Make sure you follow Bones on twitter @Bonesbrigante and MIO on @MpireOnline.