--- title: What Jennifer Lopez Is Saying in I'm Real With Ja Rule description: Apparently, we've all been mishearing the first lyrics that Jennifer Lopez says in her 2001 hit featuring Ja Rule, "I'm Real." canonical: https://time.com/4326642/jennifer-lopez-j-lo-ja-rule-im-real-first-line/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-11T21:07:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:32:20.835Z og:title: We've All Been Mishearing J.Lo's Lyric In 'I'm Real' For Years og:description: Here's what she's really saying og:url: https://time.com/4326642/jennifer-lopez-j-lo-ja-rule-im-real-first-line/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: We've All Been Mishearing J.Lo's Lyric In 'I'm Real' For Years twitter:description: Here's what she's really saying twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Apparently, We've All Been Mishearing the First Line of Jennifer Lopez and Ja Rule's 'I'm Real'  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang May 11, 2016 9:07 PM UTC  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang May 11, 2016 9:07 PM UTC Jennifer Lopez, she of the [world-famous derriere](http://time.com/4285000/jennifer-lopez-aint-your-mama-dr-luke/) and ageless face, is [well-acknowledged as an all-around queen](http://time.com/4275958/jennifer-lopez-james-corden-carpool-karaoke/), even after 30 years in the industry. However, it’s arguable that early ’00s J. Lo was when Jenny from the block really hit her stride. Dating Diddy! Pink velour Juicy Couture sweat suits! Hit songs with Ja Rule and LL Cool J! [_American Idol_](http://time.com/3853548/american-idol-canceled/)and [Casper Smart](http://time.com/3636584/jennifer-lopez-relationship-2/) are nice and all, but how are they supposed to compete with that? However, a recent discovery by [_Jezebel_](http://jezebel.com/where-were-you-when-you-figured-out-what-j-los-actual-1775587986) has us wondering if we ever really knew early ’00s J. Lo at all. If you’ve ever heard her Ja Rule collaboration “I’m Real (Remix),” you know that it begins with the rapper scream-asking J. Lo, “What’s my motherf\*king name?” To which we thought J. Lo replied, “Are you Ellie?” A weird lyric to sing back to Ja Rule, but honestly at this point, we were probably too busy dancing to care. Some people have also posited that it’s “Are you ready?” which makes more sense, but apparently that isn’t what she’s saying either. We’ve all been wrong this whole time — because according to Jezebel, she’s actually saying “R-U-L-E,” which makes sense because, you know, it’s Ja Rule’s name. Anyways, take a listen and indulge some early ’00s nostalgia — what does it sound like to you? ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4326642/jennifer-lopez-j-lo-ja-rule-im-real-first-line/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4326642/jennifer-lopez-j-lo-ja-rule-im-real-first-line/"},"headline":"Apparently, We've All Been Mishearing the First Line of Jennifer Lopez and Ja Rule's 'I'm Real'","datePublished":"2016-05-11T21:07:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:32:20.835Z","description":"This is what J. Lo's really saying","url":"https://time.com/4326642/jennifer-lopez-j-lo-ja-rule-im-real-first-line/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Music","Jennifer Lopez"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4326642/jennifer-lopez-j-lo-ja-rule-im-real-first-line/","name":"Apparently, We've All Been Mishearing the First Line of Jennifer Lopez and Ja Rule's 'I'm Real'"}}]}] ```