Apparently, We've All Been Mishearing the First Line of Jennifer Lopez and Ja Rule's 'I'm Real'

Jennifer Lopez, she of the world-famous derriere and ageless face, is well-acknowledged as an all-around queen, 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 and Casper Smart are nice and all, but how are they supposed to compete with that?

However, a recent discovery by Jezebel 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?

 

Write to Cady Lang at cady.lang@timemagazine.com.