20th Anniversary of J.Lo's This Is Me... Then Album

Yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of the release of This is Me...Then, the 3rd studio album by Jennifer Lopez (one of my favourite singers). It came out on 25th November 2002. Can't believe it's been so long!  And Jennifer (also known by her nickname J.Lo) has just announced she will be releasing a new album called This Is Me... Now next year. It will be her first album since 2014's AKA (apart from the soundtrack to the recent film Marry Me).

This Is Me...Then includes songs such as the  lead single Jenny from the Block, which was a hit in many countries, All I Have featuring LL Cool J (one of my fave songs from the album) I'm Glad, Dear Ben (a tribute to actor to Ben Affleck who was Jennifer's boyfriend and later fiance at the time) and Baby, I Love U! In fact, the whole album was inspired by her relationship with Ben. It's strange to look back on it because she and Ben got back together and married this year, 20 years after they first got engaged!

My top two Jennifer albums are On the 6 and J.Lo) but TIM... T is a good one too. My fave songs are Still, Loving You, All I Have and I'm Gonna Be Alright (Trackmasters Remix). To celebrate the anniversary, here's a look back at some of the most well-known songs, plus my favourites. :) 

 

Jenny from The Block feat. Jadakiss and Styles P

Jenny from the Block was the lead single from This Is Me... Then and was released in September 2002. Thr album release was actually pushed forward after Sony Music boss Tommy Mottola deliberately leaked the song. It features rappers Jadakiss and Styles P.

The song is about how Jennifer remains true to her roots in New York's The Bronx neighbourhood, despite how much her life has changed since becoming famous and achieving success. At the time she was dating Ben Affleck and they were receiving a lot of media attention (they were nicknamed "Bennifer" by the press and fans) so the music video was a play on that.

While I do like Jenny from The Block, it was never one of my favourites and I got a bit of an overload of it! It is catchy though and has become somewhat of an "iconic" song for J.Lo. :) I've just found out that there are actually two videos! Here is the one that I've seen on the music channels. It features the raps by Jadakiss and Styles P.

And here's the other one- it has no raps and about 2.28 minutes in, there is an audio of Jennifer singing her song Loving You (same scenes from the other video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dly6p4Fu5TE

 

Side note: Tommy Mottola is the ex-husband of my favourite singer Mariah Carey, who celebrated the 25th anniversary of her album Butterfly last month.

All I Have feat. LL Cool J

All I Have was the second single from the album, released in December 2002. It features LL Cool J (one of my favourite rappers). Jennifer sings about how their relationship isn't working and she's going to leave, while LL begs her not to go. The "Baby don't go" part is sampled from Stutter, the 2001 single by American singer Joe. I remember Stutter but I haven't heard it for a long time!

This is one of my favourite songs. Since it came out in December, the video is winter themed. I featured it in my 2013 More J.Lo Songs post (scroll down): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2013/02/more-jlo-songs.html 

Or you can watch it directly here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeSJ2YdhG5k

 

Jennifer and LL also worked together on his song Lose Control. See the More J.Lo Songs post linked above for the video. :)

I'm Glad

I'm Glad was the 3rd single and is about J.Lo's relationship with Ben. It was released in April 2003. The video was inspired by the 1983 film Flashdance, and Jennifer and her record company Sony Music (along with the makers of Flashdance) were sued for copyright by Maureen Marder, the woman who was the inspiration for the movie. However, both suits were dismissed in 2006. (I remember that former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell's video for her It's Raining Men cover was inspired by the film too.)

I like I'm Glad, although it's not one of my absolute favourites. Here's the video: 

 

 

Baby, I Love U!

Baby, I Love U! was the 4th single and is also a love song about Ben. It was released in August 2003. There is a remix featuring the singer R. Kelly.*

 

Still

Still is the first track on This Is Me... and one of my top two favourites. It's about reminiscing over a past love. At the time Jennifer was still with Ben, but it could also relate to him after their split.

I included it in my Top 10 Jennifer Lopez Songs post back in 2012 (No. 5): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2012/10/top-10-jennifer-lopez-songs.html

 

Loving You

Loving You is Track No. 2 and also the 2nd of my top two. It's about still having love for someone after ups and downs. Like Still it has an "old school" vibe and I think both songs samples older music. I feature a post called Some Mariah Carey + J.Lo Songs in 2015 (scroll down to the Jennifer Lopez section): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2015/01/some-mariah-carey-jlo-songs.html

It wasn't a single, so had no video. However, Jennifer just uploaded a video for it yesterday! It features unseen footage from the time when the album was released.

Dear Ben

I had to include this, since the album was basically dedicated to Ben Affleck. Dear Ben is a love letter to Ben in song form!

 

 

According to the tracklist posted on J.Lo's YouTube (see below for link) there will be a Dear Ben Part 2, so look out for that!

I'm Gonna Be Alright (Trackmasters Remix) feat. Nas

This is also one of my favourites. The original I'm Gonna Be Alright is from Jennifer's 2nd album J.Lo and was a single in June 2001. The Trackmasters remix was made for Jennifer first remix album, J to Tha L-O! which was released in February 2002. The original version featured rapper 50 Cent but Nas was later chosen for the single version.

The Trackmasters remix samples the instrumental used in hip hop duo Luniz's I Got 5 On It, which in turn sampled the 1987 single Why You Treat Me So Bad by American R'n'B group Club Nouveau (the song that was also sampled on Ashanti's hit single Only U). The video has an appearance by Cris Judd, Jennifer's second husband who was also her back-up dancer (they split up in June 2002, shortly before she met Ben).

While I like both songs, the remix is my favourite. It is No. 10 on my Top 10 list: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2012/10/top-10-jennifer-lopez-songs.html

You can listen to the full album and watch the music on Jennifer's YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0WnuvyfeQnHG5yFk1rvpim4TB_8SElC1

And watch a video about the upcoming This Is Me...Now here (and see a tracklist for the songs):   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kePUjEXFbtg

A quick backstory on Jennifer and Ben's relationship for those interested- they got engaged in November 2002 but postponed their wedding the following September, due to media scrutiny. They announced their split in January 2004 and Jennifer went on to marry singer Mark Anthony, who she had previously dated. (He was her 3rd husband; she was also married to waiter turned actor and producer Ojani Noa and dancer Cris Judd, who appeared in the Love Don't Cost a Thing, I'm Real and I'm Gonna Be Alright videos; see above). They had twins Max and Emme.

Ben married actress Jennifer Garner and they had 3 kids, Violet, Seraphina and Samuel. Both he and J.Lo got divorced and after having other relationships, they got back together last year and become engaged for a second time! They got married this July.

 

Hope you enjoyed the post! :) It feels weird to think that it's been 20 years since the release of This Is Me...Then! I was a teenager when it came out, lol. Were/are you a fan of the album? 

J.Lo fan? Check out these posts:

Happy 50th Bday J.Lo! (2019): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/07/happy-50th-bday-jlo.html

Jennifer Lopez Live Performances (from last year's Global Citizen Live): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/10/jennifer-lopez-live-performances.html

Post about her recent documentary Halftime: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/06/new-jennifer-lopez-documentary.html

 

 

*I've chosen not to share that here due to R.Kelly's convictions for racketeering and sex offences.