Ja Rule: Blood in my Eye

Reviewed by REBECCA BARRY

Herald rating: * *

For someone who spoke out about keeping the peace and who thanks "all the black leaders" in his liner notes, Ja Rule sure needs a taste of his own medicine.

Almost half of his third album is spent settling the score on his beef with a certain hip-hop star, a lyrical waste of time that does more to promote his nemesis' career than his own. "I'm here with the world's scariest rapper, 50 Cent," goes one of the childish skits that intersperse equally tiresome spats against Eminem and Dr Dre.

At least the production is consistently good, a sparse but menacing combination of dark synths, pianos and horns. That said, you'd be hard pressed to find any radio hits here. One minute he was sharing the stage with the sweet R&B star Ashanti, the next he's trying to be the hardest rapper in New York. Who said pain is love, Ja?

(Murder Inc)