"Ain't It Funny (Murder Remix)" is a song by American singer
Jennifer Lopez, featuring American rappers Ja Rule and
Caddillac Tah. Written by Lopez, Cory Rooney, Ja Rule,
Caddillac Tah, Ashanti, and 7 Aurelius, it was released in 2002
as the lead single from Lopez's remix album,
J to tha L-O!: The Remixes(2002). The song was also
included on the 2002 compilation album
Irv Gotti Presents: The Inc.as well as on Ja Rule's
greatest hits album
Exodus.
The single topped the U.S. Hot 100 becoming Lopez's third
number-one single and Ja Rule's third number-one single; it
also peaked at number four in the United Kingdom. Caddillac Tah
also performs on the song and appears on the song's music
video, and even has a longer part than Ja Rule. The remix
samples Craig Mack's 1994 hit "Flava in Ya Ear". The song spent
six weeks at the top of the
BillboardHot 100 from March 9, and followed another Ja
Rule duet, "Always on Time" with Ashanti. Ashanti's "Foolish"
replaced it at the number-one spot. Ashanti also appears in the
video alongside Lopez, Ja Rule, Irv Gotti, Caddillac Tah, and
other Inc. members.
The original version of the song, "Ain't It Funny", appears
on Lopez's second studio album, 2001's
J.Lo, and was also a single of its own. It was written
by Cory Rooney for the soundtrack to Lopez's film
The Wedding Planner, but it was felt that the timbales
gave it too much of a Latin sound, and the song was not used
for the soundtrack. After the success of "I'm Real (Murder
Remix)", a previous Lopez–Ja Rule collaboration, they decided
to remix "Ain't It Funny" as a duet and release it as a
follow-up. Unlike "I'm Real", the two versions of "Ain't It
Funny" were released on different dates, and so charted
separately. The songs also charted separately because
Billboardinstituted a new chart policy.
In the Murder Inc. studio then-upcoming artist Ashanti
dropped by the studio. "Everyone was there and Ja (Rule) was on
the floor playing video games, and they had the beat playing in
the background. Chris Gotti, Irv Gotti's brother, said 'Ja's
supposed to be writing this record for J-Lo, but it doesn't
look like he's going to be doing anything tonight. Why don't
you go in there and see what's happening?' So that's exactly
what I did", says Ashanti, who wrote two verses and demoed the
new "Ain't It Funny" for Lopez. Ashanti recalled, "I got a call
from Gotti in Los Angeles. He asked me to write another
verse[...] I had to write it over the phone and two-way Irv the
lyrics."
The video is in two parts which frequently interchange back
and forth throughout the song. The first part of the video
shows Lopez having a small party in her home with guests
including Ja Rule and Ashanti. This part of the video is from
the point of view of the guy who is being mentioned in the
song. His face is not seen, and Lopez addresses the camera
throughout this section of the video. This section begins with
the guy knocking on the door, Lopez inviting him in, and then
eventually showing him the door when she sees him attempting to
look/flirt with other women at the party. As he leaves, she
goes on entertaining the other guests.
The second part of the video involves scenes with Lopez and
Ja Rule in a white room, Ja Rule in a recording studio in
Lopez's home, Lopez sitting in a chair singing bits of the
song, and Lopez and Ja Rule singing the parts of the final
verse against a gold backdrop.