In my adolescence, when most people probably begin getting into music more thoroughly, Ja Rule was all over the radio. He was one of the biggest things in hip hop for a while back in the day, however, recent years haven't been as kind to the incarcerated rapper. The key to many of his hits was that while they were pop-rap, his gritty deep voice gave them some bite, and the choruses were catchy thanks to the likes of high profile artists like Ashanti, R. Kelly, and Jennifer Lopez to name a few. While well-known features are nowhere to be seen on this autobiographical concept album, 'PIL2', (that perhaps in itself demonstrates how far Ja has fallen from the heights of the late 90s/early 2000s), the girls on the hooks of the best songs here do the job well. Anita Louise particularly adds to tracks, who sings the hook on the single 'Real Life Fantasy', which led to myself somewhat anticipating this album. However, like every Ja album that came before, it is a mixed bag. Other strong songs follow the same kind of formula with strong hooks and are listed below. While the features aren't as apparent, Ja has hung onto 7 Aurelius who handles all of the production, and who was a big part of Murder Inc in the early 2000s, producing pretty much all of 'Pain Is Love' with its hits including 'Livin' It Up' and 'Always on Time'. Overall, there are some reasonable atmospheric tunes created, but there are a few, particularly 'Black Vodka' that is the first major blip on the radar. The following 'Drown' also fails to float, with the middle of the album being weaker than what came before and comes afterwards. Just when you thought it was dead, Ja hits auto-tune on 'Strange Days', that while being a bit more energetic than the aforementioned tracks, is an average one. 'To the Top' is another small improvement, but then the final three tracks may all be ones you'll want to listen to a few times, with some nice beats and introspective lyrics. All in all, after growing on me after giving this a few spins, while the mid-five tunes fall away, there are a handful of useful tracks that I've been happy to continue to play. Best Tracks: Real Life Fantasy Parachute, Pray 4 the Day, Believe *Written years back.