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There are only a few overt traces of Jennifer Lopez's marriage to Marc Anthony on her latest offering, Rebirth — the subject matter of "I Got U," for instance, or the collaboration between the two on the power ballad "(Can't Believe) This Is Me." Instead, the main influence that the respected Latin singer has had on Lopez is that she's interested in a different sort of credibility these days. Where before she'd insist she's real (as in street), now she's insisting that's she's real (as in a real artist).
Eager to talk about the recording process, the singer wants to prove that she's got the chops — perhaps that's why she's willing to go on the road for the first time. J. Lo talked to Jasmine Dotiwala of MTV News Europe about being reborn, cracking the whip and making beautiful music with her husband.
MTV: You're in new territory now. Is that why you call the album Rebirth?
Jennifer Lopez: After doing all my albums in a row, no breaks, I finally took a little break, a six-month break, and just had time to be still. So when I came back to do this album, I had a renewed energy. It almost felt like I was making my first album again, you know? And that's how I approached it: If I was a brand-new artist, what would I say? What kind of music would I want to make? How would it be? And it was funny, because a lot of it paralleled my first album, On the 6. Like Rodney Jerkins came back on this album; he did two tracks. Fat Joe came back and did this great song, "Hold You Down." But I incorporated a lot more live music than I did on my first album — a lot more horns, a lot more live drums — just to add that element of funk, just so we know we're in a different place now. But it is very vintage Jennifer Lopez, whatever that is.
MTV: What kind of music did you listen to while you were making this album?
Lopez: I listened to a lot of James Brown, a lot of blues — old blues, from the Ray Charles era — and a lot of funk. There's something about that type of music that makes you dance. Involuntarily, you just start moving your shoulder, you know what I mean? With the first single, "Get Right," you kind of hear that, and there's another song on the record, "Whatever You Want," that has that type of energy. I just wanted to incorporate that, not ripping it off, but incorporating it my way.
MTV: And there's a new direction, like on the track "Cherry Pie."
Lopez: "Cherry Pie" does have a little bit of a Prince vibe to it. It's funny, because I was working with these very urban producers, Tim [Kelley] and Bob [Robinson], very hip-hop guys, very musical guys. And when I put the challenge to them to get something new, they really went in a direction I had never gone before, and they came back with this track that's really hot. The minute I heard it, I knew. It was like, "This song is going to be called 'Cherry Pie,' and this is what it's going to be: It's going to be about bad boys and da-da-da-da-da ... " It just kind of flowed from there.
MTV: How do you pick an executive producer?
Lopez: I always say if it's not broke, don't fix it. It's our fifth album together, so obviously something works [with Cory Rooney]. When I first went to Sony, Tommy Mottola brought all these producers in to meet me, all these people I had heard of but never met, like Babyface, Diane Warren — and the last person who came in was Cory. He was waiting in the waiting room, playing the piano, and I went in there. He was just singing a song, and I was like, "I love that." And he was like, "Sing this."
It was a song called "Talk About This," and Tommy said, "Why don't you go record that tomorrow?" Cory and I have very similar taste, and we can finish each other's sentences as far as writing. I can give him an idea, and he can write it. I can start something, and he can finish it. Or he can start something, and he can say, "I'm stuck, help me." We just have that kind of chemistry.
He'll be mad I said this, but I like working hard. Cory doesn't like working hard. It's true. I do have to crack the whip very hard. When I get into a flow, into a vibe, I'm unstoppable. It's days and days. And he gets tired, and I'm like, "No, we can't stop." I get very passionate about things, but he hangs through it. He's a great guy.
MTV: He executive produced the English record, but what about the Spanish-language record that you're also doing?
Lopez: I don't want to give too much away, because it's not coming out till later next year, but it's a very special project, a passion project. Nobody asked me to do it. I didn't go to the record company and say I wanted to do it. I just started making Spanish music. I met [songwriter/producer] Estefano, and he's just a brilliant writer. And we started writing these songs, and Marc Anthony started producing them, trying to find the right sound for me. Marc kind of created the sound and found the music, Estefano has come up with the songs, and I know when to just step back and let two masters work, you know what I mean?
The thing about music is, when it happens in the right way, it's the right song with the right artist and the right sound at the right time, and we have that going right now. It just started flowing, and we just had these incredible songs, so we just kept going. And the record company was like, "Give it to us!" And I was like, "It's not done. When it's ready, it's ready."
MTV: Rodney Jerkins said that you'd really grown a lot vocally on this record.
Lopez: I'm glad to hear him say that. I've been getting a lot of that. After making so many albums, you get much more confident. The first time I was in the studio, I didn't know what I was doing, you know what I mean? I didn't know how to ask for the right canned mix in my headphones. These are things you learn over the years. Even Cory the other day [said], "Yo, did you know you can pan the vocals when you're doing background? It's much easier. Try it."
So it's funny, you learn as you go, and as you learn, you're able to perform better in the studio. It's been a great process, and I'm happy to see that people are noticing that. I think there was a stigma out there for a while that, you know, I was limited in that way. So, it's just nice to let people know now that this is really what I do, and this is who I am.
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Photo: Getty Images/ MTV News
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