Jenny From The Block - Music and Lyrics

Music and Lyrics

"Jenny from the Block" is a pop and contemporary R&B song with elements of old school hip hop with a running length of three minuets and eight seconds (3:08). It was written by Lopez with Troy Oliver, Andre Deyo, Samuel Barnes, Jean-Claude Olivier, José Fernando Arbex Miró, Lawrence Parker, Scott Sterling and Michael Oliver. Along with Rooney and Oliver, Pole & Tone of Trackmasters produced "Jenny from the Block". The opening line of the song is: "Children grow and women producing, men go working, some go stealing, everyone's got to make a living", which is a sample of 20th Century Steel Band's 1975 song "Heaven and Hell Is on Earth". "Heaven and Hell Is on Earth" has been sampled by several others, including Salt-n-Pepa on their song "Heaven or Hell" (1993), Lauryn Hill on "Every Ghetto, Every City" (1998) and The Black Eyed Peas's song "Say Goodbye" from their album Behind the Front (1998). The prevalence of this sample among a variety of different songs is ultimately due to its inclusion on Ultimate Breaks and Beats SBR 505, a seminal release much-sampled in the early days of Hip Hop. As such, the sample resonates with the song's central lyrical claim of authenticity; just as Jennifer is aware of her roots, so too is the song's instrumental backdrop.

Lyrically, the song "intones her modest childhood roots vowing she wishes to remain simple despite her diamonds" as she sings in the chorus: "Don't be fooled by the rocks that I got / I'm Still, I'm Still Jenny from the Block / Used to have a little now I have a lot / No matter where I go I know where I came from". Lopez insists that fame has not changed her. Some critics derided both Lopez and the song as "hypocritical". Faith Hill would revisit the same theme of being true to one's roots in a country music context for her 2005 hit "Mississippi Girl," which many observers compared to "Jenny from the Block". Gwen Stefani and Fergie both reprised the theme in 2007 with their songs "Orange County Girl" and "Glamorous", respectively. "Jenny from the Block" also samples Boogie Down Productions's song "South Bronx" (1987) (known for starting The Bridge Wars) and Enoch Light and the Light Brigade's 1975 interpretation of jazz flautist Herbie Mann's selection "Hi-Jack". Lopez sampled the song from The Beatnuts track "Watch Out Now" (which also "Hi-Jack") from their album A Musical Massacre (1999) due to it having the same instrumental beat and same flute melody interpretation. Unfortunately, the Beatnuts were convinced that the sample from "Hi-Jack" was stolen from them without credit, and they subsequently criticized Lopez on the song "Confused Rappers", from their album Milk Me (2004). Additionally, they stated: "Anybody familiar with our music who heard Jenny From The Block knew it was a Beatnuts beat. There’s no getting around it. That’s a straight-up bite. It’s the same drums, the same flute, the same tempo... everything is our idea. If we never flipped that sample, there would be no Jenny From The Block".