Background, Conception and Artwork
Ja Rule was first featured on Mic Geronimo's "Time to Build" in 1995. Shortly after, he formed a group called Cash Money Click with his friends. The group was signed to TVT Records and recorded two albums, releasing one single before being dropped from the record label. Ja Rule called it a "bullshit deal" as TVT withheld the publishing royalties of the recorded material. While working as an executive for Def Jam Recordings, record producer Irv Gotti was hired as A&R and convinced Ja Rule to sign onto the label.
Russell Simmons, the Def Jam founder, CEO, and mentor to Gotti then decided to give Gotti the label he had wanted for so long. In 1998, Murder Inc. Records was founded. To promote and market Ja Rule, he placed him on songs with Jay-Z, LL Cool J, DMX, Cash Money Records, and Fat Joe. Due to Ja Rule's exceptional performances on these songs, Def Jam gave his album a release date.
The album title, Venni Vetti Vecci, refers to the Latin phrase "veni, vidi, vici", which means "I came, I saw, I conquered".
The track "Only Begotten Son" alludes to the biblical verses John 3:16 and John 3:18, signifying "the father so feared the world that he left his only begotten son, in order to show that pain is love".
The album cover of Venni Vetti Vecci features Ja Rule with his head turned upward, eyes closed and hands clasped together, standing in front of a white statue of Jesus. It has been interpreted as referring to the "only begotten son" metaphor.
Read more about this topic: Venni Vetti Vecci
Famous quotes containing the word conception:
“Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one. To be able to recognize a freak, you have to have some conception of the whole man, and in the South the general conception of man is still, in the main, theological.”
—Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964)