Jennifer Lopez

“If you’re going to make it in this business, you need the kind of personality that, you have to do it or die, there’s no alternative.” So said Lopez once, about the roller-coaster ride that is the entertainment business.

The multi-talented superstar, who hails from New York City’s Castle Hill section of the Bronx, has had a bead on that little secret of survival long before she ever stepped in front of a movie camera. It is only now, with the release of her much anticipated debut album for the WORK Group, On the 6, can she take a breath, and dare to look back.

“I call the album On the 6 because I think about travelling on the 6 train,” she says. “That’s how I used to go into the city to audition, dance in clubs, dance classes. It was how I used to come home.”

A lot has happened since. It’s the perfect metaphor for a girl whose gutsy blend of fearlessness and raw beauty conquered worlds far beyond a rickety subway line. “It’s how I started my journey (television, film [ed]),” she says proudly.

No doubt the new generation of fans will be reacting to Jennifer’s powerful debut effort, pumped and primed for for the Latino tinged anthem “Let’s Get Loud,” produced by Emilio Estefan, or swooning to the album’s poignant opener, “If You Had My Love.” That track was helmed by by Grammy award-winning producer Rodney Jerkins (Michael Jackson, Brandy), with Jennifer’s magnetic voice pulling the listener all the way into the story. Like many of the albums tracks, it was co-written by the album’s executive producer Corey Rooney.

I looked to Corey for most of the leadership on this album,” she says. “We Did a lot of listening to different kinds of music. For me, lyrics are very important. Every song on that album was something that touched me very deeply. They ring very true. To me, that’s what music is all about.”

Coming from the cradle of hip-hop and Latin hip hop movements, (the Boogie down Bronx), it’s no surprise that great beats also motivate Jennifer. Superstar producers such as the aforementioned Estefan, and Jerkins as well as Sean “Puffy” Combs, Rick Wake and Track Masters, among others, all stepped up for some of their best work.

“I was fortunate to work with all the great people that I did,” she says. “It was great to work with Puffy, for example. He’s the consummate professional. He always knows what he’s doing in the studio. You can hear it in the track we did.” The song, “Feel So Good,” which includes blistering rap cameos by fellow Bronx alumni Fat Joe and Big Punisher, captures that street corner feel that Jennifer remembers from her clubbing days.

Having to collaborate with a myriad of producers – and facing a whole new set of pressures as she high-dives head first into the music industry – she is able to keep it real by never forgetting the importance of her journey. It is that compass, musically and spiritually, that guides this ambitious debut.

“This album completes the journey. Doing television, the movies, and now this, I’m actually accomplishing what I set out to do,” she says. “There’s something to be said about patience. Because you could be running toward something, when what you want is right behind you trying to catch up with you.”

Just like a downtown train…