Musical Montage: Fat Joe ft. Ashanti “What’s Luv?”
Holding up more and better remembered than the movie it was featured in, “What’s Luv?” by Fat Joe ft. Ashanti was the end credits song for 2002’s Juwanna Mann. Starring Miguel A. Núñez Jr., Juwanna Mann follows a professional basketball player who is kicked out of the league for his over-the-top antics off and on the court. Desperate for money and a return to the court, Jamal Jeffries dresses as a woman named “Juwanna Mann” and joins a professional women’s basketball team, with wacky antics and misunderstandings ensuing. Tommy Davidson and Vivica A. Fox co-starred. The movie was not well received and did not do particularly well at the box office either, unable to make back its modest budget. Performing much better was “What’s Luv?”, which had come out months before the movie in February (Juwanna Mann hit theaters in June of 2002). The song peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was one of several hits for Ashanti in 2002. Jennifer Lopez was originally planned on recording the Ashanti part, with Ashanti originally just doing vocals for the demo but Fat Joe insisted that Ashanti be on the actual song. The music video features some clips from the movie along with cameos from Miguel A. Núñez Jr and Tommy Davidson and a general basketball vibe and you can check it out below.
