"Tru Love" is a song by American recording artist

Faith Evans Faith Renée Evans (born June 10, 1973) is an American singer and actress. Born in Lakeland, Florida, and raised in New Jersey, she relocated to Los Angeles in 1991 for a career in the music business. After working as a backing vocalist for Al ...

. It was written by Johnta Austin, Evans,

Bryan Michael Cox Bryan-Michael Paul Cox (born December 1, 1977) is an American record producer and songwriter who is notable for his work with artists such as Usher, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, and Toni Braxton. Among his most notable productions are "Be Wit ...

, and

Jermaine Dupri Jermaine Dupri Mauldin (born September 23, 1972) is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, record executive, entrepreneur, and DJ. Early life Jermaine Dupri Mauldin was born on September 23, 1972, the son of Tina (Mosley) and Michael ...

for her fourth studio album '' The First Lady'' (2005), while its production was handled by the latter two. The

contemporary R&B Contemporary R&B (or simply R&B) is a popular music genre that combines rhythm and blues with elements of pop, soul, funk, hip hop, and electronic music. The genre features a distinctive record production style, drum machine-backed rhy ...

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

was released as the album's third and final single in October 2005 and reached number 27 on the US ''Billboard''

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...

chart.

Background

"Tru Love" was penned by Evans along with singer Johnta Austin and producers

, and

Phil Tan Phil Tan is a Malaysian-American music and audio engineer. Early life and education Tan was born in Malaysia. He attended Full Sail University in Florida in the U.S., where he attained a degree in Recording Arts in 1990. Afterwards he moved to Atla ...

and Dupri mixed the track, while Brad Todd handled the

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

of "Tru Love". Built along a harp, the song is a

reminiscent of other Cox/Dupri collaborations at that time, including Usher’s "

Burn A burn is an injury to skin, or other tissues, caused by heat, cold, electricity, chemicals, friction, or ultraviolet radiation (like sunburn). Most burns are due to heat from hot liquids (called scalding), solids, or fire. Burns occur ma ...

," which was released a year prior.

Critical reception

The song garnered a generally mixed to positive reception from music critics. MusicOMH's Sam Shepherd stated that "Tru Love" was "an understated love song, and it allows Evans to show off an impeccable timing in her delivery." He however felt that "sadly there is little weight or edge to the song and it fails to impress." Michael Benning from Blogcritics ranked "Tru Love" among those tracks which showed "off van'sability to drive slower numbers with sultry relaxed vocals." On the other hand, Raymond Fiore from ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...

'' found that the album was "blemished by a few toothless slow jams" such as "Tru Love" and album cut "Ever Wonder."

Formats and track listings

Promo 12" single # "Tru Love" (album version) – 3:41 # "Tru Love" (instrumental) – 3:41 # "Tru Love" (a cappella) – 3:41 # " Mesmerized" (Desert Storm remix radio edit, featuring Snoop Dogg) – 3:56 # "Mesmerized" (Desert Storm remix instrumental) – 3:56 # "Mesmerized" (Desert Storm remix a cappella, featuring Snoop Dogg) – 3:56 Promo CD single # "Tru Love" (radio version) – 3:41 # "Tru Love" (instrumental) – 3:41 # "Tru Love" (a cappella) – 3:41

Credits and personnel

*Faith Evans –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

*Jermaine Durpi –

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

, mixing *Todd Russaw – executive producer *Andrew Shack – executive producer *Phil Tan – mixing *Brad Todd – recording

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Faith Evans songs Faith Evans songs 2006 singles Song recordings produced by Jermaine Dupri Songs written by Jermaine Dupri Songs written by Bryan-Michael Cox Songs written by Johntá Austin 2005 songs Capitol Records singles Songs written by Faith Evans Contemporary R&B ballads 2000s ballads