When I was hip-hop director of my college radio station in 1999, I received a promo copy of 50 Cent's debut album, Power of the Dollar. As soon as I listened to it, I was a huge fan. It remains one of my favorite rap albums of all time. It also cemented 50 among my favorite lyricits, with lines like: “An old timer who schooled me told me, don't burn bridges my friend / Imagine if the G.Dub closed and your ass had to swim.” Shortly afterwards, as the story goes, he was shot 9 times and dropped from Universal. The album was never released. (As Jada said, he had to be shot nine times to get rich).
50 Cent's new album, The Massacre, was released today. This is the follow up to his highly successful 'debut', 2003's Get Rich or Die Tryin' (which I still insist was not half as good as Power of the Dollar).
Like many others, I had very high expectations for this album. Other folks seem to be pretty disappointed (see reviews here and here). After The Game's album, I was expecting amazing production and was initially very disappointed. However, the more I listen to it, the more it's growing on me. The production is a bit subdued - grittier perhaps - but on many tracks this actually works better. If nothing else, it's different.
By now, you have inevitably heard the two lead singles, Disco Inferno and Candy Shop. I'm not a big fan. These are perhaps two of the most annoying tracks on the album.
The next single is going to be Outta Control, a Dre banger along the lines of In Da Club. (Actually the beat reminds me a lot of Higher). I like this track. Other personal favorites include Disco D-producted Ski Mask Way, In My Hood, and This is 50. Position of Power also stood out on the first listen. A Baltimore Love Thing, rapped as if he were heroin, is a pretty creative and an enjoyable track.
There are also a few tracks that really don't work. The Eminem-produced Gatman and Robbin' just seems like a mess - esppecially when you compare to the Em track on The Game's album, We Ain't. The obvious future singles like So Amazin' and Build You Up, featuring Olivia and Jamie Foxx respectively, are annoying and predictable to the point that I can't even listen to them. (In the words of Fat Joe: Is it just me or is Candy Shop the same song as Magic Stick?)
There's also the overhyped battle track Piggy Bank, where 50 takes shots at Ja Rule, Nas, Jadakiss, Fat Joe and Shyne. This isn't a bad track - the beat is pretty nice and it has a few good lines - but it's pretty overall as a battle track. The line about Nas isn't bad - “Kelis said her milkshake brings all the boys to the yard / Then Nas went and tatooed the bitch on his arm.”. 50 says "these are warning shots, after your next move I'll give you what I got" - let's hope that's true. Hell, How To Rob was better and it wasn't intended as a real battle track.
When I listen to this, I get the impression that 50 gave The Game too many of the hot tracks. Maybe he felt that The Game needed more help on his debut album. And maybe that's why he fell out with Game briefly (although suddenly the beef is over). Apparently, there were 60 tracks made from which the album was selected, and yet somehow it still seems rushed.
Obviously, this is still going to be one of the most successful albums of the year. (It's already sold 1.1 million in 4 days now, the sixth most ever). 50 Cent is a good enough emcee to make a mediocre album enjoyable. The only problem is that this is just that - a mediocre album.
Discuss on Album Launch.
Update: Fat Joe and Jadakiss have both released responses to 50. As expected, Jada's response is pretty sick. A few choice lines: “You ain't never been the king of NY / and now you live in Connecticut” and “I did real songs with BIG / no made up shits”. Hopefully no one gets killed over this, but, hey, at least we'll get some good verses out of it....