Since the release of Get Rich or Die Tryin, certified as seven times platinum, 50 Cent has been one of the best selling hip-hop artists of all time. In 2005, he dropped The Massacre, a disappointing follow up to Get Rich. Nevertheless, it sold 1.14 million copies in the first four days of its release, as a rap album, only Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP has had a better opening week. Selling a shitload of records is what 50 Cent does.
On the other hand, Kanye West’s freshman album The College Dropout has sold four million copies worldwide. His follow-up release Late Registration sold over 900,000 copies in its first week, and made Rolling Stone magazine Album of the Year. With all the evidence in record sales, 50 is obviously in another league. Why would he even make the statement that he would retire from solo projects if West’s album outsells his? Since Soundscan started in 1991, no one has outsold 50, but Eminem.
However, some hip-hop vets are taking the decrease in overall record sales as a reflection of the public wanting more from artists. Again, let’s face the facts; the question at the center of this debate is “What makes music important or even relevant?”
While Kanye may not have as many record sales, the general consensus is that he is a more interesting and compelling artist by far. His albums are always well received. Unfortunately West’s last effort did not garner the same praise his first one did. However, consider Graduation his comeback. As usual the thing that is most compelling about Kanye is his sampling, usually taking classic soul tracks as the foundation of his eccentric style. Nevertheless, West still pushes the bar, sampling Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” for the second single. “Stronger” is proof that he is willing to go nontraditional sources to produce new and savvy beats. In its entirety, it is not the best West effort, compared to his early work on The College Dropout, which is still the superior album.
However, Graduation is better track-for-track compared to Late Registration, as well as much more mature and humble. This reignites my initial excitement around Kanye. Look at who was around him for this album, when it comes to song writing, guests and even production, not to take anything away from West, but this was not a solo project. You get the feeling that people in the industry have a level of respect for West that transcends boundaries established by genres, or pop culture. Everyone from Dwele to DJ Premier played a role in this album.
Overall this is an album you can listen to front to back, without skipping a track, “Drunk and Hot Girls” featuring Mos Def, is kind of annoying, but that is about it. The highlights of the album would have to be “Good Morning” the first track, which is an amazing intro with a very mellow minimalist beat. While I am a fan of the two current singles “Stronger” and “Tell Me Nothing,” I want to bring two different tracks to your attention: “Everything I Am” and “Big Brother.” These two tracks are West at his most humble. In “Everything I Am,” West discusses just who he is, stating, “Everything I’m not makes me everything I am.”
This track is just real cool; it’s a real confrontation with expectations of hip-hop artists and the contradictions created by those expectations. West proclaims “I know that people wouldn’t usually rap this/ But I got the facts to back this/ Just last year, Chicago had over 600 caskets/ Man, killin’s some wack shit/ Oh, I forgot, ‘cept for when niggas is rappin’/ Do you know what it feel like when people is passin’?”
There was hype around Kanye when he first emerged, as an artist that recognized these contradictions in hip-hop music. In this album you get more of that. On the song “Big Brother” West is very upfront about the tension between Jay-Z and himself that started when he told Jigga he was doing a track with England’s Coldplay. Apparently, soon after that Jigga man does a track with Coldplay, and naturally West gets upset. However, Kanye is very upfront about how he handled the situation and is apologetic about not confronting Jigga himself. This type of self-criticism appears to be a growing (and fascinating) trend within some aspects of the hip-hop world, I remind everyone of Jay-Z’s “Lost One” and Ludacris’ “Mouths to feed.”
There is very little I could say about the newest 50 release, Curtis, other than that it sucks. His flow and general rhyme schemes are boring. This is a “Cat and the Hat” rap album. Kanye, who is not known for being an interesting lyricist, puts forward more effort and thus has generally more interesting rhyme schemes and verses. It is not even a good grimy thug album. Mobb Deep’s Havoc does the only interesting production on here. Other than that, I think it would be healthier to look at 50 for what he has become, a pop star.
Honestly, the only people fooled by 50’s gangsta bravado are himself and people who are invested in making money off of it. Looks at his first single, “Ayo Technology” featuring Justin Timberlake, granted you may bounce to it in the club, but this is what we should expect and continue to expect from 50—pop music that will produce multi-platinum albums. Not to be anti-pop music, it is just not that good and becomes extremely repetitive.
Frankly, by 50 stating that he will retire if he does not outsell Kanye, (which he hasn’t) it gives all of us, who have not done so in a while, more reason to buy West’s album. Play your role in making the world a better place. We should all recycle more and go get Graduation.
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Dynamic Magazine
