Bold statement? Or straight facts. The man known as Curtis "Interscope" Jackson is seeing rough times as we all are in a recession. From selling over 10 million copies of his debut album, to not even breaking 3 million on his last release, Curtis has fallen off the radar when it comes to his music.Once critically acclaimed and heralded as the next 2Pac, 50 Cent has shown no improvement in his MC abilities since that time. Why could he be done? Well, for one, when in the past to gauge success all you did was compare record sales, and everything was nice and happy. When record sales started slipping for everyone and G-Unit also got hit by this (nobody is immune to this not even 2Pac) enemies stopped bringing up the topic (except Camron) and 50 Cent minimized his bragging. Another thing that was important to fuel the empire of Curtis was Hip Hop beefs. From Ja Rule all the way to Rick Ross, 50 Cent had created beefs with a big number of high profile rappers. How many of these beefs had 50 Cent won? Well he beat Ja lyrically, and thats about it. Fat Joe beat himself, Jadakiss and Nas never got mentioned enough, Nas hit 50 hard with a few lines, The Game continues his love hate relationship with his former boss, Rick Ross dropped more music material (this beef could been seen as a tie) Camron somewhat got beat, and Young Buck basically beat himself. So once again 50 Cent has lyrically beatin one rapper out of the set.
Don't get me wrong, I like 50 Cent and I like good music, this man's business sense is very sharp, but I will not even mention everything else that has flopped or struggled in other work that he has been involved with. The Vitamin Water deal was amazing, but that wasn't Hip Hop. 50 Cent's acting resume is steadily increasing but most of that isn't Hip Hop (only the movie loosely based on him was), his video games and tv series are also out of the question.
So in the past 3 years, what relevance has 50 Cent had in Hip Hop? His charitable works are something other rappers should consider if they can. But honestly he has dropped a total of 3 albums from his label which include Young Buck, 50 Cent, and G-Unit and they all have struggled. There was once a time when this man was a #1 hit waiting to happen, and now he is struggling to break the top 50. Oh yeah I can't forget the fact that 50 has changed up his flow to the dismay of a lot of fans. The aggressiveness that was once present in his debut album has slowly crept its way out of this man. When 50 get's excited these days its about money, and jewelry, and how he can spend more than you. Trust me I would love to have those bragging rights but these days I just wanna stay up.
So once again, lyrically 50 Cent isn't even a top 5 rapper and this is why his time as a Hip Hop giant is diminishing if not gone. There is one thing though, he still has some pull when it comes to his celebrity status. People are still infatuated with this man even if that infatuation has become less over the years. My only plea to 50 Cent is please bring back that aggressiveness that was there 5 years ago. I know Banks is trying to.......
PS: If you think 50 Cent murdered The Game think again. Yes Game's record sales have slipped each album, but his relevance in the West has made him an untouchable celebrity on that coast. Also, 50 has toned down other beef's with some rappers aka Jadakiss & Nas because I think he knows he cannot win those. Oh I did forget to mention 50's beef with the whole south, but I wonder if it is just because he wants to have some popularity.
