Though 50 Cent seems to have the rap merchandising and marketing game on lock, he just can’t get past the fact that Kanye West can top the charts without displaying a gun or taking his shirt off. While those staples have taken 50 a long way, Kanye’s dominance seems to baffle the man who still has time to die while tryin’ to get richer.
First 50 claims responsibility for Kanye West’s success because, after wearing out the general public with his intensity, 50 failed to oversaturate the market with product for a month or two. Now, he’s getting all political and alerting us to the fact that gangsta rappers are, in many ways, closely aligned with gangster Republicans.
The latest oddity is 50′s lack of understanding of Kanye’s attack on Bush as the Katrina disaster unfolded. Stating:
“I think people responded to it the best way they can . . . What Kanye West was saying, I don’t know where that came from.”
Instead, 50 blamed an otherwise unidentified figure who is often discussed but rarely seen:
“The New Orleans disaster was meant to happen. It was an act of God.”
Predestination aside, one wonders if 50 Cent actually reads the news when it doesn’t refer to 50 Cent, Kanye West or 50′s employee/rappers. In addition to widespread revelations of government ineptitude from the beginning, recent reports have added to the damning case against both the current and past administrations, for example:
Brown Discussed His Clothes During Katrina
Or maybe 50′s just upset because his single Window Shopper entered the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart at no. 82. Though it was the highest debut of the week, Kanye is still riding that thing as well as holding the top spot on the Pop 100 and the Hot Ringtones charts with his single Gold Digger featuring Jamie Foxx.
Is it envy or is 50 worried that Kanye’s starting to mess with his money? In any case, while we’re talking about charts, I should tell you that the Black Eyed Peas’ My Humps remains at no. 3 on the Hot 100 while Young Jeezy’s Soul Survivor featuring Akon takes the 4 spot and Bow Wow’s Like You featuring Ciara drops to no. 7.
I think part of the reason 50 is throwing cheap shots at Kanye is because of what Kanye did to Yayo, hahaha. Both of there albums came out on the same day and Kanye killed him sales wise. This is probably a little part of the reason. See ya
Yeah, I noticed that 50′s first comments came fairly soon after that happened and thought the same thing. I think Yayo’s release did much more poorly overall beyond the issue of Kanye’s release but I can imagine 50 blaming Kanye for that.
Plus he’s got that whole take over the strip mentality that has difficulty with the idea that profitable enterprises can coexist.
I actually like Yayo’s album- it’s that polished G-Unit sound.
I think his album is failing because of lack of street level buzz. Remember- Lloyd Banks and Game flooded the mixtape scene before they dropped. Not so with Yayo.
I also didn’t see much press coverage of Yayo’s release. There might have been more on a lot of the hip hop sites that I don’t check regularly , but the stuff I check out that’s not just hip hop focused didn’t really feature him.
On the other hand, though I saw a lot of prepress about The Game, I didn’t see much about Lloyd Banks outside of hip hop focused sites, so I don’t know what happened there.
In any case, Kanye’s sales shouldn’t have affected Yayo that much because people are looking for different things from those artists.