50 Cent Explores Alternate Outcome To 2007 Sales Battle With Kanye West

[Iverson_64]

I was a HUGE 50 stan from 03-05 and by the time this sales battle happened I was rooting for Ye to win






Graduation was the better album by a landslide but Curtis had its moments... The hook on Fully Loaded Clip is Touch the Sky and All of Me was dope songs as was Ayo Technology and the Robin Thicke song, everything else was There was a song on the Curtis album that had Young Buck and the lead singer of the p*ssycat dolls on the same song





Smile was a classic song but it didn't make the album

As I mentioned before, besides Animal Ambition, Curtis is 50's worst album. I even rank BISD over it.

It had zero musical direction and was 50 blatantly throwing darts to see what would stick.

Ayo Technology in particular was one of the most desperate attempts at a radio single I've seen. Shyt is blatantly a JT/Timbo leftover track where 50 barely even plays Robin on his own song.

In many ways, the sales battle both helped and hurt the album. It helped commercially but hurt it musically.

 

[JustCKing]

I don't know. I feel this is a bit revisionist.

I very clearly remember how there was a dramatic decline in how dominant street rap was in the mainstream until Meek and Chief Keef brought it back to life in the early 2010's. And, even then, it still got vastly overshadowed by the more poppier or alternative style of rap that Kanye and Wayne paved the way for.

The whole "Big 3" movement as well as the artists get promoted on blogs like ASAP Rocky, Chance The Rapper, Joey Badass, Wale, Wiz, Odd Future, etc. felt like an evolution of what Kanye was paving the way for in the mainstream after beating 50 Cent. The overall aesthetic of mainstream rap changed from looking street/hood to looking more hipster or suburban.

Honestly, until the rise of New York and UK Drill at the end of the 2010's, it really did seem like gangsta rap was in the corpse in mainstream rap.

There was not a decline in street rap. Jeezy's The Recession came a year after Graduation. That album was a big deal. Rick Ross was huge. Gucci Mane had a pretty big 2009. T.I. was still a big deal and for all the Pop singles he had, he still had songs for the streets. We can't act like "BMF" and "MC Hammer" weren't hot. Flocka's "Hard In Da paint". The biggest reason Meek Mill was on was because of Ross's MMG. Chief Keef and Drill was an evolution of Flocka's Flockavelli.

 

[Iverson_64]

There was not a decline in street rap. Jeezy's The Recession came a year after Graduation. That album was a big deal. Rick Ross was huge. Gucci Mane had a pretty big 2009. T.I. was still a big deal and for all the Pop singles he had, he still had songs for the streets. We can't act like "BMF" and "MC Hammer" weren't hot. Flocka's "Hard In Da paint". The biggest reason Meek Mill was on was because of Ross's MMG. Chief Keef and Drill was an evolution of Flocka's Flockavelli.

Ross is more so a combo of luxury and mafioso rap than straight gangster rap imho. Plus, Ye, Khaled, and Drake helped boost him up in the mainstream.

But it's pretty subjective overall. If you want to get technical, even Good Kid Maad City could be considered gangster rap.

I was more so referring to the overall musical landscape, sound, and aesthetic of hip hop at that time. Street rappers were still dropping music but they weren't as dominant in the culture as past ones. It's kind of like how people say New York rap fell off after the 2000's but NY rappers still were technically dropping music and making some hits like Nicki, ASAP, Joey, etc. It just wasn't the same.

 

[JustCKing]

Ross is more so a combo of luxury and mafioso rap than straight gangster rap imho. Plus, Ye, Khaled, and Drake helped boost him up in the mainstream.

But it's pretty subjective overall. If you want to get technical, even Good Kid Maad City could be considered gangster rap.

I was more so referring to the overall musical landscape, sound, and aesthetic of hip hop at that time. Street rappers were still dropping music but they weren't as dominant in the culture as past ones. It's kind of like how people say New York rap fell off after the 2000's but NY rappers still were technically dropping music and making some hits like Nicki, ASAP, Joey, etc. It just wasn't the same.

Trap became the dominant sound after Graduation. Even still, without T.I.'s "What You Know", do we even get "Can't Tell Me Nothin"? Jeezy's ad-libs are on that song, so indirectly, a huge part of Graduation's success was due to street rap.

Drake, Khaled, nor Ye had anything to do with "BMF" or "MC Hammer". Those definitely weren't luxury rap songs. It became the dominant sound of the mainstream.

 

[Wild self]

50 is still bitter because his career in the limelight didn’t last that long, he basically had like a 5 year(3 album) run if we are being honest,

Curtis run lasted shorter than the average rap career. After 2007, he was dragging.

 

[King Sun]

when your career is based off sales and not your music this is what happens.