On This Day 16 Years Ago: 50 Cent vs. Kanye West 'Clash of the Titans' Takeover on 106 & Park Aired

[Wild self]

For me, that a year that you realized how hollow 50 was, but also just how poerful marketing can be

would read about a leak, or a Dr Dre produced single, or Robin Thicke assisted track, or whatever else he threw out there for Curtis

some epic sounding shyt, and then hear it, and be like what is this? This isn't dope. There was a disconnect from the "actual realities" that year.

Yep. Curtis went to Justin Timberlake as desperation and Eminem HATED JT from the NSYNC days.

All it did was made non G-Unit stans go to Kanye and they never looked back.

 

[re'up]

How was 50 Cent done commercially by 2005? His album was like one of the biggest of that year if not the biggest. When you factor in the soundtrack and Game's Documentary, 50 being done in 2005 is a rewrite.

That's clumsy phrasing, but his decline was noticeable by 2006, it just seemed to happen overnight, somewhere with hyphy getting so popular, and T Pain, Akon, 50 sounded just stale and out of touch by 2006, you can see this in that Banks flopped single for his 2nd album. 50 hasn't really been valid creatively or commercially since 2005, I'll stand on that.

and then 2007, it was obvious, by June 2007, he had nothing, at the time, it wasn't as evident, but looking back, he was self destructing in front of us.

Ayo Technology, that was another disaster. Was that a Timbaland beat ? total desperate move. May have even been a label song with a beat and hook, and threw 50 on there.

 

[Toe Jay Simpson]

50’s talked about this at length and a lot of it makes sense. Jay Z made that a Def Jam vs 50 situation where Kanye had every resource he needed. 50 was walking around calling himself “Interscope” and was rubbing everyone the wrong way at his own label. Jimmy Iovine allowed him to fall into a position to get humbled by Kanye in that whole battle. They could have done more for him. He talks about Kanye bringing out Jay on 106 and he was trying to get Em and Dre to do the same thing but BET told him no extra guests.

I think Kanye would have beat him regardless but 50 def had a rug pulled from underneath him.

 

[JustCKing]

The soundtrack was dope but it was a flop by 50s standards and a sign that his run was ending. It was supposed to be his 8 Mile and it wasnt half that. None of those singles were mainstream hits like In Da Club or Hate it or Love It. I like the album but you could tell his run as the #1 mainstream rapper was over after that.

They were still huge though. We''re talking commercial success. In 2005, his only competition was Mariah's comeback commercially. Kanye would've lost a sales battle with 50 in 2005. Nobody looked at 50 in 2005 as being over. He was still the biggest rapper in the world in 2005. I didn't even like 50 in 2005, but it isn't even arguable in 2005 that he was bigger than everybody.

 

[How Sway?]

Maybe one would have an argument if they said 50 was starting to lose steam by 06/07, but most definitely not 2005.

 

[Chris Cool]

Maybe one would have an argument if they said 50 was starting to lose steam by 06/07, but most definitely not 2005.

Naw, it started in 05 with the game beef.

 

[Wild self]

This was the day that marked the end of 50's music career, it changed the landscape of mainstream music.

Thanks to that, we gotten a handful of years of J Cole, early Drake, and Kendrick that graced the mainstream. 50 was the last of the Crack Era "super thug" rapper.

 

[Wild self]

50’s talked about this at length and a lot of it makes sense. Jay Z made that a Def Jam vs 50 situation where Kanye had every resource he needed. 50 was walking around calling himself “Interscope” and was rubbing everyone the wrong way at his own label. Jimmy Iovine allowed him to fall into a position to get humbled by Kanye in that whole battle. They could have done more for him. He talks about Kanye bringing out Jay on 106 and he was trying to get Em and Dre to do the same thing but BET told him no extra guests.

I think Kanye would have beat him regardless but 50 def had a rug pulled from underneath him.

Jimmy Iovine was already upset that 2005's "The Massacre" underperformed and sold less than GRODT. The fact that it was his sixth (!!!!) single to drop "I Get Money" on his 3rd album as a last desperation tip of a single, burned a lot of money in Interscope. 6 singles for you to get a buzz? G Unit flopped with Buck and Banks sophomore efforts and budgets were turning to smoke to eat up the financial losses. Even worse that that time, Eminem was in deep rehab and people were secretly thinking that he was gonna die from OD'ing numerous drugs at that time, which meant that 50 was their last hope in Interscope's rap department.

 

[Mac Ten]

My Mom brought me Curtis one day when I couldnt go to school...


Played that to Death for about 2 years.

I didnt buy Graduation until years later though.

DJ Toomp was the MVP of Graduation.

 

[Mac Ten]

Jimmy Iovine was already upset that 2005's "The Massacre" underperformed and sold less than GRODT. The fact that it was his sixth (!!!!) single to drop "I Get Money" on his 3rd album as a last desperation tip of a single, burned a lot of money in Interscope. 6 singles for you to get a buzz? G Unit flopped with Buck and Banks sophomore efforts and budgets were turning to smoke to eat up the financial losses. Even worse that that time, Eminem was in deep rehab and people were secretly thinking that he was gonna die from OD'ing numerous drugs at that time, which meant that 50 was their last hope in Interscope's rap department.

When 50 told Jimmy Iovine "Fucc him", he realized that he didnt wanna be a puppet for Interscope.


Id credit that to Master P too.

 

[Mac Ten]

Thanks to that, we gotten a handful of years of J Cole, early Drake, and Kendrick that graced the mainstream. 50 was the last of the Crack Era "super thug" rapper.

The Super thug era was Hip Hop wasnt that bad...

At least rappers acted like men and not all emotional and sensitive. I feel after Kanye won that battle and after his Mom died, Kanye became insufferable.


Even back then, Kanye actually smiled and had swag. Nowadays, he looks dusty as hell.

 

[Redwing80]

Both albums was trash

 

[Harry B]

50’s talked about this at length and a lot of it makes sense. Jay Z made that a Def Jam vs 50 situation where Kanye had every resource he needed. 50 was walking around calling himself “Interscope” and was rubbing everyone the wrong way at his own label. Jimmy Iovine allowed him to fall into a position to get humbled by Kanye in that whole battle. They could have done more for him. He talks about Kanye bringing out Jay on 106 and he was trying to get Em and Dre to do the same thing but BET told him no extra guests.

I think Kanye would have beat him regardless but 50 def had a rug pulled from underneath him.

lol at Jimmy killing his own bread

His music was trash and dates, that’s the only thing that happened.

The machine was the only reason he moved those units in 07, they were not the problems

 

[Pop123]

I always felt like Universal/Rocafella paid 50 to do that. Just being practical, you promoting your album by saying “There is absolutely no way possible that this other guy will sell more than me, it’s impossible, I’ll retire if he does” is just going to encourage people to go buy the other guy’s album, just to prove you wrong if for nothing else, lol. 50 has too much common sense not to know that, so yeah, that was a power move imo to get in even better position with Universal…or Dame and them slid him a couple M’s. If that wouldn’t have been the campaign, Kanye would have never sold that many records.

 

[Greenhornet]

I mess with 50 more ... Curtis wasnt bad but it wasnt good either
graduation was basically kanye's Massacre

it did change the landscape of hiphop for the worse ... we transitioned and alot of gay shyt started dropping
the production got better but the personality of rappers got way lower

Curtis without the VS would have still done amazing and gotten decent support
50 probably never slowly stops dropping music and takes it more serious

still both amazing albums ... graduation just had more focus and heat on it
Curtis was just good, great hits and good forumla but nothing driving the entire album as a whole

graduation was 8.5-9 - 10
curtis was 7.5 - 8