Loosely Coupled has moved

When I was hip-hop director of my college radio station in 1999, I received a promo copy of 50 Cent's debut album, Power of the Dollar. As soon as I listened to it, I was a huge fan. It remains one of my favorite rap albums of all time. It also cemented 50 among my favorite lyricits, with lines like: “An old timer who schooled me told me, don't burn bridges my friend / Imagine if the G.Dub closed and your ass had to swim.” Shortly afterwards, as the story goes, he was shot 9 times and dropped from Universal. The album was never released. (As Jada said, he had to be shot nine times to get rich).

50 Cent's new album, The Massacre, was released today. This is the follow up to his highly successful 'debut', 2003's Get Rich or Die Tryin' (which I still insist was not half as good as Power of the Dollar). 

Like many others, I had very high expectations for this album. Other folks seem to be pretty disappointed (see reviews here and here). After The Game's album, I was also expecting amazing production. At first, I was very disappointed.  However, the more I listen to it, the more it's growing on me. The production is a bit subdued, and on many tracks this works better. 

By now, you have inevitably heard the two lead singles, Disco Inferno and Candy Shop. I'm not a big fan, but as SixShot pointed out, they're catchy when they shouldn't be.

The next single is going to be Outta Control, a Dre banger along the lines of In Da Club. (Actually the beat reminds me a lot of Higher). I like this track. Other personal favorites include Disco D-producted Ski Mask Way, In My Hood, and This is 50. Position of Power also stood out on the first listen. A Baltimore Love Thing, a pretty creative track rapped as if he were heroin, is pretty good too.

There are also a few tracks that really don't work. The Eminem-produced Gatman and Robbin' just seems like it's all over the place. It's a mess, especially compared to the Em track on The Game's album, We Ain't. The obvious future singles like So Amazin' and Build You Up, featuring Olivia and Jamie Foxx respectively, are annoying and predictable to the point that I can't even listen to them. (In the words of Fat Joe: Is it just me or is Candy Shop the same song as Magic Stick?)

There's also the overhyped battle track Piggy Bank, where 50 takes shots at Ja Rule, Nas, Jadakiss, Fat Joe and Shyne. It's gotten a lot of press, but overall it's a lame track. The line about Nas isn't bad: “Kelis said her milkshake brings all the boys to the yard / Then Nas went and tatooed the bitch on his arm.” Hell, How To Rob was better and it wasn't intended as a battle track.

When I listen to this, I get the impression that 50 gave The Game too many of the hot tracks. Maybe he felt that The Game needed more help on his debut album. And maybe that's why he fell out with Game briefly (although suddenly the beef is over). Apparently, there were 60 tracks made from which the album was selected, and yet somehow it still seems rushed.

Obviously, this is still going to be one of the most successful albums of the year. (It's already sold 1.1 million in 4 days now, the sixth most ever). The fact is 50 Cent is still a good enough emcee to make a mediocre album enjoyable. The only problem is, expectations were high and this is just that - a mediocre album.

Then again, the album will definitely grow on you, even if you don't like it at first. Like I said above, it's catchy when it shouldn't be... and that's the beauty.

Update: Fat Joe and Jadakiss have both released responses to 50. As expected, Jada's response is pretty sick. A few choice lines: “You ain't never been the king of NY / and now you live in Connecticut” and “I did real songs with BIG / no made up shits”. 

Hopefully no one gets killed over this, but, hey, at least we'll get some good verses out of it....