The Observer, September 28, 2007
Volume XL, Issue 5
Hip hop battle rages on between heavyweights
Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and Kanye West: two names synonymous with the elite of the rap world, both in sales and, by most accounts, in talent. Considering that the two couldn't differ more in style, delivery, production values, family background, and posse connections, it's incredible how much they have in common. Both MCs have had two releases, gaining them incredible wealth and popularity in a short period of time. For these reasons it made perfect sense that the two rap superstars began a sales-driven hype war, centered around the simultaneous release date for both artists' third album, the now-ominous Sept. 11. Starting midsummer, the battle of trash-talking and boasting peaked when it was announced that 50 Cent would retire if his sales did not surpass West's. Though 50 Cent later retracted this statement, the battle continued until the first week's sales numbers were revealed – 956,936 copies for Kanye's Graduation, a whopping 265,632 more than 50 Cent's Curtis sold, at 691,304.
Looking back at the battle's blatant promoting and the feud over numbers and dollars, it seems to be a perfect analogy for the state of the rap industry. With ever-declining CD sales, rises in unsigned talent, and an apparent lack of interest in mainstream music labels and the artists signed to them, it's hard not to see the dollar signs in the eyes of both West and Jackson as a signal for both current times and times to come. Of course, all of this money-grubbing and shameless self-promotion is easily forgiven, even understood and accepted, if the music lives up to the hype surrounding it. Unfortunately for both Kanye and "Fiddy," not only is this not the case, but this is also a far cry from what seemed an infinite pool of potential.
From the first note to the last, it's apparent that West's Graduation couldn't be any farther from a complete album it's actually much closer to a collection of throw away dance singles. Even the first two singles, the club single "Stronger" (a sub-par follow up to the incredible dance number "Gold Digger") and "Good Life," the throw back track to his first album, the stellar College Dropout, can't seem to live up to the past tracks they try to replicate. Graduation feels like an attempt at repeating former successes without making any real stride towards, a newer, fresher sound. After the incredible depth and stunning production of Dropout, the bar was set so high that it seemed unlikely that West could realistically reach that kind of success again, and unfortunately, after two subpar releases, it seems this hunch was correct.
On the flip side of sound renovation is 50 Cent's release, Curtis. Unlike Kanye's album, which reeks of recycled production and overused samples, Curtis finds 50 starting to stray away from the most notable styles of his past albums and choosing to focus on slow dance numbers. Unfortunately, the forgoing of violence and blatant sex seems to neglect what made his first two albums sparkle. Curtis instead leaves listeners with a disappointing album filled with boring, uninteresting, and monotonous songs, such as 50's first single, the uninspiring collaboration with Justin Timberlake and star producer Timbaland, "Ayo Technology."
There is a reason for this shift that both 50 and Kanye followed – dance hits are all the rage, as evident through the top 10 of the iTunes Music Store, where 5 of the top 10 (including Kanye's "Stronger" and 50's "Ayo Technology") are rap-based club songs. But when looking back to what has previously come from the artists at hand and the hip hop world in general, it's hard for one not to question whether or not the obvious battle for numbers jeopardizes the artistic nature of music, specifically in a genre that has been so indebted to art itself.
