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Album Review: 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Trying

With Dre at the wheel, Fitty's much-gassed debut does not disappoint.

by Douglas Passion | 2003.01.25

We’ll spare you the oft-discussed details of the 50 Cent saga: the bullet wounds, the bling-snatchery, the stabby-stabby. We’ll take you right to the program already in progress. The hype machine is at critical mass. They’re rioting outside of his shows in San Francisco, DJ’s are pumping his shit back-to-back-to-back in North Carolina, and in New York -- man, forget about New York -- 50’s already perched on the throne scratching his nuts. It’s enough to make a music writer with a downloaded copy of Get Rich or Die Trying consider selling bootlegs in the street. Damn, homie, indeed.

Hold on, sparky. Plenty of highly anticipated albums have crumbled beneath of weight of expectations. For his part, 50 Cent seems oblivious to the pressure. Then again, anyone familiar with the G-Unit’s arsenal of mixtapes can attest that 50’s recipe is essentially idiot-proof. He has blended typical gun-talk with a macabre sense of humor, a versatile delivery, and memorable hooks so consistently that his failure to do the same on Get Rich or Die Trying would be not only an unexpected change of form, but also a malfunction of his entire machinery. So, yeah, same 50 Cent, same shit.

The onus was truly on the album’s producers to make sure that the music lived up to the hornets’ nest of street buzz. With ties to both Dr. Dre and Eminem, discerning listeners could only hope that 50 would opt for the good doctor’s glistening synths and syncopated basslines instead of Em’s dreary creations. Thankfully, for the most part, Get Rich or Die Trying relies on the dark-yet-danceable sound popularized by NWA, Snoop and both Chronic albums. On the occasions when Eminem does contribute his typical hollow strings and trudging drums, the epic gloominess is energized by a couple inspired appearances by Slim himself. While the production is nothing particularly inventive, three-quarters of the tracks will work equally well in the club, the car or the headphones.

The topics of conversation on Get Rich or Die Trying rarely vary from guns, drugs and women. If you expected anything else, you probably got the kid confused with moonchild Common Cent. Holes are put in heads, mamas’ cribs are shot up, bricks are sold in the hood and he tells hoes whatever they want to hear. Like almost every Dre project, violence is frequent and unapologetic. And like Ice Cube and Snoop before him, 50 Cent sounds like he means it. On “High All the Time”, he implores his listeners not to give him strange looks. “If you love me, tell me ‘you love me’ don’t stare at me, man,” he warns, “I’d hate to be in the pen for clapping one of my fans.” This is essentially the crux of enjoying 50 Cent – he threatens you until you learn the lyrics well enough to threaten the person sitting across from you on the train with them. “Niggas lip-synch our lyrics ‘cause they want to be us,” he boasts.

One of the keys to 50’s nationwide popularity is that he doesn’t sound like the average East Coast rapper. His clenched jaw mushmouth can be probably be primarily attributed to his getting shot in the face. Interestingly, the pre-reconstructive surgery cut, “Your Life’s on the Line” is included as a bonus track and listeners can judge the difference for themselves. But 50 Cent is also keenly aware of his multi-regional appeal. “I’m a New Yorker but I sound Southern,” he raps on “Like My Style”. His penchant for exaggerating and elongating syllables has more in common with Tupac or Ludacris than with the staccato delivery of fellow Q-Borough denizens Mobb Deep. On “Blood Hound” 50 Cent shows mastery of the Dirty-Dirty triggerbeat cadence.

With the public achingly tired of the spat between Jay-Z and Nas, 50 Cent’s timing could not have been more perfect. His street credibility is unquestionable. His lean tattooed frame makes womenfolk swoon. The connection to Em and Dre makes MTV rotation a foregone conclusion for 50’s videos. The possibility that he might be gunned down in the street is real enough for him to brag about his bulletproof vest, car and hat. But the hype is not just industry propaganda. 50 Cent’s combination of versatility, charisma, humor and rawness can’t be faked. Get Rich or Die Trying, while not a masterpiece of high concepts or lyrical wizardry, is a highly entertaining album. And you’re going to hear it until it makes you sick.

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