50 Cent: Before I Self Destruct
50 Cent: Before I Self Destruct
Thursday, 26, Nov 2009 04:33
Shady/Interscope, out now.
What's it all about?
The final nail in the coffin of 'gangsta rap'. 50 Cent has made much of this fourth album being the last in his contract with Interscope Records (a Greatest Hits is to follow). His last album Curtis received a mixed reception, filled as it was with R 'n' B collaborations. This time 50 Cent has gone back to what he knows best - criminal dealings and endless gun talk.
Who's it by?
When 50 Cent was shot nine times at close range in 2000 his whole life changed. Not simply because he survived a horrendous shooting, but in the main because the incident would become the cornerstone of his rap success.
After using the incident as motivation, a mixtape reached the desk of Eminem, who invited the man born Curtis Jackson to meet Dr. Dre. The rest is sales history: debut album Get Rich Or Die Tryin' was described by AllMusic as "probably the most hyped debut album by a rap artist in about a decade". These days 50 Cent makes more money from movies, clothing and Vitamin Water than he does rap music.
As an example.
Before I Self Destruct is packed with some of the most violent lyrics committed to record. Every song contains a transparent threat to his enemies, often rendered in graphic detail to leave the listener in no doubt of what he is capable of.
"I put your body in a bag" he growls on Death To My Enemies, while on Crime Wave he announces "I'll cut you till your mom don't know you".
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
Back in 2004 many industry insiders predicted that 50 Cent would storm the Grammys as Best New Artist. Sadly for him Get Rich Or Die Tryin' lost out to Evanescence, prompting a bizarre stage invasion from the rapper.
With thirteen nominations to date and no wins, 50 recently reflected on his inability to win awards. "I was overlooked and I still don't have a Grammy. It's been 13 nominations. It's because I wrote the harsh realities...I've been overlooked, completely."
Unfortunately for 50 Cent his latest album continues to profess the 'harsh realities' that he constantly speaks of in interviews. Nominations perhaps, but no awards.
What the others say
Initial reviews have seen critics underwhelmed by this latest release. While a few are impressed by the intensity of Before I Self Destruct, most have judged it as below par compared to previous efforts.
BBC Music can see that "50 Cent still has a talent for this stuff" but concludes wearily that "he has said all this before, often better". Pitchfork however struggles with a record that "portrays human relations in purely transactional terms" and believes that "50 doesn't have the ability or initiative to hold the listener's interest over the long run".
So is it any good?
Being 'real' is everything in hip-hop culture. And for a man whose entire career is based on surviving nine bullets, 50 Cent feels he is in a position to judge what is 'real' in street music.
Having destroyed the career of Ja Rule and even taken shots at his former crew-member The Game, conflict is everything to the Queens native. This year it was the turn of Rick 'The Boss' Ross, a rapper who sold millions with his tales of drug dealing and gang life. until 50 Cent exposed his real life as a prison officer. Yet amongst all this tame sparring, critics started to ask whether he still had the hunger for rap.
His riposte is Before I Self Destruct, an album which he has trailed as his 'hardest' yet. And from the outset you are left with no doubt that this record is about one thing - violence. Having previously sported a quietly menacing lilt, here he opens with a barking delivery. "You want some, come get some/It''s murder one when you see my gun!"
So far, so 50 Cent. But the album does not let up through 16 tracks that are the audio equivalent of being beaten over the head with a shovel. Even when he makes a vain attempt at serenading the ladies on Get It Hot, he suddenly reminds us "I keep a shooter near me" - as if like Tony Montana, he is afraid to show any weakness.
Sadly for him the audience are all too aware of his 'real' life. That of the millionaire movie star. And so everything appears forced, with only a trio of tracks from Dr Dre saving a poor album. It is truly remarkable that since NWA gangsta rap has survived for two decades. Perhaps we have just witnessed the final nail in the coffin.
2/10
Marcus Dubois