i think i just "got" 50 cent

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.....and now my neck is broken from "in da club"

― juiceboxxx (juiceboxxx), Sunday, 23 February 2003 18:46 (twenty-two years ago)

you can keep him.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 23 February 2003 23:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Is "getting" 50 Cent really that difficult? I wasn't aware there was a beguiling subtext to his work.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 24 February 2003 01:49 (twenty-two years ago)

"in da club" is pretty classic. the first 50 times i heard it i was all like "whatever" but then when i heard it 7 times in one night at the luda show it all sinked in. hearing it on a big system, seeing the crowd completely go off everytime it was played, the "go shorty its your birfday" lines, the cheesy nightrider sample and overdramatic strings with the handclaps, the handclaps, i came to realize that the headnod factor is in the redzone and 50 cent doesnt like to make love, which is a good thing. hes too gangsta for that.

― juiceboxxx (juiceboxxx), Monday, 24 February 2003 02:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I actually have always enjoyed the it's your birfday lines. But I enjoyed them coming out of Blink 182's boob-obsessed singer's mouth in American Pie, so it probably says more about the line than 50 Cent.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 24 February 2003 03:13 (twenty-two years ago)

this seems like the kind of song ronan would like if he had grown up in the u.s.

― boxcubed (boxcubed), Monday, 24 February 2003 06:28 (twenty-two years ago)

I have to say, I liked "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" even before I realized it was a faked bootleg with 50-60% recycled tracks from past albums. Now I have the real thing and I'm loving it.

― Stuart, Monday, 24 February 2003 16:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Um...I like "In Da Club" OK, too. Though not as much as my 11-year-old kid. It's very catchy. And "Wanksta"'s music could make a pretty decent instrumental, I suppose. But does anybody really believe that this guy has an interesting voice AT ALL? Or interesting words? And if so, where the fuck are they? Definitely not on his album.

― chuck, Tuesday, 25 February 2003 01:36 (twenty-two years ago)

in da club is great. 50 cent is frightening to look at.

― michael wells (michael w.), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 01:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh god, Wanksta would be the most irritating instrumental.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 02:23 (twenty-two years ago)

um...okay, i exagerrated. i guess that line about carrying guns the size of Lil' Bow Wow is kinda cute. But still. Outside of "In Da Club," the album is WORK to get through. A big fat bore. Every single fucking song just drags, and there almost no hooks. And that includes those two depressingly dull songs with Eminem in them. I mean, I guess 50 Cent's big innovation is that he just doesn't open his mouth or something, right? Like, big fucking deal. It was way more fun when EPMD did it 15 years ago. Or even when Bruce Springsteen did it with "Streets of Philadelphia." But it's still a very stupid idea.

― chuck, Tuesday, 25 February 2003 02:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Also, my 11-year-old says kids think 50's a superhero, since he keeps getting shot and didn't die yet. Plus, "Happy Birthday" is the most popular song in the English language. So I get why he's selling lots of records. I just don't understand why anybody thinks he's any GOOD.

― chuck, Tuesday, 25 February 2003 02:34 (twenty-two years ago)

what is that linguistic thing that rappers do, that makes them so popular?

― boxcubed (boxcubed), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 03:29 (twenty-two years ago)

they rhyme words

― juiceboxxx (juiceboxxx), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 03:40 (twenty-two years ago)

thanks...

― boxcubed (boxcubed), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 03:54 (twenty-two years ago)

It's disturbing that he should have been shot nine times and gone through a presumably agonizing period of rehab and still chooses to sing songs bragging about the pedigree of his arsenal.

That said I think the two singles are OK, maybe a bit better than OK.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 04:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Having heard him, I have to agree -- pretty dull and unremarkable.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 04:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I like when he addresses his audience: "I thought you would be happy I made it," "Go shorty, it's your birthday," etc. That's one of the few distinctive things about him, though.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 04:21 (twenty-two years ago)

How is that distinctive? I mean, what singers *don't* address their audience? Isn't that, like, what songs DO?? (Unless you're saying that "Shorty" is, like, somebody dancing to the song. Which I hadn't realized -- I assumed Shorty was an actual girl or something -- but even if Shorty IS an audience member, so what? How is that different than 25 years of rappers telling me to do the Patty Duke or whatever?)

― chuck, Tuesday, 25 February 2003 15:58 (twenty-two years ago)

I find him compelling because he strikes me as the walking apogee of gangsta pathos, a point hammered home by the fact that - as we've said before - he always looks like he's on the verge of tears, even when he's being terrifying.

Admittedly, my enjoyment of this record rests on my willfully wrangling a whole lot of re-contextualizations into spaces that might not necessarily be inviting them, but I do think there is more to 50 Cent than just surfacey gangsta bullshit.

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 16:16 (twenty-two years ago)

(I'd also respectfully disagree about there being no hooks on the record; I think it's absolutely FULL of them, with the two Eminem tracks being near the top of the list, hook-wise.)

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 16:16 (twenty-two years ago)

There's an intimacy implied there; maybe it's just the quality of his phrasing that suggests that these lines are asides to the audience. A lot of his rhymes seem to be in the 2nd person; I didn't say no other rappers do this, but it at least is a defining feature of his style. I just noted that to counter all the "he has no style" complaints.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 16:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Perhaps it's that he doesn't place any particular stress on lines like "It's your birthday"... he doesn't make the obvious "this is the line where you THROW YOUR HANDS UP" vocal gestures... it's just an aside. I kind of like that.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 16:26 (twenty-two years ago)

"In Da Club" doesn't do a lick for me, but "Wanksta" was among my fave singles of last year, and I still dig it. Mainly I love the affected Southern drawl, where he can't be bothered to enunciate anything. It's kinda reminiscent of that first Juvenile single, where, instead of rhyming his couplets, he just added a growl at the end of each line. 50 should experiment with this, just making each line's kicker a messy gobbledygook of spit and braggadocio.

(as far as "Wanksta" as instrumental, a girl in my office uses that ice-cream jingle hook as the sound alert for new email, and it gets old really fucking fast. but i still love the song.)

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 16:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't know how affected it is, he hovers on the edge of comprehensibility in interviews. I like that aspect too.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 16:34 (twenty-two years ago)

While there's nothing particularly distinctive about his flow - he's not adept at switching up tempos, his rhymes are decent (but not astounding) and his metrics certainly don't impress like, say, Eminem's - there's something really basic and direct about 50 Cent's rhymes that I find appealing. He's not romanced by wordplay like a lot of undie rappers - most of his lyrics eschew that wow factor in favour of utilitarianism, something that complements his no-nonsense back story quite nicely.

In that way, I think his 'style' is really sort of an anti-style which he's muscled into discernability not just by way of the mush mouth thing but also by his own, not immediately quantifiable charisma...

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 16:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I said "affected Southern drawl" cause he's not a Good Ole Boi, but a NYer.

I still haven't heard the record, and I'm not really eager to after hearing "In Da Club." Plus, even the biggest rave reviews (like Hoard's lede piece in RS) seem to have some reservations about the disc.

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 16:40 (twenty-two years ago)

"I find him compelling because he strikes me as the walking apogee of gangsta pathos, a point hammered home by the fact that - as we've said before - he always looks like he's on the verge of tears, even when he's being terrifying."

i had just the opposite impression of him. unlike biggie or pac, he doesn't seem to dig into the personna of the "gangsta rapper" any deeper than the cliches that he's constantly spitting out. there's not enough contrast or something, i.e. "me and my bitch," "suicidal thoughts," "back in the day," etc... and whenever he lifts up his hard exterior and exposes a little of himself, it feels even more forced and cliched, like em or dre was peering over his shoulder, into his rhyme book, sayin' "throw somethin' in there for middle america."

and a lot of rappers use 2nd person a lot of the time. there's nothing special about that.

some of the beats are nice, but no where near the level of dre's 2001. does anyone have the production credits? and i think that he does a great job of riding them, although i hate it when he tweaks his voice to accent the beat. seems like a gimmick that was played after the 1,000,000th time i heard wanksta. kinda like bruce willis' smirk.

get rich or die trying is like "the idiot's guide to gettin' gully."

― S>C>, Tuesday, 25 February 2003 21:52 (twenty-two years ago)

one month passes...

I was in a club at a show last weekend and in between sets the DJ played "in da club". The crowd lost their minds and I heard the song in a new light. In your car during the day, it's cheesy to the point of being annoying. At night in a dark club - it's deadly effective.

― J-rock (Julien Sandiford), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 05:44 (twenty-two years ago)

I just "got" 50 Cent, too. I got him in a folder right here on my desktop. I haven't worked up the critical energy (martyrdom?) to actually listen to it, though.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 05:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I still think "Wanksta" is awful to actually listen to, but to just know of its existence (and to malapropistically quote it as one of my friends kept doing on our Saturday night out -- "You think you're a gangsta, but you're a wanksta!") is pretty damned worthwhile. And the video baffles me (message: DO NOT PLAY WITH THE WANKSTA DOLL).

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 06:02 (twenty-two years ago)

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