If Drop’s Kanye West review gets more hits than my 50 Cent review in September, I’ll no longer write for Drop Magazine. Now that I see how ridiculous that looks in print, I take it back. How could I pit myself against another review? The success of the album in question dictates a review’s traffic more than content anyway. Just like how sales depend on marketing and the success of singles rather than album quality.

That’s really where 50 went wrong with his latest release, Curtis. After three singles that had no business being released (though the hookless “I Get Money” is awesome), his camp finally relevantly charted with the obvious “Ayo Technology”. Timbaland, Timberlake, and 50 Cent? Come on, these guys could be playing kazoos and still get airplay. Truthfully, it had the stones to out-billboard Kanye’s “Stronger” if 50 and his label hadn’t been screwing around with duds like “Amusement Park”- a track that proves mimicking a good song (“Candy Shop”) can produce something amazingly terrible.

Equally amazing is the idea that Curtis was just an interim release. Apparently, 50 decided to push Before I Self-Destruct to 2008 and then proceeded to get Timbaland, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Akon, Mary J. Blige, Nicole Scherzinger, Yayo, Young Buck, Jake One, Robin Thicke, Justin Timberlake, DJ Khalil, and Tha Bizness to come work with him. My favorite part? 50 accusing Kanye of catering to a pop audience.

Not to say Curtis is not hip-hop. Jake One’s “Movin’ On Up” rips a stuffed drum beat to some solid 50 Cent rhymes about his rise from the hood. “Man Down” follows a similar theme via a powerful piano/synthesizer rhythm. Eminem shows up on the interestingly sick “Peep Show”, flashing back to the reign of the Marshall Mathers LP. “Fire” blows the doors off the end of the tracklist, featuring a high energy Nicole Scherzinger, and a beat better fit for the airwaves. 50 comes with it too; “It’s the third time around/ You know how I get down/ I’m hands down pound for pound/ The best around”.

Ironically, the third time around for the Curtis James Jackson pedigree was the charm. It’d be difficult for 50 Cent’s father and grandfather to have equated the success of selling 30 million records. But the third time around for 50 Cent himself, didn’t exactly do the trick. It would be quite a surprise to see Curtis (the III major label album) outdo its predecessors. It’s going to need some help.

Whether you enjoyed Curtis’ previous efforts, I encourage you to go out and get Fif’s new shit. Despite not being the most talented emcee, he is still good for hip-hop. He’s a larger than life personality, an entertainer - no matter how trite and overblown his beef and antics are. Besides, he actually seems to care about beating Kanye West (who pegged JT, not 50, as his biggest rival). Let’s face it, 50 and West might have two of the biggest egos in music. And we’ve seen what competition between juggernauts can do for industry. Tupac and Biggie did it for hip-hop already. McGwire and Sosa did it for baseball. Saving hip-hop, or at least hip-hop sales, is going to require getting people excited about releases. Whatever you decide to do in the end, September 11th is gonna be a big day for hip-hop.

by Brian Meredith

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