MaDD Blogger

50 Dollars...

I got a tip about a week ago that MP3.com was debuting 50 cents new video Outta Control The Remix featuring apparent new G-Unit records signees Mobb Deep and MOP. Anybody that knows me knows that I love 50. I've gone to both of his Nashville shows and tried to get some friends to go with me to Atlanta to see him perform with Eminem and Little Jon and the Eastside Boyz on the 30th but I couldn't find anyone that was willing to go.

In conjunction with the video premiere MP3.com also touted an exclusive interview with 50. This is what sparked my interest as soon MTV and BET will start playing the video to death anyway. No the interview was my main focus here because as any fan of Hip-Hop knows 50 cent has been involved in major beefs with several artists lately. Fat Joe, Nas, and Jadakiss come to mind. 50 has claimed to have diss tracks already done that respond to each of these artists individually but he has yet to release them even after Jada and Fat Joe put their 50 diss tracks out online and Nas started leaking his diss track online a few days ago. He hasn't even spoke on the beefs anymore since he was doing press for the March release of The Massacre.

All of the above artists said that 50 was just dissing them to gain heat for his album release and with the exception of Nas, whose inconsistent career has contained several moments of brilliance the other rappers I mentioned hold very little interest for me. Fat Joe hasn't been the same since Big Pun died and Jada while a true lyrical genius has yet to release a solid album front to back with more than one or two decent songs. This may explain why Jada has yet to have a platinum selling album and has barely leaped across the gold line with his last 2 releases. 50 knows this as well and rather than giving an under performing artist a chance to break through via beef exposure maybe it's better to back off and focus on the only beef that currently has any real heat behind it...50 cents beef with former G-Unit member The Game. Just a few weeks ago The Game dropped this mixtape. It contains the song "300 Bars and Runnin" a 15 minute freestyle that rips 50 and the entire G-Unit to shreds. I just knew 50 was going to respond in the MP3 interview especially when I saw some people in the Outta Control video wearing Game Over T-shirts. Boy was I wrong.

Let me get this straight. You sit down for 13 minutes with the hottest rapper out there involved in one of the most public beefs out there. Said rapper has yet to make ANY public statement about a very hot diss tape that features a former group member holding a BIG ass gun in one hand and said rappers bloody disembowled head in the other and the only thing this bitch can think to ask is "What inspired this record?" and "Do you enjoy the acting in the videos?". I knew they should have gotten Matt Lauer. That may not be completely fair. Rumors are swirling that both Dr.Dre and Jimmy Iovine have contacted 50 and asked him to lay off The Game since both rappers are on Dre's Aftermath Records label which is distributed by Iovine's Interscope Records. The beef needed to end quickly, especially after a member of the Game's crew was shot in New York just hours after The Game was publicly fired from G-Unit.

This led to the press conference a few months ago where The Game and 50 publicly squashed their beef and agreed to donate money to each others favorite charities as a peace offering. While 50 stayed true to his word and stopped talking negatively about The Game in public Game felt that 50 and the G-Unit were being insincere citing interviews that had been given by Unit member Tony Yayo and a few others that didn't outright diss him but made backhanded statements about him and his crew. That led to the whole G-UNot campaign with picketers showing up at some of 50's appearances and of course said diss tape which The Game put out without anyones blessing.

Everybody has been asked about the Game Mixtape but so far no one is talking though there has been some talk of Interscope pulling promotional funds away from The Game in favor of 50 for breaking the agreed upon truce though these are just rumors. If it happens though The Game's next release could stall just as his first release was doing before Dre and Jimmy brought 50 in to help Game polish his debut record The Documentary.

Anyway I watched the video and it was okay. Nothing spectacular though I haven't seen anything mind blowing since the days of Busta Rhymes and Hype Williams collaborations on Busta's multi-platinum smash When Disaster Strikes. It was a bit layed back as the original Outta Control track had a bit more bounce to it though according to 50 he had both versions ready before the original release of The Massacre. He chose the version that we have already heard but still liked the second version hence the decision to re-release The Massacre which has already sold nearly 7 million albums with a long form DVD and new production on all of it's 21 songs on September 6th.

I cannot believe that I am going to have to buy the same fucking album all over again but god help me I'm curious so I'll be heading over to Amazon.com and placing a pre-order shortly. I'll probably throw in a copy of the Director's cut of Gladiator that's being released in a few weeks. It's supposed to have new footage added and a Russell Crowe Ridley Scott comment track. I've been missing that movie in my DVD collection for a while now and just when I was about to buy a copy I found out about the re-release so I dodged a bullet there.

This thing about re-releasing music CDs really bugs me though. Some of you Usher fans may recall that he pulled this same stunt late last year by re-releasing his hit record Confessions as a special edition with new photos and 4 new songs including his number 1 smash My Boo which featured Alicia Keys. Confessions had only been out 7 months when they did this by the way and while Usher did press stating that they were re-releasing the album with new songs as a "gift" to the fans a lot of those fans complained that they were being ripped off since about 5 million of them had already bought this damn album already.

This is why illegal music downloads continue to thrive. People are simply tired of paying for this shit. I've bought albums with 15 tracks and only liked 2 or 3 of the songs on the record so isn't it simpler to just cut to the chase and download the few songs I do like and leave the filler to rot in Muzak hell? I have bought music from both iTunes and MSN music. At 99 cents a song you just can't beat that and I'd rather pay for a CD quality MP3 now rather than spend an hour trying to find a download that isn't broken or of poor quality.

I thought I was the only one having these problems and went to some of the more popular MP3 forums and noticed tons of posts complaining of the same thing. Many people blamed this on the record companies who they said were deliberately sharing huge catalogs of broken or mislabled files so that they could bring down these networks. All of the networks are set up to screen for viruses now but a bogus MP3 file is impossible to detect and because these networks bank all users who download the files the bad file spreads throughout the network like wildfire.

The bank feature is meant to act as a help to the users. It logs your IP address and then tries to find other users close by who have the files you're looking for. This is great for two reasons the first being speed. Obviously if you are in New York it would be quicker to download a file from someone within a few miles as opposed to Germany or China. The second reason is that the bank allows people to continue downloading even if their primary source logs off. The system would then que up the next closest source from the bank and continue downloading the file from them.

Like I said it works great but also allows for bad files to spread at a much faster pace. I've downloaded the same song from 15 or 20 different sources and got the exact same broken file every time. I always try to delete bad files immediately so they won't continue to spread across the network but the bad files keep going. Sometimes it's just better to pay the 99 cents and be done with it and a lot of times you can find great 2 for 1 deals. MSN music was running a 1 for 5 deal which I love. You buy 1 song and get to download 5 more free. You have got to be pretty cheap not to jump at that offer. Later.

Great post...

{ 4:13 AM, August 2, 2005 } { Posted by E Weezy }

I knew some of it but you really broke some things down more clearly. I have a question though not being a really big 50 fan. You mentioned yourself that 50 hasn't answered back to any of the diss tracks that were released and now Nas has finally put his joint out. I've seen the new video and watched the interview that you linked to. Don't you think it makes 50 look like a bitch by not responding? Specially to Game's punk ass. I like 50 too but beef on wax is as old as hip-hop and he needs to answer that shit or he'll end up like Kwame and them pokadots!

Holla back!
E Weezy

50's a biyatch!!!!

{ 4:26 AM, August 2, 2005 } { Posted by 50 Hater }

I used to think that nigga was a ridah but now I'm just seeing him as a bitch. How can you sit there and say you're going to buy that bitch azz niggaz shit again. The streetz is talkin and errbody know that Massacre was some weak ass Keith Sweat B-sides. I like your blog and you seem to be a really deep brotha but damn dude get your head outta ya ass!

New York IS Hip-Hop and the true birthplace of Tupac Shakur!
1 luv

Keep it coming!

{ 5:32 AM, August 2, 2005 } { Posted by maddhatt }

E Weezy I do think that 50 needs to answer back or he will lose credibilty with his fans. Ja Rule was going triple platinum with every release until 50 started knockin him and now his shit barely goes gold. All of a sudden it became uncool to buy a Ja Rule record and since hip hop more than any other genre is sold as a culture once the culture defines you as being lame you're done.

Hater I don't like having to buy the Massacre again but I do want to see the DVD that 50 talked about. I disagree about the Keith Sweat b-sides shit but I'm very curious about how much better the record would be if 50 hadn't helped Game and those songs had all appeared on his record instead. If you heard 300 bars Game said 50 only helped on 2 songs but 50 said on Hot 97 on Funkmaster Flex's show that he helped on 6 songs. He didn't claim that he wrote Games lyrics or at least most of them. What he did claim is that he had completed whole songs with both vocals and hooks which he then removed his vocals from and let Game write versus too and that sometimes the Game would just take the hook that he wrote and just re-rap it and that since he had originally wrote and finished those tracks that he at the very least came up with the concept behind the records. Some of those tracks according to 50 were Special and Church for Thugs but 50 had vocals on three other Game tracks so that is at least 3 songs instead of 2 and Hate it or Love it was clearly a 50 joint with guest vocals by Game. 50 also mentioned that Interscope and Aftermath removed his name on song writing credits on the album jacket because it would make Game look bad.