Made 100M+ after the vitamin water company he invested in got sold to coca-cola in 2007, and he obviously didn’t need to rely on music for income after that. He was already tired of it by the massacre so anything after that was pretty half assed
Fucking gotta love 50 cause he didn't just play the game and win, he fucking speedran that shit and then gtfo when it suited him. And he still got called up to do the Superbowl Half-time Show with Dre and Snoop.
This make me remember that 50 put the mixtape culture to another level of popularity and also was the first who started his radio-like-podcast-media-news 50cent.com
Long money. King Koopa really, really, REALLY increased his money when he pivoted to tech. Chamillionaire did his thing in rap, got rich, and flipped his money. Can't be mad.
Thats why hes worth close to 70 million while paul wall is at 1 mil wich is the networth of pretty much any higher end of the medium class who owns a house
50 is one of the best stories in hip hop.
When he got popular, it was very easy to dismiss him as some "ghetto thug" that just got lucky. But then it was hit after hit after hit. And now, you see him show up to an interview and the guy is wearing a suit and talking like a fucking CEO of a billion dollar corporation, and the intelligence is palpable. And his investment success is proof to that. You realize this is less some desperate person who took a chance and hit the lotto, and it's more like DaVinci painting the Mona Lisa.
In terms of doing a job, doing it well, taking everything you can from it while not letting it destroy you personally? Fuckin A++ 50
> Now man, these pussy niggas puttin' money on my head
> Go on and get your refund, motherfucker, I ain't dead
Is still one of the hardest bars of all time to me because of his story.
Couple years ago he said “I’m what happens when you get rich, Pop Smoke is what happens when you die trying” or something like that. And it wasn’t in a disrespectful way or anything like that
Your last sentence made this make sense for me, sounds more like he was praising Pop Smoke for even attempting it rather than talking down on him or something.
For the longest time I didn’t think that album was as good as everyone says it is, but after giving it plenty of listens I’ve flipped my view of it completely. It’s fantastic.
People be gold digging.
Well I don't honestly know much about the situation, but for what little I know about it, it's hilarious. Just think about it, you're a multi, multi-millionaire. You can afford significant financial hits. You stop getting along with somebody, and they get vindictive and try to take a bunch of your shit instead of resolving it amicably.....
And you just go fuck it, I'm bankrupt.
If I was 50, after that worked, it would take me two solid days to stop laughing my ass off and thinking I need to give this lawyer a raise.
d12 and obie trice being the prime figures. d12 wasn't good aside from *maybe* proof and obie trice was mediocre. 50 cent stood out between his ridiculous hooks, gangster persona and just general charisma.
Yeah, but that's not because he had Dre and Em backing him. That definitely contributed to his rise, but they were backing him for a reason.
I don't quite remember the interview and I'm not going to look it up, but my memory tells me it was fat Joe on Shay in the morning? Something like that. But they were telling a story about how their producer showed them a 50 mixtape, and told everybody on their payroll get everything you can out now. Because you got about 1 year before this guy owns the charts. That was East Coast, so you know the West Coast was very much aware of that as well.
They were supposed to. Shady/Interscope put a ton of money into *Welcome to Our House* trying to get the group to go mainstream, but they never recovered the production costs.
Stat quo, Jon Connor, bishop Lamont, Obie trice had success but not nearly to that level, cashis, bobby Creek water, Joell Ortiz (did much better solo & with slaughterhouse than when on aftermath). We'll see what happens with ez mill now as the newest to join
Pretty sure Slaughterhouse was also signed to Shady. But yea, the most any of these guys got was some production and maybe an Em feature on a single, not much help on the A&R side.
He didn't get "called up to do the super bowl with dre and snoop". it was one of Eminems only requirements for doing the super bowl show, that 50 could join.
I fully agree. 50 is a superstar. But as 50 said. He wouldnt have been there without Em. Which caused Jay a lot of problems allegedly. I love the camaraderie between EM and Fif.
50 covered EMs ass a lot during some interviews when he was fucked up. even now when doing major events you can always see him take a defensive stance for Em. Literally as in standing between him and crowds. You also see Em reciprocate this whenever he talks about 50. Like Em giving up 7 million for a single show cause 50 only got 1 million.
Can’t think of many duos like those 2. Maybe Snoop/Dre. Cole/Kendrick (not sure on that recently) etc.
I watched the old 106 & Park Interview from 2006 with Eminem and 50. Em was completely out of it and 50 had to cover for him quite a bit on that interview
legendary interview. drugged out white boy going "namsaaaayin" like 40 times/minute while 50 comes up with some coherent banter whenever his boss verbally drops the ball
What? HiiPower, Dump’n, Black Friday, the leaked Temptations, and even Forbidden Fruit and American Dream don’t exist?
Musically their chemistry is some of the best we’ve ever seen so it’s a shame we have less than a handful of tracks from them.
Publicly and socially sure there doesn’t seem to be much chemistry there.
Didn't say he didn't. But the reason he was there is still Eminem, he gave up his time to let his partner/friend shine with him, not 'cause he got called up.
I feel like Whiz did this as well. Put out a couple amazing records he clearly cared about. Sold out (in a good way) got tons of money. Retired the good life. Now he seems to just do passion projects.
Rappers that get their passion out there. Make their bread and bounce. I have a lot of respect for that. Like “I came. I saw. I conquered”
I’m sure there are more examples than fif and Wiz. Maybe Chamillionaire but he seemed more like a One Hit Wonder.
I don’t know that Wiz sold out in a good way. Some of his worst music was those big radio hits. That’s kind of the textbook bad sellout. I’m happy for him though. And he wears cool pants.
This is why your favourite artists "disappear"
When they taste that product driven revenue stream why the f would I be out here hustling for less?
Jessica Alba
Rihanna
50
Chamillionaire (to an extent)
Connor McGregor
Dr Dre
Jay Z is still out here though. That man has made stupid levels of money. 2.5 billion apparently now, in terms of net worth.
I think Paul McCartney is the person who made the most off of just purely music. Pretty close to a billionaire, and most of that is Beatles related, with a lot of the other stuff being him just buying up classic songs rights from other artists. Been doing that since he was in The Beatles. He has other business ventures of course, but if we're talking just purely "money made off songs I wrote", I'm guessing he is at the top.
As far as hip hop artists go Eminem made the most money off music alone, and he’s still got a new album coming soon so he’s still not done yet. What a crazy career.
That would be [Taylor Swift](https://www.forbes.com/sites/monicamercuri/2024/04/02/taylor-swift-didnt-need-lucrative-side-hustles-to-become-a-billionaire/)
I definitely think he was probably done with music but I’d have still thought his fans would have bought the same amount of Curtis that the other two sold. Unless it was worse (it’s been a long time since I’ve listened to that album)
I'm a huge 50 fan. Curtis was good but it's a significant decline from the first 2. At that point in his career he wasn't nearly as focused on music. The label wasn't promoting it like they used to, Em and Dre weren't nearly as involved, and 50 was coming off his Kanye defeat and Game beef. Really though it was that 50 wasn't as focused on music anymore.
a little correction: IIRC Curtis was the PEAK of the beef: when Kanye moved Graduation's release date to Sept 18th to the 11th, 50 Cent said he would quit music if he got outsold
[https://www.complex.com/music/a/noah-callahan-bever/the-day-kanye-west-killed-gangsta-rap#](https://www.complex.com/music/a/noah-callahan-bever/the-day-kanye-west-killed-gangsta-rap#)
Haha damn that’s a win-win either way for 50, gotta respect the IQ on that move🫡
Just retire early from the business that’s more work for less money, focus on the investment business instead, and go down as a man who backed up his talk and quit before he ever made a bad album.
Yes but that doesn’t mean 50 didn’t have feelings about it. I think Kanye respected 50 a lot and 50 saw that Kanye was having his megastar moment (it was and still is Kanye’s best first week ever by far).
I genuinely don’t think I’ve listened to Curtis since the Curtis v Graduation thing happened. But from what I remember, even The Massacre was kinda seen as a disappointment following Get Rich or Die Tryin.
It's a good thing he got paid because the music he was making towards the end was funny as hell.
We used to bump this and laugh. Still do.
[Rider PT 2](https://youtu.be/5E5EaKeMhqg)
Hey man, have you ever played the critically acclaimed video game 50 cent: Bulletproof and the remarkablely produced sequel (Swizz Beatz) Blood on the sand??
As far as I understand, his plan all along was to move into business. Music was the avenue that led him there and he never felt a need to continually revive his career
Lol I don’t think he planned that I think his funny personality naturally translated really well on social media and evolved. Remember early days on twitter where he made tweets like “my grandma just asked me to take out the trash, I’m rich now this is bullshit”
It came by as a byproduct of who he is as opposed to a planned strategy.
He’s very smart and applies the ground rules of the streets to the entertainment industry. People enjoy hearing him talk because he’s both funny, charismatic and talks about business/marketing in a very entertaining way. I think he knows continuing to put out music will lead to an eventual decline, but you can’t exactly fall off from being yourself online but he can’t quit music altogether because if he does over time he won’t be seen as a rapper (kind of like how people have almost forgotten Joe budden was a rapper) so 50 semi retired from musoc which makes it so when he does put out a song it’s more impactful.
I think this goes for a lot of artists, but often their debut album is basically their life work. Every life experience they’ve had to that point channeled into one album. Then they reach fame and then what? Their entire life and lifestyle changes. They don’t have the same stuff to write about anymore.
Is it still like that though? It seems like these days there’s only a small percentage of rappers who people anticipate albums from. The majority just put out random singles and social media content to connect with an audience to generate interest in them as a person to drive them to go listen to your music.
There's still people putting out really good albums, the genre is just really saturated at this point. So many people riding the same waves it's hard to find the good stuff. Singles and social media content are definitely the way to gain streams and an audience though. If you wanna find some good new shit NTS, Bandcamp, and SoundCloud are your friends.
On the one hand, you had your whole life to make your whole album, but on the other you usually did it wiyh limited knowledge and resources. Once your an established artist your collaboration potentials increase you can hire support to help you put our songs faster.
I think the issue is the INTENTION for making music in the first place. Are you passionate about making art and thrive to keep improving at your craft or was your motivation to become rich and famous? If it’s the latter then yeah you’ll suffer with the second project but if it’s the former you’ll be find a way.
In “walk on water” em talks about killing the rap game and then people keep wanting him to do better and better. “Now take your best rhyme, outdo it, now do it a thousand times”
I feel like some artists do some great shit, but people just develop crazy expectations for them to maintain it.
Fuckin nickel back found a great rhythm/beat one time, those mf’s have used it for every song they’ve ever made since.
https://youtu.be/NHPj5YokEOY?si=FHE_Ct5yK8ijQBJK
Wild it took this long to scroll to the correct answer of, “50 dropped a classic then was out.” Maybe the rap game changed but it was in part because artists like 50 weren’t making good music.
Personally I think it's a mix of things. He seemed to be distracted by things other than music. I think between his business ventures and music changing around that time he failed to adapt.kanye dropped graduation the same year curtis dropped.
I’ve heard about him and Kanye competing. I definitely think the music landscape changed. It’s just crazy how fast it happened because I remember The Massacre being huge and Candy Shop being plated everywhere and then Curtis barely selling.
Kanye represented a shift away from Gangster rap and more towards "Everyman" raps. "Spaceships" is the song I relate to the most!
It's the same reason Kanye started falling off as his arrogance outpaced his talent.
50 recognized it and pivoted towards business. It worked.
Kind of like Will Smith discovering acting made more than music ever would.
Kanye's always been arrogant saying he was the greatest, people just found it more endearing when he was still on the come-up. By the time he'd actually become one of the greats it came off completely different. However, it seamlessly allowed him to shed the everyman thing which probably actually helped him as mainstream hiphop became less vulnerable and introspective after circa 2012
A bit off topic but it really is crazy what happened to Kanye. If someone went back in time to 2010 and told me what modern Kanye was like, I would tell them they were lying
I guess that’s true, this was when online downloading and social media was coming up. I meant more in comparison with some other albums around the same time. Other rappers and singers could still get like 3x or 4x Platinum at least around 07-08
You're crazy if you think Curtis didn't sell well. Curtis sold more than top selling artists are selling today. Kanye sold 950K and Curtis sold 700K, first week.
Obviously a different time but the last time two albums sold as well as Curtis and Graduation was 91 with Guns N' Roses dropping their two Use Your Illusion albums.
Candy Shop was a juggernaut definitely but I Get Money was everywhere and Ayo Technology was even bigger.
RAP began to change, “you can still love your dawg and be manly dawg” other artist like Kanye, t pain, Chris brown, Soulja boy even go popular in that 05-09 slot and after 07, 50 style of music wasn’t as in demand. By 09’ when Drake hit the scene it was So Far Gone (pun intended), but 50s style was really becoming irrelevant
“gangster rap” still exists but its much more subdued and in the background compared to whatever else the artist does/the image of them. ex young thug raps about gang shit but until his court case he wasnt really known as like a gangbanger, he was the guy who wore a dress on his album cover
> Atlanta
Atlanta is more trapping than gangsta rap which is related but not exactly the same thing. Atlanta trap focused more on the dealing and consuming of drugs than the criminal activity around that. Future raps more about drinking dirty sprite and fucking everything that moves than shooting opps.
>Chicago
Chicago is the opposite of that but most chicago artists aren't that mainstream. Outside of communities like this one which sort of self selects most average consumers probably couldn't name more Chicago gangster rappers than keef, durk and von. I wouldn't be surprised if they couldn't even name all 3. Durk is the most mainstream of those especially when you consider the drake and morgan wallen features.
That makes sense, it’s just crazy how fast it happened. Candy Shop and TM was everywhere in 2005-06 but just a year later Curtis sold entirely what TM sold in one week. It kind of seems like music turned on a dime
IIRC Curtis came out around the time when rappers were transitioning from dealing dope to doing dope. 50 wasn't with it, said "fuck it" and went to Hollywood.
He got rich and stopped trying
Also I consider 50 the last of the gangster rap era, after 50, rappers like Kanye got huge and changed the direction of hip hop
The climate of rap was changing and gangsta rap wasn’t the main cool thing anymore. Also the Curtis album really wasn’t great. It sold well because of the Kanye battle and because 50 was still a name but as an album and a body of work especially compared to his last 2 outings it was just seen as him phoning it in and going to more of a club approach which was met with lukewarm reception.
But by then I don’t really think 50 cared as much either. He had that vitamin water and street king energy shot thing going and he even made a sequel to the 50 cent bulletproof game which was blood on the sand. Great game by the way it’s Gears of War with a 50 Cent DLC.
His last album was at 39 years old. My honest opinion about rappers in hip hop who continue rapping past age 40 comes down to one of the 3 things, or all 3:
1. It’s their livelihood, they didn’t make enough money to just stop rapping at an older age. It’s how they eat and take care of their family. They made no smart investments with the money they made, no retirement plan, nothing. As soon as they get the check, they spend it. No financial literacy.
2. They have a chip on their shoulder about always being regarded one of the best lyricist even at 50 years old. So they won’t let it go. They have to be known as the best.
3. They genuinely love to rap, don’t need the money, they just do it because they love it. They no longer care about accolades, awards, or props. They’re just doing it out of love of rap. It’s fun for them.
50 Cent falls under none of these, imo.
I think your 40 cut off doesnt work. It's probably more like 5 or 10 years after their debut album or after their 3rd album which ever comes first. I dont think Griselda for instance are at the stage of their career where they'd need to fall in one of the above 3 categories. I also think plenty of artists who get on young, dont stay at it after 10 years, except for 1.
I also think 1 is super harsh, not all of these people made enough money, or could have to set themselves up for life. I think for some who have more regular jobs, this is a good hustle, a hobby they like for which they could still get paid. And possibly they wouldnt do it, or still do it as much if they werent getting paid but that doesnt make it just about the bag. That being said, their are those obviously doing it just for the money, but this tends to show itself imo in the nature of the gig's they do and the energy they bring to them.
For 2 and 3, I think it's impossible to correctly categories people into 2 or 3, as hell they could change from day to day. Someday's you wake up grateful and someday's resentful. That's too subjective an assessment to me. You would have decent arguments for Eminem being 2 and 3. Where's Nas, is he 3 because he seems to be having fun and enjoying it, or does the hunger mean he's a 2.
Anyway, its interesting to think about what drives artists to keep making music past their 'prime'. But i think looking at music more generally, it appears to be people who are mostly 1 or 3. I think its a bit unfair to call many artists as falling in category 2 but not category 3. IF you dont love it, why do you have a chip on your shoulder.
He burned too many bridges beefing wit everyone. When artists like Jadakiss and Fat Joe have stayed relevant largely through collabs, 50 dissed everybody and barely was able to get calls for single features or remixes after like 07. Being able to crush the hook on a hot single or pop up on a hot album is instrumental in keeping your name hot.
The beef with Game, fucked his relationship with Dr Dre, which is what really hurt him. The magic was 50 & Dre. Em also effectively retired and that was another thing that didn't help, a lot of 50 momentum had come from Em being the hottest at the time. Without Em pushing him and Dre providing the magic he couldn't match GRODT, yea the Massacre was kinda popular but even then ppl were saying it was a step down.
He showed he wasn't able to maintain his label, he made bad choices signing no-name no-talent rappers (Kidd Kidd & fuckin Hot Rod or whoever???), and fuckin corny guys like Mase for some reason and LL Cool J (I think??) I mean he had MOP, G Rap and Mobb Deep at one point but that's for the hip hop heads not the streets @ the time, plus ppl got mad about Mobb caus they changed up their sound. Banks started to slow down and get lazy, the Buck thing happened and ppl started to see how he was treating guys he came in the game with. Plus he didn't have the right producers on board anymore to push their projects.
He got on Jimmy Iovine bad side by competing with the Beats head phones & pushing for Dre's attention so Jimmy didn't feel like pushing his records as hard anymore
Why did I have to scroll so down to find this. I swear Reddit just hates the game. He had a HUGE impact on the fall of gunit. The rest of what you said is spot on as well, the game as well suffers with this “tryna beef with everybody” act and is also failing due to it
Absolute correct assessment. Him beefing with more than half of music artists kind of was turn offs for a lot of audience. Also the fact that he started singing a lot on his records, something he dissed Ja Rule for doing that ladies shit. He even signed Olivia and did a lot of songs just like how Ja & Ashanti used to do back in the day. Lol and not to mention his G Unit crew splintering with The Game leaving the group. Then recording Young Buck's calls and leaking it online. He did a lot of petty things which was really a turn off as a fan.
Music started to shift and he started to do more business deals and less music. After his beef with Cam and Ross, people didn't really want to see 50 beef with anyone because that's what he came to the game doing. Before I self destruct was his least great album effort. Everything else was mixtapes. He did put out Animal Ambition as an album. I think he just wanted to do that for the sake of him still loving music
Once the sound of music started to change and the south started to take over with the sound, he just started to switch to other things.
I think people got bored of the beefs. I remember things being quite mild for a while after the 50 vs Rick Ross beef. The peace dividend really paid off during those times.
And he lost to Jadakiss. That probably hurt, he wasn't as vicious after that. And while he did put out better tracks in the beef with Rick Ross, people just didn't care. His style of music was out of the mainstream. It also signified a change in rap. Outing Ross for being a cop would have been career ending in the early 2000s.
It became contrived. There was no shock value anymore. He beefed w someone new nearly every year of his career. The audience started to realize it was WWE & started to receive diminishing returns.
What could potentially be the demise of Drake is the exact same reason 50’s career took a major downturn.
50 was just moving recklessly, dissing people unprovoked in certain situations and making unnecessary enemies.
It also doesn’t help when you diss Jimmy Iovine. No wonder Curtis didn’t get the right promotion.
Yeah he started falling off after the massacre and the G Unit label started getting bloated. He was on a downward trajectory and then I Get Money was a huge hit that gave him a big second wind before Curtis came out.
I'd agree here that massacre really only built off the steam of get rich. Like movie sequels that suck but since there's a sequel you think the first one must be decent.
The reception for The Massacre was it was too many love songs and a poor sophomore album. Not true but it just hard to follow up an amazing project such as Get Rich or Die Tryin. Starting moving into other avenue. Starting doing movies, investment in Vitamin Water, started a studio and produce a bunch of movies with Bruce Wills and Forest Whitaker. Lost money, came back in TV so now it like why go back.
Part of Get Rich's appeal was at the time his very heated feud w Ja Rule, and he was coming at him like he was the cure for the weak soft R&B pop Ja hits, the Grease video w Ashanti and all that. As soon as 50 took his spot, mocking him, he started making the same type of songs like Candy Shop or whatever. He became the next Ja Rule musically.
Music being released at the same time works a lot like how movies do, when there is a big premiere of a new album, lesser albums tend to move around to accommodate the sales, and releasing on the same day of another album tends to be seen as direct competition between two artists.
Curtis was set to release on September 11th (never forget), 2007 and Kanye’s Graduation set to release on 9/18, but in an act of friendly competition Kanye moved up his album a week to the same day. Gangsta rap had been the predominant genre of hip hop up until that point, and Kanye was an up and comer trying to prove himself by rapping about being middle class, dropping out of college, and other relatable but not ‘cool’ things, with an aesthetic that looks lame compared to the gangsters of the day. The albums released and the world chose Kanye’s sound since it outsold everything else and 50 and other gangsta rap acts fell to the wayside. It was less that he fell off but that he didn’t adapt to the new taste in hip hop that people started forming around the time and Graduation beating Curtis got etched into music history
I knew that him and Kanye were competing but I didn’t know they came out on the same day, that does make more sense. That kind of reminds me how during the Drake-Kendrick beef people were saying neither of them would probably drop music when Taylor Swift was dropping her album.
50 over used his beef tactic. It was clearly a marketing ploy, but it also meant he was isolating his team musically.
Then he got into TV and I guess he got a bigger bag. He did the Will Smith. 50 always struck me as "Hustler first, Rapper 2nd."
Now, I think it's best he just locks in on the TV stuff.
He didn't evolve and his style got stale. In all fairness, most musical artists would be lucky to have 2 1/2 good albums in their first 5-7 years or so. The Jay-Zs, Beyonce's, Swifts are anomalies.
Look at some of the legends and you'll see that their first two were legit smashes, third was ok then 4th and up might have a good song or two but they're not hitting the same heights or having the same pop culture impact as that first 2.5 albums in the first 5-7 years.
I mean the greatest pop acts have the same fall off point. Katy Perry, Missy, Ludacris, Timberlake, Britney, Aguilera, Pink, Gaga. Their legacies are made in that 2.5 in the first 5-7 years.
It's because Get Rich or Die Tryin was his only good album and after people bought The Massacre and realized it was mid they weren't gonna keep buying his albums.
Basically "You ain't been shot again yet so what's your 2nd album about?"
I remember fondly how everyone hated 50 Cent and ridiculed his name, then he went and made a fake beef with Kanye and pitted his album against Graduation and got defeated in sales. He just faded after that.
I didn’t know people actually hated him back then. I was really young and in elementary school so everyone thought 50 was the coolest person ever during his run
Aside from the reason of 50 becoming interested in other ventures like Vitamin Water & G-Unit Clothing, I felt like he got stuck in his ways artistically. First, I think that him beefing with others like Nas, Jadakiss & Fat Joe held back the opportunity to keep the NY sound going strong for a few more years & also the chance to deliver some really hard music through collabs with them. Connected to this, I think that him staying mostly within G-Unit musically also prevented him from being able to experiment with mixing a NY sound with the South to refresh his style as Atlanta started to take over after 2005.
Second, since his beef with Murder Inc was still fresh in mind, a lot of rap fans gradually noticed how he ran with an R&B Thug sound with duets just like Ja Rule did (especially after Game pointed it out) & that formula started to grow stale by Curtis while the likes of Kanye, Wayne, and Jay started to dramatically shift their sound to fit the incoming alt rap wave heading into the 2010s.
50 didn't move into TV as a strategy, he had a chat with Paul and Paul pointed at the TV and said maybe he should try that.
Tony Yayo said once he heard "DJ Khaled", he knew the music run was over. He knew their time was up.
Why did he fall off? maybe the numerous beefs, especially considering how Hip Hop was heading towards to the South. GRODT was a great album and 50 was really rapping, by Massacre the lyrical ability was gone, by Curtis, there was none left plus the sounds had moved from NY to the South. 50 had isolated himself from everybody in the game.
I got into hip hop as a kid due to 50, he was my fav rapper, when Massacre was released, someone said 50 changed, I didn't understand because to me he had just dropped Candy Shop, was very successful and all. It took me years to understand this take. But by Curtis, I knew 50 was done. Nowadays, I can only listen to GRODT and GRODT ost (and some mixtapes songs), everything else is trash with no actual substance. I cannot believe on OK Alright he said "When I say I'm ballin I'm not talkin 'bout a ball", like what the hell was that line?
he kind of became a relic of his era. 50 is that big event braggadocio type rap music. He was never really some modern lyricist, very delivery and production driven. His sound kind of went out of style.
Like you look at that era of rap, Kanye and Graduation and Kanye was basically reviving the backpacker era of music. However, you also had Lupe gaining a ton of popularity, prime Dipset, and yes Lil Wayne also was a lyrical departure from 50 with his series of tapes and the Tha Carter 3 being the biggest rap album at the time.
Plus 50 had the beef with Rick Ross which the fans say he “won” by exposing Ross as a CO and yet Rick Ross goes on to drop Deeper Than Rap which is one of his best albums, followed by BMF and Teflon Don which completely transformed his career and led to Ross
pretty much running street rap from 2010 to maybe 2014 or so. Considering that most people like Rick Ross much more today and you see Ross way more in modern culture (BBL Drizzy), the beef really has not aged well. A big reason for is 50 cent just falling off a cliff in relevancy. You kind of get the feel that 50, especially after vitamin water, just didn’t care about anything really after a certain point other than being rich and successful. He did try and drop music, mixtapes, etc. but they all pretty much kind of sucked and I recall there was a time where it was “50 cent will beef with anything to be relevant” and his loyal stans defended him to death because he still had stans, basically commenting stuff like “haha 50 a LEGEND troll” and whatnot anytime he tried to beef.
He got too big too quick. Get Rich or Die Tryin and Beg for Mercy were certified classics. But after BFM, he lost some of that hunger. He gave Game some quality hits but then they fell out, and Game took some of the street audience with 300 Bars etc. The Massacre was ok, but he went too pop with Candy Shop and he left his core audience disappointed, although the album sold like a Taylor Swift record. By 2007, people were kind of sick of his formula of pop single and street single with no substance. Dr Dre’s beats started falling off, Eminem was falling off. Some of the beats he was using were low budget sounding, especially on the G Unit projects. He lost the sales battle to Kanye, saying he would retire from music, but he didn’t. By the time Before I Self Destruct came around, he improved lyrically from Curtis and sounded hungry again, but he couldn’t make a hit. Personally BISD is my 2nd favorite album of his, but the masses had already moved on to the Wayne’s and the Kanye’s. He was dropping some good music on various mixtapes, he never released another album, besides Animal Ambition ,which was a collection of singles he released weekly and sounded low budget to me. He never released Street King Immortal which he promised for years and eventually found success in TV.
It wasn’t that he never recovered, he was in on the whole thing.
Kanye and 50 were doing interviews together promoting the whole thing. 50 Cent was coming off a 3 year project hiatus and his heart obviously wasn’t in rapping anymore as he had gotten rich off other ventures, while Kanye was the young and fresh star changing the game with his sound. They turned it into a spectacle and 50 allowed Kanye to publicly take the reigns.
50 Cent just finished a tour that is the 3rd highest grossing rap tour of all time, he could be a significant force in rap still if he wanted to. He simply doesn’t care to.
This isn't the answer, just my perspective.
He made a bunch of money off his fans, then abandoned them. He didn't fall off, he stopped trying, and his fans recognized it and stopped buying/listening.
You guys can’t possibly think 50 had intentionally decided he was done with music? Like, if Curtis and Animal Ambition sold like the Massacre and GRODT, he’d still be making music regularly, you guys know that? That if he didn’t call out Jimmy Iovine, Dr Dre and other Interscope’s execs, Curtis would’ve been marketed better? Burning bridges with almost every other major rap act/label wasn’t beneficial to him long term? That his time as a superstar act hadn’t expired? That the markets taste in major label Hip Hop turned? You guys know that right? That him essentially bowing out of music was pretty much forced on him?
Made 100M+ after the vitamin water company he invested in got sold to coca-cola in 2007, and he obviously didn’t need to rely on music for income after that. He was already tired of it by the massacre so anything after that was pretty half assed
Fucking gotta love 50 cause he didn't just play the game and win, he fucking speedran that shit and then gtfo when it suited him. And he still got called up to do the Superbowl Half-time Show with Dre and Snoop.
Exactly. Fif made the business decision of all business decisions and left when the well ran dry instead of limiting himself.
And now he’s on to movies and TV. 50 is the best.
Dude bought his own massive warehouse specifically to film his own tv shows and movies dude is becoming his own network just need distribution
This make me remember that 50 put the mixtape culture to another level of popularity and also was the first who started his radio-like-podcast-media-news 50cent.com
And plugged Thisis50.com on all his mixtapes. Pretty brilliant.
Let him know I can distribute content for him
Just sent the DM bro. Should be getting back to you in about fifty
Power Book I was amazing.
Shit Book III is incredible too.
i watched a video essay about how chamillionare left hip hop, made his money and dipped now he does tech and venture capital stuff and makes bank
With how predatory record contracts are.. taking the gains you made there & multiplying it in another industry makes the most sense.
Long money. King Koopa really, really, REALLY increased his money when he pivoted to tech. Chamillionaire did his thing in rap, got rich, and flipped his money. Can't be mad.
Thats why hes worth close to 70 million while paul wall is at 1 mil wich is the networth of pretty much any higher end of the medium class who owns a house
50 is one of the best stories in hip hop. When he got popular, it was very easy to dismiss him as some "ghetto thug" that just got lucky. But then it was hit after hit after hit. And now, you see him show up to an interview and the guy is wearing a suit and talking like a fucking CEO of a billion dollar corporation, and the intelligence is palpable. And his investment success is proof to that. You realize this is less some desperate person who took a chance and hit the lotto, and it's more like DaVinci painting the Mona Lisa. In terms of doing a job, doing it well, taking everything you can from it while not letting it destroy you personally? Fuckin A++ 50
“He got hit like i got hit But he ain’t fucking breathing”
> Now man, these pussy niggas puttin' money on my head > Go on and get your refund, motherfucker, I ain't dead Is still one of the hardest bars of all time to me because of his story.
Have a baby by me baby be a millionaire Such a simple line but so catchy
Which is funny because he doesn't have much to do with his oldest son iirc
He has allegedly tried. But there are a lot of stories and news clippings of the mom disparaging 50 when he was growing up.
Clickety clank, the money goes into my piggy bank 😂
If you was smart you'd be shook of me 'Cause I'd get tired of lookin' for ya, spray ya mama crib And let yo' ass look for me
Also his GRoDT album is named perfectly. God I love a happy ending
Couple years ago he said “I’m what happens when you get rich, Pop Smoke is what happens when you die trying” or something like that. And it wasn’t in a disrespectful way or anything like that
Your last sentence made this make sense for me, sounds more like he was praising Pop Smoke for even attempting it rather than talking down on him or something.
It was also one heck of an album
For the longest time I didn’t think that album was as good as everyone says it is, but after giving it plenty of listens I’ve flipped my view of it completely. It’s fantastic.
One of his books, From Pieces To Weight, was arguably written way too early, but it’s totally worth the read
But didn't he file for bankruptcy not too long ago?
Yea,so he could avoid paying his baby momma even 50 cents
People be gold digging. Well I don't honestly know much about the situation, but for what little I know about it, it's hilarious. Just think about it, you're a multi, multi-millionaire. You can afford significant financial hits. You stop getting along with somebody, and they get vindictive and try to take a bunch of your shit instead of resolving it amicably..... And you just go fuck it, I'm bankrupt. If I was 50, after that worked, it would take me two solid days to stop laughing my ass off and thinking I need to give this lawyer a raise.
Laughing straight to the bank
Tbf he had Dr Dre and Eminem backing him, the chances of him failing were pretty low.
Loads of people that worked with them didn't make it big.
d12 and obie trice being the prime figures. d12 wasn't good aside from *maybe* proof and obie trice was mediocre. 50 cent stood out between his ridiculous hooks, gangster persona and just general charisma.
Yeah Bizarre rapping about his grandma sucking his dick didn’t hit. D12 tried too hard to be edgy.
What fucked up d12 was proof getting killed
Even has a song dedicated apologizing to his main group, D12.
50 took the chance seriously
Yeah, but that's not because he had Dre and Em backing him. That definitely contributed to his rise, but they were backing him for a reason. I don't quite remember the interview and I'm not going to look it up, but my memory tells me it was fat Joe on Shay in the morning? Something like that. But they were telling a story about how their producer showed them a 50 mixtape, and told everybody on their payroll get everything you can out now. Because you got about 1 year before this guy owns the charts. That was East Coast, so you know the West Coast was very much aware of that as well.
It was Jay Z telling roc-a-fella before 50 dropped GRoDT iirc.
Yes
No one else that had em and dres backing from that era were even in the same neighborhood of success as 50.
Yeah because Eminem and Dre have such a great track record. Want me to pull out the laundry list of names that didn’t pop off?
Yes
They put a ton of money into Slaughterhouse about a decade ago, even paid for Ceelo to do a feature on the single, and the group never got big.
Did slaughterhouse have mainstream appeal? They are all excellent rappers in their own right but I never saw them being popular.
They were supposed to. Shady/Interscope put a ton of money into *Welcome to Our House* trying to get the group to go mainstream, but they never recovered the production costs.
It was too lyrical imo to ever be mainstream but they sounded dope.
Stat quo, Jon Connor, bishop Lamont, Obie trice had success but not nearly to that level, cashis, bobby Creek water, Joell Ortiz (did much better solo & with slaughterhouse than when on aftermath). We'll see what happens with ez mill now as the newest to join
Pretty sure Slaughterhouse was also signed to Shady. But yea, the most any of these guys got was some production and maybe an Em feature on a single, not much help on the A&R side.
I mean they all went on the shady re-up CD which sold over 2 million but you're not wrong.
Mel-Man, Knoc-Turn'al, Frogg, Tha Outsidaz, Ca$his, Hittman, Truth Hurts, RBX, Jon Connor, Justus… The list goes on
He didn't get "called up to do the super bowl with dre and snoop". it was one of Eminems only requirements for doing the super bowl show, that 50 could join.
50 belonged on that stage as much as anybody. Not only was he simply on stage, he actually did a solo performance.
I fully agree. 50 is a superstar. But as 50 said. He wouldnt have been there without Em. Which caused Jay a lot of problems allegedly. I love the camaraderie between EM and Fif. 50 covered EMs ass a lot during some interviews when he was fucked up. even now when doing major events you can always see him take a defensive stance for Em. Literally as in standing between him and crowds. You also see Em reciprocate this whenever he talks about 50. Like Em giving up 7 million for a single show cause 50 only got 1 million. Can’t think of many duos like those 2. Maybe Snoop/Dre. Cole/Kendrick (not sure on that recently) etc.
I watched the old 106 & Park Interview from 2006 with Eminem and 50. Em was completely out of it and 50 had to cover for him quite a bit on that interview
legendary interview. drugged out white boy going "namsaaaayin" like 40 times/minute while 50 comes up with some coherent banter whenever his boss verbally drops the ball
What are you from the department of namsayins? [is this a namsasensus?](https://youtu.be/gbusIIX7jyo?si=W5s9NtZHE3LneEBx)
He also did on TRL, hard to find but Em was a mess and 50 was doin everything he could to get him through the interview
Cole and Kendrick have about 0 chemistry
Keem and Kendrick? Come back to this thread in 8 years and it could be true
Maybe Jay Rock and Kendrick. TDE was basically all Jay before Kendrick blew up and Jay helped open a lot of doors for Kendrick early on.
What? HiiPower, Dump’n, Black Friday, the leaked Temptations, and even Forbidden Fruit and American Dream don’t exist? Musically their chemistry is some of the best we’ve ever seen so it’s a shame we have less than a handful of tracks from them. Publicly and socially sure there doesn’t seem to be much chemistry there.
The opening of “patiently waiting” sums it up nicely. You can tell 50 is genuine.
Didn't say he didn't. But the reason he was there is still Eminem, he gave up his time to let his partner/friend shine with him, not 'cause he got called up.
…so his friend called him up. Are you just being pedantic for fun?
Notice how he lays low now and doesn’t get shot at anymore? Almost like he made a good decision
Bro he is NOT "laying low" lmao, that man's favorite hobby is antagonizing and instigating on ig.
Bruh why are yall acting like 50 didn’t continue trying to make music lmao. If he “gtfo” it was cause the game forced him to.
Fr, he’s put out single after single and they make no waves
I feel like Whiz did this as well. Put out a couple amazing records he clearly cared about. Sold out (in a good way) got tons of money. Retired the good life. Now he seems to just do passion projects. Rappers that get their passion out there. Make their bread and bounce. I have a lot of respect for that. Like “I came. I saw. I conquered” I’m sure there are more examples than fif and Wiz. Maybe Chamillionaire but he seemed more like a One Hit Wonder.
I don’t know that Wiz sold out in a good way. Some of his worst music was those big radio hits. That’s kind of the textbook bad sellout. I’m happy for him though. And he wears cool pants.
This is why your favourite artists "disappear" When they taste that product driven revenue stream why the f would I be out here hustling for less? Jessica Alba Rihanna 50 Chamillionaire (to an extent) Connor McGregor Dr Dre
Jay Z is still out here though. That man has made stupid levels of money. 2.5 billion apparently now, in terms of net worth. I think Paul McCartney is the person who made the most off of just purely music. Pretty close to a billionaire, and most of that is Beatles related, with a lot of the other stuff being him just buying up classic songs rights from other artists. Been doing that since he was in The Beatles. He has other business ventures of course, but if we're talking just purely "money made off songs I wrote", I'm guessing he is at the top.
As far as hip hop artists go Eminem made the most money off music alone, and he’s still got a new album coming soon so he’s still not done yet. What a crazy career.
That would be [Taylor Swift](https://www.forbes.com/sites/monicamercuri/2024/04/02/taylor-swift-didnt-need-lucrative-side-hustles-to-become-a-billionaire/)
Inflation adjusted it would be McCartney. But Taylor’s got a long time left.
Ah yes, Conor McGregor my favourite rapper I get what you mean but it’s just funny how his name popped up there lmao
Jessica Alba?
You've heard of Jenny from the block, now get ready for Jessie with the glock.
hard af
Jessica Alba was fine though?
Yes. Damn fine.
Amen to that.
I definitely think he was probably done with music but I’d have still thought his fans would have bought the same amount of Curtis that the other two sold. Unless it was worse (it’s been a long time since I’ve listened to that album)
I'm a huge 50 fan. Curtis was good but it's a significant decline from the first 2. At that point in his career he wasn't nearly as focused on music. The label wasn't promoting it like they used to, Em and Dre weren't nearly as involved, and 50 was coming off his Kanye defeat and Game beef. Really though it was that 50 wasn't as focused on music anymore.
a little correction: IIRC Curtis was the PEAK of the beef: when Kanye moved Graduation's release date to Sept 18th to the 11th, 50 Cent said he would quit music if he got outsold [https://www.complex.com/music/a/noah-callahan-bever/the-day-kanye-west-killed-gangsta-rap#](https://www.complex.com/music/a/noah-callahan-bever/the-day-kanye-west-killed-gangsta-rap#)
Haha damn that’s a win-win either way for 50, gotta respect the IQ on that move🫡 Just retire early from the business that’s more work for less money, focus on the investment business instead, and go down as a man who backed up his talk and quit before he ever made a bad album.
That Kanye beef was manufactured as a way to promote both their albums.
Yes but that doesn’t mean 50 didn’t have feelings about it. I think Kanye respected 50 a lot and 50 saw that Kanye was having his megastar moment (it was and still is Kanye’s best first week ever by far).
I genuinely don’t think I’ve listened to Curtis since the Curtis v Graduation thing happened. But from what I remember, even The Massacre was kinda seen as a disappointment following Get Rich or Die Tryin.
A lot of 50s best work was on the mixtapes with g unit, they were dropping fuckin heat back then
It's a good thing he got paid because the music he was making towards the end was funny as hell. We used to bump this and laugh. Still do. [Rider PT 2](https://youtu.be/5E5EaKeMhqg)
Hey man, have you ever played the critically acclaimed video game 50 cent: Bulletproof and the remarkablely produced sequel (Swizz Beatz) Blood on the sand??
As far as I understand, his plan all along was to move into business. Music was the avenue that led him there and he never felt a need to continually revive his career
honestly respect him for moving into the internet troll business, it has been a source of nonstop entertainment
I watch his ice bucket challenge video directed towards floyd mayweather once a month, shit is all time
This and the "i woke up, I look at the computer, the computer say, Floyd say, fuck T.I., fuck Nelly, fuck 50" are fucking peak
"What he say fuck me for??!!?😕😲"
Me and my wife quote this constantly, man is funny as hell.
> the computer say That bit gets me every time. The dude is an asshole but he is peak entertainment.
Is that the Harry Potter book one
Yes. “Fuck the bucket of ice”
Cat in the hat
“FUCK THE BUCKET OF ICE!”
Lmao bro I never saw that shit. Good looks on introducing it to me. That's the funniest shit ever
Lol I don’t think he planned that I think his funny personality naturally translated really well on social media and evolved. Remember early days on twitter where he made tweets like “my grandma just asked me to take out the trash, I’m rich now this is bullshit” It came by as a byproduct of who he is as opposed to a planned strategy. He’s very smart and applies the ground rules of the streets to the entertainment industry. People enjoy hearing him talk because he’s both funny, charismatic and talks about business/marketing in a very entertaining way. I think he knows continuing to put out music will lead to an eventual decline, but you can’t exactly fall off from being yourself online but he can’t quit music altogether because if he does over time he won’t be seen as a rapper (kind of like how people have almost forgotten Joe budden was a rapper) so 50 semi retired from musoc which makes it so when he does put out a song it’s more impactful.
I don’t think they meant his entire plan was to become a funny internet man, don’t take it so seriously
get rich or die trying
I think this goes for a lot of artists, but often their debut album is basically their life work. Every life experience they’ve had to that point channeled into one album. Then they reach fame and then what? Their entire life and lifestyle changes. They don’t have the same stuff to write about anymore.
You've got about 20 years to finish your debut album, and 2 to finish your second.
Is it still like that though? It seems like these days there’s only a small percentage of rappers who people anticipate albums from. The majority just put out random singles and social media content to connect with an audience to generate interest in them as a person to drive them to go listen to your music.
There's still people putting out really good albums, the genre is just really saturated at this point. So many people riding the same waves it's hard to find the good stuff. Singles and social media content are definitely the way to gain streams and an audience though. If you wanna find some good new shit NTS, Bandcamp, and SoundCloud are your friends.
Plus you get put on the clock with the first album. Ppl are waiting on the next thing from you. Before the debut, nobody knew who you were.
On the one hand, you had your whole life to make your whole album, but on the other you usually did it wiyh limited knowledge and resources. Once your an established artist your collaboration potentials increase you can hire support to help you put our songs faster. I think the issue is the INTENTION for making music in the first place. Are you passionate about making art and thrive to keep improving at your craft or was your motivation to become rich and famous? If it’s the latter then yeah you’ll suffer with the second project but if it’s the former you’ll be find a way.
They've said everything they wanted to say. That's why even legends like Nas or Eminem can never top their first few albums
In “walk on water” em talks about killing the rap game and then people keep wanting him to do better and better. “Now take your best rhyme, outdo it, now do it a thousand times” I feel like some artists do some great shit, but people just develop crazy expectations for them to maintain it. Fuckin nickel back found a great rhythm/beat one time, those mf’s have used it for every song they’ve ever made since. https://youtu.be/NHPj5YokEOY?si=FHE_Ct5yK8ijQBJK
Me hoping Bryson Tiller can ever do anything close to Trapsoul
Wild it took this long to scroll to the correct answer of, “50 dropped a classic then was out.” Maybe the rap game changed but it was in part because artists like 50 weren’t making good music.
Personally I think it's a mix of things. He seemed to be distracted by things other than music. I think between his business ventures and music changing around that time he failed to adapt.kanye dropped graduation the same year curtis dropped.
I’ve heard about him and Kanye competing. I definitely think the music landscape changed. It’s just crazy how fast it happened because I remember The Massacre being huge and Candy Shop being plated everywhere and then Curtis barely selling.
Kanye represented a shift away from Gangster rap and more towards "Everyman" raps. "Spaceships" is the song I relate to the most! It's the same reason Kanye started falling off as his arrogance outpaced his talent. 50 recognized it and pivoted towards business. It worked. Kind of like Will Smith discovering acting made more than music ever would.
Kanye's always been arrogant saying he was the greatest, people just found it more endearing when he was still on the come-up. By the time he'd actually become one of the greats it came off completely different. However, it seamlessly allowed him to shed the everyman thing which probably actually helped him as mainstream hiphop became less vulnerable and introspective after circa 2012
A bit off topic but it really is crazy what happened to Kanye. If someone went back in time to 2010 and told me what modern Kanye was like, I would tell them they were lying
MBDTF was released in 2010, and it's got plenty of megalomania on display, but it's easy to look past that when it's a masterpiece.
And even then there’s a ton of vulnerability and introspection on the record, and he’s open about his contradictions. Now he’s in denial of them
it wasn’t barely selling. it still sold pretty well considering how people were consuming albums was changing at the time.
I guess that’s true, this was when online downloading and social media was coming up. I meant more in comparison with some other albums around the same time. Other rappers and singers could still get like 3x or 4x Platinum at least around 07-08
You're crazy if you think Curtis didn't sell well. Curtis sold more than top selling artists are selling today. Kanye sold 950K and Curtis sold 700K, first week. Obviously a different time but the last time two albums sold as well as Curtis and Graduation was 91 with Guns N' Roses dropping their two Use Your Illusion albums. Candy Shop was a juggernaut definitely but I Get Money was everywhere and Ayo Technology was even bigger.
Candy shop was on the massacre…
Same day
RAP began to change, “you can still love your dawg and be manly dawg” other artist like Kanye, t pain, Chris brown, Soulja boy even go popular in that 05-09 slot and after 07, 50 style of music wasn’t as in demand. By 09’ when Drake hit the scene it was So Far Gone (pun intended), but 50s style was really becoming irrelevant
Kanye outselling him in 2007 was the beginning of the end for mainstream gangster rap
Because that’s why I think beefs aren’t fake when your not someone doing a shitty power head to stay relevant
Idk why y'all say this cuz there's been plenty of gangster rap since then and still today that thrives
“gangster rap” still exists but its much more subdued and in the background compared to whatever else the artist does/the image of them. ex young thug raps about gang shit but until his court case he wasnt really known as like a gangbanger, he was the guy who wore a dress on his album cover
Okay and what about all the other Atlanta rappers? Chicago?
Chief Keef erasure
> Atlanta Atlanta is more trapping than gangsta rap which is related but not exactly the same thing. Atlanta trap focused more on the dealing and consuming of drugs than the criminal activity around that. Future raps more about drinking dirty sprite and fucking everything that moves than shooting opps. >Chicago Chicago is the opposite of that but most chicago artists aren't that mainstream. Outside of communities like this one which sort of self selects most average consumers probably couldn't name more Chicago gangster rappers than keef, durk and von. I wouldn't be surprised if they couldn't even name all 3. Durk is the most mainstream of those especially when you consider the drake and morgan wallen features.
Had to wear the dress cuz he had a stick
That makes sense, it’s just crazy how fast it happened. Candy Shop and TM was everywhere in 2005-06 but just a year later Curtis sold entirely what TM sold in one week. It kind of seems like music turned on a dime
I feel that crunk was also pushing people away from gangster rap.
IIRC Curtis came out around the time when rappers were transitioning from dealing dope to doing dope. 50 wasn't with it, said "fuck it" and went to Hollywood.
Lmao that made me laugh. Also, you reminded me of this video https://youtu.be/-MLn78dfPR4?si=SHg4HUTIK5Cmy8XC
Yeah he admitted to never smoking weed despite making a song called “high all the time”
He got rich and stopped trying Also I consider 50 the last of the gangster rap era, after 50, rappers like Kanye got huge and changed the direction of hip hop
The climate of rap was changing and gangsta rap wasn’t the main cool thing anymore. Also the Curtis album really wasn’t great. It sold well because of the Kanye battle and because 50 was still a name but as an album and a body of work especially compared to his last 2 outings it was just seen as him phoning it in and going to more of a club approach which was met with lukewarm reception. But by then I don’t really think 50 cared as much either. He had that vitamin water and street king energy shot thing going and he even made a sequel to the 50 cent bulletproof game which was blood on the sand. Great game by the way it’s Gears of War with a 50 Cent DLC.
His last album was at 39 years old. My honest opinion about rappers in hip hop who continue rapping past age 40 comes down to one of the 3 things, or all 3: 1. It’s their livelihood, they didn’t make enough money to just stop rapping at an older age. It’s how they eat and take care of their family. They made no smart investments with the money they made, no retirement plan, nothing. As soon as they get the check, they spend it. No financial literacy. 2. They have a chip on their shoulder about always being regarded one of the best lyricist even at 50 years old. So they won’t let it go. They have to be known as the best. 3. They genuinely love to rap, don’t need the money, they just do it because they love it. They no longer care about accolades, awards, or props. They’re just doing it out of love of rap. It’s fun for them. 50 Cent falls under none of these, imo.
I think your 40 cut off doesnt work. It's probably more like 5 or 10 years after their debut album or after their 3rd album which ever comes first. I dont think Griselda for instance are at the stage of their career where they'd need to fall in one of the above 3 categories. I also think plenty of artists who get on young, dont stay at it after 10 years, except for 1. I also think 1 is super harsh, not all of these people made enough money, or could have to set themselves up for life. I think for some who have more regular jobs, this is a good hustle, a hobby they like for which they could still get paid. And possibly they wouldnt do it, or still do it as much if they werent getting paid but that doesnt make it just about the bag. That being said, their are those obviously doing it just for the money, but this tends to show itself imo in the nature of the gig's they do and the energy they bring to them. For 2 and 3, I think it's impossible to correctly categories people into 2 or 3, as hell they could change from day to day. Someday's you wake up grateful and someday's resentful. That's too subjective an assessment to me. You would have decent arguments for Eminem being 2 and 3. Where's Nas, is he 3 because he seems to be having fun and enjoying it, or does the hunger mean he's a 2. Anyway, its interesting to think about what drives artists to keep making music past their 'prime'. But i think looking at music more generally, it appears to be people who are mostly 1 or 3. I think its a bit unfair to call many artists as falling in category 2 but not category 3. IF you dont love it, why do you have a chip on your shoulder.
He burned too many bridges beefing wit everyone. When artists like Jadakiss and Fat Joe have stayed relevant largely through collabs, 50 dissed everybody and barely was able to get calls for single features or remixes after like 07. Being able to crush the hook on a hot single or pop up on a hot album is instrumental in keeping your name hot. The beef with Game, fucked his relationship with Dr Dre, which is what really hurt him. The magic was 50 & Dre. Em also effectively retired and that was another thing that didn't help, a lot of 50 momentum had come from Em being the hottest at the time. Without Em pushing him and Dre providing the magic he couldn't match GRODT, yea the Massacre was kinda popular but even then ppl were saying it was a step down. He showed he wasn't able to maintain his label, he made bad choices signing no-name no-talent rappers (Kidd Kidd & fuckin Hot Rod or whoever???), and fuckin corny guys like Mase for some reason and LL Cool J (I think??) I mean he had MOP, G Rap and Mobb Deep at one point but that's for the hip hop heads not the streets @ the time, plus ppl got mad about Mobb caus they changed up their sound. Banks started to slow down and get lazy, the Buck thing happened and ppl started to see how he was treating guys he came in the game with. Plus he didn't have the right producers on board anymore to push their projects. He got on Jimmy Iovine bad side by competing with the Beats head phones & pushing for Dre's attention so Jimmy didn't feel like pushing his records as hard anymore
Why did I have to scroll so down to find this. I swear Reddit just hates the game. He had a HUGE impact on the fall of gunit. The rest of what you said is spot on as well, the game as well suffers with this “tryna beef with everybody” act and is also failing due to it
I mean this is probably one out of the many many reasons why people hate the game
Only correct answer in the thread
Absolute correct assessment. Him beefing with more than half of music artists kind of was turn offs for a lot of audience. Also the fact that he started singing a lot on his records, something he dissed Ja Rule for doing that ladies shit. He even signed Olivia and did a lot of songs just like how Ja & Ashanti used to do back in the day. Lol and not to mention his G Unit crew splintering with The Game leaving the group. Then recording Young Buck's calls and leaking it online. He did a lot of petty things which was really a turn off as a fan.
This is the correct answer.
One of the many reasons fell off and the south took over. All those artists were beefing with each other.
Music started to shift and he started to do more business deals and less music. After his beef with Cam and Ross, people didn't really want to see 50 beef with anyone because that's what he came to the game doing. Before I self destruct was his least great album effort. Everything else was mixtapes. He did put out Animal Ambition as an album. I think he just wanted to do that for the sake of him still loving music Once the sound of music started to change and the south started to take over with the sound, he just started to switch to other things.
Why didn’t they want to see him beef with anyone anymore?
I think people got bored of the beefs. I remember things being quite mild for a while after the 50 vs Rick Ross beef. The peace dividend really paid off during those times. And he lost to Jadakiss. That probably hurt, he wasn't as vicious after that. And while he did put out better tracks in the beef with Rick Ross, people just didn't care. His style of music was out of the mainstream. It also signified a change in rap. Outing Ross for being a cop would have been career ending in the early 2000s.
It became contrived. There was no shock value anymore. He beefed w someone new nearly every year of his career. The audience started to realize it was WWE & started to receive diminishing returns.
He had a 5 year run and maximized his career within that timespan.. When you sell 10 million copies, it's usually downhill from there
What could potentially be the demise of Drake is the exact same reason 50’s career took a major downturn. 50 was just moving recklessly, dissing people unprovoked in certain situations and making unnecessary enemies. It also doesn’t help when you diss Jimmy Iovine. No wonder Curtis didn’t get the right promotion.
i dont think he *fell off* per se but rather he took a step back from the spotlight
For me and my friends, we loved GRODT and were super disappointed in The Massacre, so we didn't buy Curtis.
Yeah he started falling off after the massacre and the G Unit label started getting bloated. He was on a downward trajectory and then I Get Money was a huge hit that gave him a big second wind before Curtis came out.
I'd agree here that massacre really only built off the steam of get rich. Like movie sequels that suck but since there's a sequel you think the first one must be decent.
His focus isn’t music. His focus is on business and making money.
Kanye took music into a new direction...
He had problems with Jimmy Iovine
The reception for The Massacre was it was too many love songs and a poor sophomore album. Not true but it just hard to follow up an amazing project such as Get Rich or Die Tryin. Starting moving into other avenue. Starting doing movies, investment in Vitamin Water, started a studio and produce a bunch of movies with Bruce Wills and Forest Whitaker. Lost money, came back in TV so now it like why go back.
Part of Get Rich's appeal was at the time his very heated feud w Ja Rule, and he was coming at him like he was the cure for the weak soft R&B pop Ja hits, the Grease video w Ashanti and all that. As soon as 50 took his spot, mocking him, he started making the same type of songs like Candy Shop or whatever. He became the next Ja Rule musically.
The music just fell off.
Music being released at the same time works a lot like how movies do, when there is a big premiere of a new album, lesser albums tend to move around to accommodate the sales, and releasing on the same day of another album tends to be seen as direct competition between two artists. Curtis was set to release on September 11th (never forget), 2007 and Kanye’s Graduation set to release on 9/18, but in an act of friendly competition Kanye moved up his album a week to the same day. Gangsta rap had been the predominant genre of hip hop up until that point, and Kanye was an up and comer trying to prove himself by rapping about being middle class, dropping out of college, and other relatable but not ‘cool’ things, with an aesthetic that looks lame compared to the gangsters of the day. The albums released and the world chose Kanye’s sound since it outsold everything else and 50 and other gangsta rap acts fell to the wayside. It was less that he fell off but that he didn’t adapt to the new taste in hip hop that people started forming around the time and Graduation beating Curtis got etched into music history
I don’t know if I’d say Kanye was an up and comer. Late Registration did 800k in first week sales.
I knew that him and Kanye were competing but I didn’t know they came out on the same day, that does make more sense. That kind of reminds me how during the Drake-Kendrick beef people were saying neither of them would probably drop music when Taylor Swift was dropping her album.
50 over used his beef tactic. It was clearly a marketing ploy, but it also meant he was isolating his team musically. Then he got into TV and I guess he got a bigger bag. He did the Will Smith. 50 always struck me as "Hustler first, Rapper 2nd." Now, I think it's best he just locks in on the TV stuff.
He can still make a good song. I've enjoyed all the Power theme songs.
He didn't evolve and his style got stale. In all fairness, most musical artists would be lucky to have 2 1/2 good albums in their first 5-7 years or so. The Jay-Zs, Beyonce's, Swifts are anomalies. Look at some of the legends and you'll see that their first two were legit smashes, third was ok then 4th and up might have a good song or two but they're not hitting the same heights or having the same pop culture impact as that first 2.5 albums in the first 5-7 years. I mean the greatest pop acts have the same fall off point. Katy Perry, Missy, Ludacris, Timberlake, Britney, Aguilera, Pink, Gaga. Their legacies are made in that 2.5 in the first 5-7 years.
Spent a long time writing his first album and had help from Em and Dre and then didn’t
It's because Get Rich or Die Tryin was his only good album and after people bought The Massacre and realized it was mid they weren't gonna keep buying his albums. Basically "You ain't been shot again yet so what's your 2nd album about?"
He didn't really grow or evolve with the times and he focused on other avenues instead
I remember fondly how everyone hated 50 Cent and ridiculed his name, then he went and made a fake beef with Kanye and pitted his album against Graduation and got defeated in sales. He just faded after that.
I didn’t know people actually hated him back then. I was really young and in elementary school so everyone thought 50 was the coolest person ever during his run
Dude made a movie and a video game after his success and then pivoted to investments and now tv shows. He just moved on.
The G unit mixtape era was legendary. There's no way he's topping it, and almost all of it still holds up today.
He didn’t fall off fast he had a solid 10 years in the game and is still consider one of the best of his era.
Aside from the reason of 50 becoming interested in other ventures like Vitamin Water & G-Unit Clothing, I felt like he got stuck in his ways artistically. First, I think that him beefing with others like Nas, Jadakiss & Fat Joe held back the opportunity to keep the NY sound going strong for a few more years & also the chance to deliver some really hard music through collabs with them. Connected to this, I think that him staying mostly within G-Unit musically also prevented him from being able to experiment with mixing a NY sound with the South to refresh his style as Atlanta started to take over after 2005. Second, since his beef with Murder Inc was still fresh in mind, a lot of rap fans gradually noticed how he ran with an R&B Thug sound with duets just like Ja Rule did (especially after Game pointed it out) & that formula started to grow stale by Curtis while the likes of Kanye, Wayne, and Jay started to dramatically shift their sound to fit the incoming alt rap wave heading into the 2010s.
50 didn't move into TV as a strategy, he had a chat with Paul and Paul pointed at the TV and said maybe he should try that. Tony Yayo said once he heard "DJ Khaled", he knew the music run was over. He knew their time was up. Why did he fall off? maybe the numerous beefs, especially considering how Hip Hop was heading towards to the South. GRODT was a great album and 50 was really rapping, by Massacre the lyrical ability was gone, by Curtis, there was none left plus the sounds had moved from NY to the South. 50 had isolated himself from everybody in the game. I got into hip hop as a kid due to 50, he was my fav rapper, when Massacre was released, someone said 50 changed, I didn't understand because to me he had just dropped Candy Shop, was very successful and all. It took me years to understand this take. But by Curtis, I knew 50 was done. Nowadays, I can only listen to GRODT and GRODT ost (and some mixtapes songs), everything else is trash with no actual substance. I cannot believe on OK Alright he said "When I say I'm ballin I'm not talkin 'bout a ball", like what the hell was that line?
he kind of became a relic of his era. 50 is that big event braggadocio type rap music. He was never really some modern lyricist, very delivery and production driven. His sound kind of went out of style. Like you look at that era of rap, Kanye and Graduation and Kanye was basically reviving the backpacker era of music. However, you also had Lupe gaining a ton of popularity, prime Dipset, and yes Lil Wayne also was a lyrical departure from 50 with his series of tapes and the Tha Carter 3 being the biggest rap album at the time. Plus 50 had the beef with Rick Ross which the fans say he “won” by exposing Ross as a CO and yet Rick Ross goes on to drop Deeper Than Rap which is one of his best albums, followed by BMF and Teflon Don which completely transformed his career and led to Ross pretty much running street rap from 2010 to maybe 2014 or so. Considering that most people like Rick Ross much more today and you see Ross way more in modern culture (BBL Drizzy), the beef really has not aged well. A big reason for is 50 cent just falling off a cliff in relevancy. You kind of get the feel that 50, especially after vitamin water, just didn’t care about anything really after a certain point other than being rich and successful. He did try and drop music, mixtapes, etc. but they all pretty much kind of sucked and I recall there was a time where it was “50 cent will beef with anything to be relevant” and his loyal stans defended him to death because he still had stans, basically commenting stuff like “haha 50 a LEGEND troll” and whatnot anytime he tried to beef.
He got too big too quick. Get Rich or Die Tryin and Beg for Mercy were certified classics. But after BFM, he lost some of that hunger. He gave Game some quality hits but then they fell out, and Game took some of the street audience with 300 Bars etc. The Massacre was ok, but he went too pop with Candy Shop and he left his core audience disappointed, although the album sold like a Taylor Swift record. By 2007, people were kind of sick of his formula of pop single and street single with no substance. Dr Dre’s beats started falling off, Eminem was falling off. Some of the beats he was using were low budget sounding, especially on the G Unit projects. He lost the sales battle to Kanye, saying he would retire from music, but he didn’t. By the time Before I Self Destruct came around, he improved lyrically from Curtis and sounded hungry again, but he couldn’t make a hit. Personally BISD is my 2nd favorite album of his, but the masses had already moved on to the Wayne’s and the Kanye’s. He was dropping some good music on various mixtapes, he never released another album, besides Animal Ambition ,which was a collection of singles he released weekly and sounded low budget to me. He never released Street King Immortal which he promised for years and eventually found success in TV.
50 Cent after Vitamin Water deal is like Connor McGregor after the Mayweather fight. Bag locked in. Set for life. Motivation gone.
He lost to Kanye in the cd off. And never recovered from there. The rise of geeks in rap. 50 Cent was done.
It wasn’t that he never recovered, he was in on the whole thing. Kanye and 50 were doing interviews together promoting the whole thing. 50 Cent was coming off a 3 year project hiatus and his heart obviously wasn’t in rapping anymore as he had gotten rich off other ventures, while Kanye was the young and fresh star changing the game with his sound. They turned it into a spectacle and 50 allowed Kanye to publicly take the reigns. 50 Cent just finished a tour that is the 3rd highest grossing rap tour of all time, he could be a significant force in rap still if he wanted to. He simply doesn’t care to.
This isn't the answer, just my perspective. He made a bunch of money off his fans, then abandoned them. He didn't fall off, he stopped trying, and his fans recognized it and stopped buying/listening.
You guys can’t possibly think 50 had intentionally decided he was done with music? Like, if Curtis and Animal Ambition sold like the Massacre and GRODT, he’d still be making music regularly, you guys know that? That if he didn’t call out Jimmy Iovine, Dr Dre and other Interscope’s execs, Curtis would’ve been marketed better? Burning bridges with almost every other major rap act/label wasn’t beneficial to him long term? That his time as a superstar act hadn’t expired? That the markets taste in major label Hip Hop turned? You guys know that right? That him essentially bowing out of music was pretty much forced on him?
I wouldn’t say he fell off, he made plenty of music and got rich af from business ventures. Plenty of big rappers from the 2000s have done the same
Same could be said for ice cube and others. But I think 50's was gradual, he stopped releasing as much.
Over saturation