After giving Fiddy’s newest album, mixtape, LP or whatever he’s calling it now, 5 (Murder By Numbers) a listen, I immediately became enthralled with disgust and threw it in my recycle bin, just like every other release after GRODT. I just don’t understand why F-50 sounds the exact same on every single record. This is a cardinal sin in hip hop.
I remember it being a holiday-like atmosphere when 50 Cent’s Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ album came out in 2003 during my senior year of high school in New York City. It rivaled a sneaker release. It went about that same kind of routine on that Tuesday. We gave one of our friends some money to cop the CD and he came back after lunch with about 12 copies. By the end of the week, everyone knew the lyrics to every song. It was that monumental of a movement that every one who tuned into Hot 97 was absorbed into it.
Typically in hip hop and in most other genres, when a new, hot artist bursts onto the scene, they’re able to get so popular because of the cultural shift they provide within the genre. Some examples include Jay-Z with his rhyming ability, Kanye with his production, and Young Jeezy with trap-rap just to name a few. These examples makes the genre mold into a million copycats and that type of music seems to be the norm until the next cultural shift happens. That’s how hip hop and music, in general, works. Then, with each subsequent release, listeners expect to hear development and growth but they also want to know that the core audience is being catered to. With Fiddy, he has only dedicated his efforts to the latter.
He’s not gangsta in a way we expect gangsta rappers to be but yet, he tries to continuously fall within this category. His income is on a level of the top five in the industry so why would he continue to rap about “running up in spots” and “loading guns?” Income and age in hip hop can be a great combination because it signifies longevity and success. Jay-Z was able to give “wisdom” and show that he has matured as a person in his rhymes. If that aint the Blueprint, I don’t know what is.