50 Cent vs. 50 Cent

The sales duel with Kanye West is merely a side story. 50 Cent's real competition is with himself.

By Chris Lee
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

September 8, 2007

NEW YORK — THE rapper's rampage must have been a scary thing to behold: a destructive, reflexive reaction to bad news. But viewed another way, 50 Cent's meltdown here last month also exists as an extreme demonstration of his commitment to excellence.

On Aug. 9, 50, hip-hop's most combative, controversial superstar, was screaming down the phone at an executive from his label, Interscope Records, blind with rage that a video for one of the songs from his eagerly anticipated third album, "Curtis" (due Tuesday), had been leaked to the Internet.

Without warning, the multi-platinum-selling, muscular gangsta rapper (born Curtis Jackson III) ripped a 70-inch plasma TV off the wall of the executive suite at his G-Unit Records, smashing it to the floor. Then, for emphasis, he hurled the BlackBerry he had been talking into full force at the window, shattering the glass, sending shards onto Manhattan's 31st Street below.

To hear Jackson explain his actions, the outburst had nothing to do with the kind of channeled aggression that has defined his career; no "beef" was involved. Which is to say it wasn't in response to a rap rival, even though 50 has exchanged disses with the Game, Lil Wayne and Cam'ron, among many other comers, on the way to establishing himself as hip-hop's most vituperative -- and, arguably, most successful -- MC.

Turns out 50 went ballistic over a perceived betrayal by Interscope marketers who, he says, have continually undercut his efforts to put out his music his way. "I'm frustrated at this point," 50 Cent said, pacing like a caged panther across a black shag rug at the New York office of his streetwear company, G-Unit Clothing, last week. "I feel like it's impossible to deliver my record to the public the way I planned it. You don't get a second chance at a first impression. It's been destroyed already."

Interscope Records officials declined to comment for this story. The whole issue probably wouldn't matter as much if it weren't for the pressure-cooker situation 50 has put himself in with the release of "Curtis." Since selling 12 million copies of his 2003 debut album, "Get Rich or Die Tryin'," fan expectations have ratcheted up with each new release; many look to the rapper to set hip-hop's creative and commercial standards. Add to that his own sky-high standards: The rapper views his 2005 album, "The Massacre," as a disappointment for selling only 9.8 million.

"I know I can't win," he said. "I've experienced being the underdog in between every album. But it's tough when they put you in competition with yourself. If you put me in competition with any of these other guys, I find that a lot easier than attempting to beat myself."

Further, in a fractured hip-hop marketplace in which gimmicky Southern rap is the subgenre du jour and hard-core New York hip-hop has taken a back seat, the Queens, N.Y.-native faces questions about continuing relevance. "The way hip-hop is right now," said Vibe magazine Editor in Chief Danyel Smith, "it's more difficult to keep an audience than to get one." And as the last artist to sell more than 1 million units in his album's first week of release ("The Massacre" did 1.14 million in March 2005), 50 Cent has the added onus of being the person considered to have the strongest chance of doing so again -- the guy industry observers look to to prove that the era of the album hasn't, in fact, already drawn to a close. "The kids don't care about albums. They want singles," Smith said. "In these final days, 50's album could be the last hurrah."

As Chuck Creekmur, co-founder and chief executive of Allhiphop.com, sees it, 50's M.O. has always been to take the long odds. After all, the rapper survived life on the streets as a mid-level crack dealer, a stint in a correctional boot camp and getting shot nine times. "It's the select few hip-hop artists that have sold more than 10 million," Creekmur said. "Once you hit that point, not only are expectations sky high, there's only one way to go. But 50's not the type of artist to sit back and acknowledge that doing another 10 million is impossible. I believe 50 is the most ambitious artist we've ever seen."

Then there's the challenge 50 Cent has extended to Kanye West, whose third album, "Graduation," also goes on sale Tuesday, head to head with "Curtis." If West manages to outsell 50 in the first seven days, 50 has pledged to retire from recording as a solo artist. The two appear on the cover of Rolling Stone this month accompanied by the headline "Showdown! 50 Cent vs. Kanye West. Who Will Be the King of Hip-Hop?"

Although 50 remains resolute about his primacy and brushes aside questions about retirement -- he's already recorded another album set for release next year, titled "Before I Self Destruct," after all -- he admits the process of taking "Curtis" public has made him second guess his career goals.

"The launch of this record has been extremely uncomfortable for me," 50 said. "Nothing has gone the way we planned. Maybe I'm at a point where, away from this actual competition, I'm feeling like I may need to explore some different things."

In August, when 50 Cent wanted to release the head banger "I Get Money" as a single, he says the label instead "leaked" his pop crossover "Ayo Technology" (featuring Justin Timberlake and super-producer Timbaland), dividing his market presence.

Although both songs went on to become hits, the new album's other singles released earlier this summer, "Amusement Park" and "Straight to the Bank," have failed to show mass appeal. And none has become an international smash on the order of 50's epochal "In Da Club."

He blames the relatively tepid response to the first two singles on Interscope's alternately interfering and indifferent approach to marketing him. "With this record launch, they've been pre-active rather than proactive," he said. "They're getting antsy."

When the video for "Follow My Lead" (featuring Robin Thicke) -- a clip that 50 personally recruited Dustin Hoffman to appear in -- turned up on the website of its director, Bernard Gourley, the rapper felt it was time heads rolled.

Interscope executives "said the director of the project was so excited to work with 50 Cent he put it on his website and it went all over the place," 50 Cent said. "We're taking legal action against the production company. But initially, you can't explain it to me." (For his part, Gourley denies he leaked the video, saying someone hacked into his website to steal it.)

So upset was 50 Cent, he initially refused to take a phone call from confidant Eminem immediately after the BlackBerry rampage. "Marshall [Mathers, Eminem's given name] called and goes, 'Yo, just tell him I said get on the phone now,' " the rapper remembered. "And we ended up speaking for two hours. He's had moments where he felt the same way I felt about the company on different levels."

On the black-and-white cover photo of "Curtis," 50 Cent clutches his furrowed brow in his hands, appearing at once visibly conflicted and imminently capable of snapping someone's neck. Visually, it's a departure from the images on his last two albums, shirtless vanity portraits that emphasized his heavily tattooed torso and massive biceps.

But if there's one thing the rapper doesn't seem to be agonizing over, it's his new music. Although he has not allowed critics or reporters to hear "Curtis" prior to release, among the highlights 50 is willing to divulge: a song with Senegalese hip-hop crooner Akon called "I'll Still Kill" and the rap á deux "Come & Go" with hip-hop's most dynamic musical force, Dr. Dre.

50 credits Dre, along with Eminem, as the person who enabled his shot at the big time. But the Queens MC's most infamous "beef" was with Compton rapper the Game -- another of Dre's protégé's -- putting the producer in the difficult position of either having to choose between favorites or trying to stay above the fray. In the end, Dre declined to contribute any music to the Game's 2006 album. "Doctor's Advocate," while both producing and rapping on "Curtis."

"It put him in an awkward space. Dre didn't care for it at all," 50 said quietly. "See, Dre doesn't like confrontation. He wanted it to go away."

Robert Greene, author of the bestselling power politics compendium, "The 48 Laws of Power," spent the better part of August shadowing 50, given total access to the rapper-mogul's business machinations as research for the business self-help book the two are writing together, "The 50th Law."

As Greene sees it, the rapper's frustration with Interscope boils down to the same hustler's ambition that compelled 50 to buy an equity stake in Glaceau Mineral Water in 2004, which he sold to Coca-Cola in July for a reported $100 million to $400 million. "In his mind, he could go at any moment," Greene said. "He's got this fatalism, and because of that he wants to get as much done as he can. He's very competitive. And he wants the biggest empire of anyone who's emerged from hip-hop."