This is the 1st music review for the blog and it comes at an exciting time in music and in hip-hop. The past week saw the release of both 50 Cent's and Kanye West's 3rd albums, "Curtis" and "Graduation" respectively. This was also exciting because this will probably be one of the last times that physical CD sales will approach the numbers that these two disks have this past week. Reports are that Kanye West outdistanced 50 Cent by 200,000 units, 800,000 for "Graduation" to 600,000 for "Curtis". These numbers are impressive, especially since iTunes and music pirates have struck a deathblow to CD sales. I personally bought both of the albums when they came out. This was my 1st non-online purchase of music all year. Crazy how things change so fast, but no tears are shed for these artists. Ringtones make even the one-hit wonders rich and concert tickets require a 2nd mortgage now, so keep downloading them tunes. Eventually, the songs will be advertisements for the other revenue streams anyway, like radio and tv is today.
Now for the reviews: It's hard to review these two albums against each other. Yes, they're both rap/hip-hop albums, but that's too general of a category to place these albums in. 50 Cent is a pure gangsta rapper. Cursing up a storm, talking about getting money and hoes, flexing his lyrical muscles. Kanye West is a psuedo-backpack rapper on a more positive vibe, i.e. Talib Kwali, or A Tribe Called Quest. I say "psuedo-backpack" because Kanye is more about being introspective about his feelings and how those feelings make him act the way he does. Also, artistically, 50 Cent just raps while Kanye West also produces the bulk of his tracks.
While both albums were good, I give the edge to Kanye West's "Graduation". Kanye pushes himself musically and lyrically with this album. Being his third collection, he really has become one of the better writers in the game. Breaking in as a producer on the classic Jay-Z album "The Blueprint", he has already proven to be a force as a producer. Now, the rhymes that coincide with his beats are awesome. "...The devil wears Prada, Adam & Eve wears nada, I'm in between, but way more fresher, with way less effort..." is one of many lyrical gems that laces the album. Plus, the production is not your typical hiphop beats. These are musical masterpieces with strings, violins, piano mixed with basslines and samples of classic songs, like Michael Jackson's "PYT". It gets 3.5 out of 4 (4 being as good as "Thriller").
"Curtis" is a good collection with some great moments, but gets boring with the same themes of being a hard ass brotha in the hood (even though he's made a reported $100-$400 million from his investment in Vitamin Water). The albums best moments come when 50 Cent teams up with Justin Timberlake & Timbaland on "Ayo Technology", Dr. Dre on "Come & Go" and Mary J. Blige on "All of Me". You can't just give 60% of an effort, especially when you've sold 20 million copies of your 1st 2 disks. So, it gets 2.75 out of 4 (4 being as good as "The Chronic").
1 comment:
I haven't heard either new album, but comparing the artists themselves, Kanye is *WAY* cooler than 50 Cent for all the reasons you mention
1) More talented because he produces
2) Makes decent political statements in his music, and on the awards stage
3) Music is better because its more unique and genre-crossing. He made a song based off of electronic group Daft Punk's song, how cool is that?
4) He's funny. I'll go for the funny guy over the tough guy any day. Which is also why I'm so upset that both Ludacris and Busta Rhymes switched to the Dark Side (from being funny guys to tough guys). Ludacris shaving his afro off, come on.
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