December 14, 2005
@ 05:44 PM
Comments [12]
50 Cent: Unintentionally Hilarious

An artist's transition from gangsta rapper to pop star is always a weird one for fans. For example, there was a joke on this week's episode of the Boondocks about how Ice Cube "the guy who makes family movies" used to be a hard core gangsta rapper. I've personally been amused by how the subject matter of their songs changes as they realize that their fan base is dominated by prepubescent and teenage suburbanites as opposed to hip hop heads from the 'hood. 

On the album Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse Jay-Z has a song called Poppin' Tags which is about going to the mall and shopping. The subject matter of the song is the kind of thing you'd expect from Hilary Duff not Jigga. 

However 50 Cent has Jay-Z beat when it comes to songs targetted at the teenage mallrat crowd. On the soundtrack to his movie Get Rich or Die Tryin' 50 has two songs that belie his status as a gangsta rapper. There's the poorly crooned Window Shopper about how 50 Cent gets to go to the mall to buy stuff you can't afford. Then there's Best Friend where he begs to be some girl's "best friend" if the other guy in her life is "just a friend". 

But it gets worse.

Mike Torres sent me a link to a post entitled 50 Cent Caught Red Handed which is excerpted below

Remember that story about 50 Cent performing at some little girl's bat mitzvah? Yeah, you wish it didn't really happen. Nothing says hardcore gangster rapper like a teenie-bop white girl dancing to your music with two hundred of her closest white teenie-bop friends.

More pictures from the $500,000 bat mitzvah after the jump.

UPDATE: You can see all the photos from the bat mitzvah here.

Keep it real, Fiddy.


 

Categories: Music
Tracked by:
"treadmill" (treadmills) [Trackback]
"buy womens shoes" (buy womens shoes) [Trackback]
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Wednesday, 14 December 2005 18:50:43 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Bit of a rant:

I think it's all very sad. The only thing that makes me smile about Hip Hop these days is when I hear something by Mos Def, Talib Kwali, or when I tune over to BBC and listen to what they play there - concious rappers with heart.

Take it from a guy who's little brother is a 16 year old African in Kampala who talks about "pimpin"; mainstream rap music is tearing [mostly] black [African/African American/elsewhere] people apart. It's alright for some suburban teen girl to listen to; it's "fun" music that she'll shed when she grows up. But to the young people who think they identify with the life and want to be "Murder Inc!"-ish, they'll wake up in their 20s and realize it was all a lie and they are nowhere. And that the perceptions that have been created of them limit them as a rule, not an exception.

"Keep it real"

David Seruyange
Wednesday, 14 December 2005 18:52:41 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Well there's been one thing consistent with Gangsta rap. All along they've proclaimed, "It's all about the chedda!".

And frankly, it's the teenybop Wonder bread suburbanite kids that have tons of disposable cheddar. A lot more than the thug life boyz in the "hood".

It seems the only thing "real" is the cheddar. It's the underground hip-hop scene that's really keeping it real.
Haacked
Wednesday, 14 December 2005 21:06:12 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I just want to give Fiddy a great big hug. Is that so wrong? It's like Ebony.. and Ivory.. living together in per-fect har-mon-y..
Jeff Atwood
Thursday, 15 December 2005 02:01:17 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Dare: "Get Rich or ..."

If tripping at a Bat Mitzvah will bring in $500 Grr, why not?

Omo, a lot of people back in Naija will do more for less; a lot less!
John
Thursday, 15 December 2005 10:24:23 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
>>The only thing that makes me smile about Hip Hop these days is when I hear something by Mos Def, Talib Kwali, or when I tune over to BBC and listen to what they play there - concious rappers with heart. <<

Ugh, I hate this sort of revisionist crap. Hiphop was built on bragging and partying. You bragged about your clothes, your money, your girl, your sneakers. It was about just bugging out and having a good time. Think back to when the first "real" rap record came out, "Rappers Delight" in 1979, a blatant party song about...partying and bragging. So this idea that hiphop has strayed from it's roots is very annoying to me.
Senkwe
Thursday, 15 December 2005 12:26:52 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Dare let 50 Cent be. it's his life. what is pussy about performing at a fan's birthday or about? "window shopper", go listen to the lyrics again. life is all about change, if you Dare decides to quit listening to Hip hop and get on some country music shit will i said you hav sold out or let your fans down. let the guy be abeg. him dey make him money. as John said:

"a lot of people back in Naija will do more for less; a lot less!"
TRAE
Thursday, 15 December 2005 15:07:38 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Totally forgot about about the origins of Hop-Hop in my earlier post. "Senkwe's" post reminded me.

In 1980-83, while I was in college in Ithaca, going to NYC, specifically Long Island Park, was a treat on free weekends and you would see all these guys rap for free or in the various underground clubs in NYC.

Topic: bragging.

Unfortunately, they were neophytes when it came to money, as a lot of them did not acquire a lot of coins.

I have recently been introduced to a lot of Naija rappers, and I must tell you, they're pretty darn good!

You should take a trip down hip-hop memory lane one of these days.
John
Thursday, 15 December 2005 15:40:43 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
The link to the photo album doesn't work...
Jim Geurts
Thursday, 15 December 2005 21:40:44 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Senkwe: >> Ugh, I hate this sort of revisionist crap. <<

I never said that Mos Def et. al. represent the origins of Hip Hop, just that they are the only thing in Hip Hop today making me smile.

Neither was the root of Hip Hop gang banging, until N.W.A. made a bunch of neophytes think so.

David Seruyange
Monday, 19 December 2005 14:09:32 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
What you are all forgeting is that 50 Cent is not the greatest rapper of all-time, nor is he claiming to be (unlike, say, Kanye West). Instead, what he is, and what he aspires to be, is a great BUSINESSMAN. He looks up to what someone like Dr. Dre or Eminem has achieved -- they rap, they produce, they act, they have clothing lines, they probably have a McDonald's franchise or two...and most of all THEY GET PAID, BIG-TIME. THE MASSACRE was the largest-selling rap album of 2005. 50 had four singles on the Top 10 at the same time (shades of the Beatles in the 60s!). His film GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN' is burning up the box office. His G-Unit crew is making more money than they know what to do with. So if some pimple-faced JAP (Jewish American princess) is willing to drop half a mil to bounce to "Candy Shop" at her bat mitzvah, you can bet that Fiddy will be the first one there, shouting "Mazel tov! G-g-g-g-g- G UNIT!!!!!" as his accountant smiles all the way to the bank.

We have a saying in Naija: "use what you have to get what you want." Curtis Jackson is doing that, and very well too. More power to him, I say.
Jimoh Alabi
Wednesday, 01 February 2006 10:13:10 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Reminds of the story when Michael Jackson performed for Robert Holme Ocourt 16 old year daughters birthday around 20 years ago.

What he got for that was the rights to the Beatles collection which I think he is trying to sell now.
George
Thursday, 09 November 2006 15:17:46 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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