Where did 50 Cent go wrong?

[BK The Great]

A combination of things

Contradicted himself made pop music even worse than Ja Rule’s


Beefed with the entire east coast, legends included

Only spoke about sales only to sell less with every album release.


Wasn’t skilled enough when real MC’s came after him


Lost to Kanye with the Curtis vs. Graduation

 

[Feed-Me]

Beefing to generate hype didn’t work after Piggy bank and the massacre fiasco

50 lost most of his casual fans after massacre

Who he beef with to generate hype? He responded to Joe and jada dissing him on a track with ja, only person he randomly ever dissed was AZ wasnt?

 

[Woodrow]

he treated the rap game like the crack game. when he was up he flooded the market with mixtapes, when he would've been better served putting that music in the stash for future albums.

there's an article where he admits that even eminem was like wtf are you doing and tried to get him to stop putting out mixtapes.

he never gave people a chance to want more music because -- between the albums and the music -- it was always there. they ended up putting out 81 g-unit radio mixtapes. in hip hop, you've gotta know when to go away and when to come back to keep people on the hook.

he also used up all his best stuff in the process.

 

[Playaz Eyez]

A combination of things

Contradicted himself made pop music even worse than Ja Rule’s


Beefed with the entire east coast, legends included

Only spoke about sales only to sell less with every album release.


Wasn’t skilled enough when real MC’s came after him


Lost to Kanye with the Curtis vs. Graduation

All of this plus absolutely losing his ear for production.

 

[mson]

those are like the only rappers that lasted (can add Kanye & Wayne)

50 found a new lane.

Even with Nas dropping respected music...its not like people in general care that much...
...his career was pretty much done till the beef with Jay.

Jay is one of my GOATs..but he benefits from a ton of marketing and gimmicks

Eminem is lukewarm

Basically what im saying is they all found a way to stay relevant that has very little to do with music

Thats the game...people like the drama and side BS more than anything else

No it wasn't

 

[MJ Truth]

At one time he owned the rap game and legit went diamond+ and today he's LL Cool J status where kids today probably know him more for his acting career than as a rapper. Breh ended Ja Rule's career then turned around and put out tracks like Candy Shop that was a borderline Ja thug in love track.

It's going on 8 years without a proper album. The last one Animal Ambition had to be considered a commercial failure for someone that went diamond at one point.

Was it the fact that Dre didn't work with him more? His label status seems to suggest he should be able to release more music. I think at this point Nelly making hip hop country songs has a more viable rap career. Maybe he was a Chamillionaire type that found success elsewhere and said eff it?

Nothing went wrong. You’re not supposed to stay on top forever. If anything, the fact that he transitioned his success into television shows how incredible he was at maintaining relevancy to the public. Same with LL.

Rap music is essentially for young people, let’s be real. You’re not gonna be the hot rapper when you’re in your damn 40s.

 

[BK The Great]

All of this plus absolutely losing his ear for production.

He had moments of good production. Curtis was half good. I think after that it was downhill.

 

[Alvin]

shyt production, beefing with Jimmy Iovine.

 

[jag1]

His pop fans either grew up or migrated to nicki minaj or doja cat etc

 

[Alvin]

By 05 he should have REALLY took it down south

He always had a sense of melody/flow so he would have been fine. Down South producers/popping acts & new ones should have been the move

had young buck, put young buck in a position to be a big down south rapper (buck personally knew Tip, Wayne and Jeezy who were on fire at that time)

 

[Devil Plisken…CMS]

had young buck, put young buck in a position to be a big down south rapper (buck personally knew Tip, Wayne and Jeezy who were on fire at that time)

That doesn’t take away from the fact that his own music should have taken on a more southern feel

 

[ISO]

Rappers like Nas, Jay, Eminem who achieved the same status have managed to stay relevant even longer. You don't sell like 12 million albums and then just have your career flatline. He wasn't some one hit wonder. He was also putting out solid music.

He pivoted to film and business…

Game went in the direction of the South and blog era regular man rappers and then drill.

He easily could have kept going he would have just had to “wave ride” or stay current and he wouldn’t sell as much.

Eminem’s got his white fanbase, Jay is a unicorn plus he’s an industry darling and has created an aura around himself, and Nas hasn’t had a Platinum album since 2004 or a hit since 2002. 50 actually has more hits than Nas in the last decade.

 

[Pegasus Jackson]

Ayo Technology

 

[MJ Truth]

Rap was always a way out, a means to an end for him, not necessarily a burning passion. He's talented at it, but not driven by it.

Expecting him to be interested in being an 'artist' as in pushing the envelope, in his prime let alone 15-20 years after the fact when he has found a more lucrative hustle is a lost cause lol. Sitting down and writing an album wouldn't be fun, it would be work, work that wouldn't be rewarded by the rap game with sales or acclaim even if it was fish grease because he's fukking dinosaur.

Power-verse > Rap game.

Though I do think he'll use the show as a vehicle to release another project at some point and it'll be decent/good if you ever liked 50. Thing about his music is that even after he fell off, there was no huge dip in quality or dramatic shift in approach, just no growth. People are about as interested in his music as he is lol

I think you may be underselling how passionate 50 actually is, or at least was, about hip hop. He really loves that shyt, according to his book, he just accepted that he would never be “hot” again like he was, and transitioned into film/TV instead since he had a passion in that too.

 

[Playaz Eyez]

He pivoted to film and business…

Game went in the direction of the South and blog era regular man rappers and then drill.

He easily could have kept going he would have just had to “wave ride” or stay current and he wouldn’t sell as much.

Eminem’s got his white fanbase, Jay is a unicorn plus he’s an industry darling and has created an aura around himself, and Nas hasn’t had a Platinum album since 2004 or a hit since 2002. 50 actually has more hits than Nas in the last decade.

Unlike 50, Jay, Nas, Jeezy, and some of those other names people have mentioned actually have music in the previous decade that sounds good. 50 is Eminem status when it comes to that.