50 Cent On Keeping An Aura About Yourself As An Artist

Recently (September 26th), 50 Cent was interviewed on Hot 97's Ebro In The Morning with Ebro Darden and Peter Rosenberg, and he dropped some jewels about today's artists, as well as being an artist back in his prime, and before that. Another interesting example was used on keeping an aura about yourself as an artist, and being able to "add to your legacy" in the proper manner; that example was Lil Kim.


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"Don't think they just go home and they're not doing it anymore. They're doing it and just not releasing it as much because they want to make sure it's an appropriate presentation to the public."  -  50 Cent On Lil Kim's lack of new music

Bravo. Encore. No really... SAY IT FOR THE FOLKS IN THE BACK. 50's history as an artist on the top is well documented, and I mean VERY well documented (lawsuits, fights, jumping other artists, Twitter beef, etc.), but do you ever think that any move or public noise that 50 is making is not in lieu of some promotion for a new album/business venture?  Okay yeah 50 definitely does just like to be the bully for fun a lot, but he makes very valid points on the aura surrounding certain artists and what the people expect from them.

50 also spoke on Jay Z's critically acclaimed 4:44 album, and why it may not have connected to today's core hip hop audience (22:44 mark); "I thought it was too smart. Look... it's (the album) in my car right now. I still like the records. (But) What Jay was doing on the records, there's more maturity in the actual music. He can take that out. Because it's youth culture; hip hop is youth driven. Traditionally, it would have been a quality piece of work, what it is right now for the audience, the kids that are now actively in the culture and decide what's hot and what's not; y'all see how that went quiet quick?  It had the best marketing campaign."

50 Cent, as old as he may seem (42 years old)... knows what's hot and what's not in hip hop. He knows what's going to hit and what's going to miss the intended target in terms of fan interaction, streams, sales, etc. Jay's 4:44 has been argued as the legend's best album (with HIS catalog, that's a landmark achievement), but with the current climate and culture in "meme rap", "mumble rap" or whatever you choose to call it; 4:44 is not turning people up at the clubs or the parties, because it simply does not hit the hot audience at this time. That's not to takeaway from the significance and the quality of the record, but the people decide what works and what doesn't... and though the people decided 4:44 wasn't going to work, that doesn't mean that it didn't.

The gap between Magna Carta Holy Grail and 4:44 was a long one as well; 4 years. At least for today's standards, that's a very long time without releasing a project. 50 was discussing Lil Kim earlier; do you know when her last full length project came out?  2016, and though it was only last year, it's a far cry from releasing an album every month as some artists today do. 50 Cent's last album released over 3 years ago, 2014. All of these veterans in the game have many things in common in how they move and how they calculate each move, but the biggest thing they have in common?  A plan. Which, regardless of what you may think from observing today's hot artists, takes time.