Kanye vs 50 Cent: Who Shall Prevail?

‘Ye versus Fiddy. Chicago versus Queens. Gangsta versus….not gangsta…

With two of the biggest names in hip-hop releasing albums on the same day, comparisons and speculations are unavoidable. You may have heard about it, one of the biggest music rivalries of recent times: Kanye West versus 50 Cent. Both rappers recently released their new albums on Tuesday , September 11th. What started off as just a coincidence soon escalated into a highly publicized rap battle. Only, unlike those of the past, guns and dissing of hometowns have hardly been on the agenda. Instead, it’s all about the Benjamins, and for 50 Cent, keeping himself in business. Recently, the rapper stated that, "If Kanye West sells more records than me on September 11, I'll no longer [perform] music. I'll write music and work with my other artists, but I won't put out any more solo albums."

And it looks as if he’ll have to do just that, that is, if he’s planning on sticking to his word. While his album, Curtis, has moved 691,000 units as of September 18, Kanye’s Graduation sold 957,000 copies in the first six days following its release. Will Fiddy really quit the music biz? It seems as if he might; he has already cancelled his promotional European tour due to “unforeseen circumstances”. Could this be ‘unforeseen’ as in his album isn’t doing as great as he thought it would? He had every reason to believe that Curtis would kill Graduation in sales; his last release, The Massacre sold over four million copies in its first year, while Kanye’s Late Registration comes in far behind with 2.8 million to date. But many fans, not just of hip-hop, but of music in general are saying that Kanye West has a newer, more progressive sound, using synthesizers, piano and electric guitars and sampling songs such as techno band, Daft Punk’s ‘Harder, Better, Faster Stronger’, but Fifty keeps on doing the same thing: hardcore, street, gangster rap. Which by looking at his current sales figures, isn’t appealing to the masses as much as it used to. So while 50 Cent may be ‘laughing to the bank with this’, Kanye is going to be laughing louder and with way more ‘this’ in his pockets.

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My article for the school paper, enjoy if u wanna.

peace, aria