My 50 Cent's on The Game...

(...)

For both 50 Cent and The Game, it's all just a game...

So...

I'm down 2 play and get played 4 fun, and as long as we're in on the fact that it is a game, then I think we're cool...

So...

I'm'a flip you 10 shiny-nickels...

(...)


1. "I'm bringin' drama, like the Dalai Lama's baby-mama..."

The day 50's album dropped, he publicly kicked The Game out of G-Unit on a radio show, and then The Game's camp approached the radio station and a Compton homeboy got shot in the leg.

Now, beef was stewing, but...

Coincidence?

Every paper writing about it?

My homiez hittin' me up 2 spill it?

Everyone excited and talkin' about it?

A new East/West beef?

50 Cent as the real-deal, even fuckin' with his own mentor Dr. Dre's protege?

Blastin' Brad, Jen and Angelina off the gossip pages?

(Brad: "Thanks dawg!!!")

Yeah right...


2. "Whaddup Blood, WHAT!, Whaddup Cuz, WHAT!, Whaddup Capone, WHAT???, Whaddup Gangstaaa...!!!"

Okay, so XXL says for a cover shoot: "Yo, BK, I want you to wear a 1930's Al Capone pinstripe gangster-suit, grab that big-ass crossbow, and look mean as hell! Cool?"

Sure dawg. Why not?

You can check it (XXL #67) and ask 50, among all his Desert Eagles, 9-Milli's, Mack-11's, shanks, and the rest of his apparently massive killin' kollection, did he ever had a crossbow in the 'hood?

You ain't gotta be 'hood to know there ain't no middle-earth crossbows in the 'hood, and he ain't wear no pinstripe-suit 2 flip some Peruvian 4 loot neither.

He looks badass though...


3. "No shame in The Game, claimin' fame..."

Okay, so The Game joins G-Unit, he's 23 years old and just starting his career after 2 years of chilling at Aftermath, and has Dr. Dre sending him out verbal-glock blazin' to grab Compton some long-lost love.

Then 50 says: "Yo! Welcome to the camp dawg! By the way – your new enemies are Nas, Jadakiss, Fat Joe, Lil' Kim, Shyne, Ja Rule, R. Kelly, Irv Gotti, Benzino, The Source, and whoever else I wanna fuck with!"

"Got it?"

Umm...

If it was me, unless I was ridin' 4 a minit now like Banks, Yayo and Buck, I'd probably say: "Look man, that's cool... but really, I'm just getting started in this rap-shit, and dammit dawg... Nas??? I looked up 2 that man right there, and some of them other cats I'd love 2 fuck with on some hot shit too..."

Having enemies is stressful, and:

"If money can't buy happiness, I guess I'll have to rent it!"
- Weird Al Yankovic, “This Is The Life”

So 50's stacked $50 mill will certainly help, but I'd rather stay out unless I was pulled in...

"See, we're kind of, like, Siamese twins; 'Cause when we beef, we, pull, each other, in..."
- Eminem, "Gatman and Robbin'"

4. "Is there a Dr. Dre in the house?"

One of 50's beefs is with Dr. Dre trying to make The Game a rapper – a 2-year project that's finally completed, and Dre not having enough time to give 50 bomb-beats 4 his new album.

Well, first of all, Dr. Dre can do what he wants – we all should be able to, and if that's all the time he had, that's cool. I got a third-hand story from a friend about seeing first-hand how he works at Aftermath too, and aside from producing his own beats, he also sits back and vets all the beats that his in-house guys made, sending 'em back 4 seasoning on the regular.

So he's busy, but...

In reality, he also contributed 3 beats each for both 50 and The Game's albums.

So, what's the beef?

Watch it go away...


5. "I'm Singin'... in the Pain..."

"You sing for ho's, and sound, like the Cookie Monster..."
- 50 Cent (on Ja Rule), "Back Down"

Now, that's a hot line, but it's been said before and I'll say it again: 50 sings a hell of a lot. And, The Game sings as much as he can. And, Eminem sings all the time these days.

And, when none of them can sing it, they rent an R'n'B chick.

Or Nate Dogg.

On 50's new album he's singin' his ass off for the whole damn thing, and he's even called Jadakiss out for not being able to sing any of his "hooks".

So...

When he calls Ja out for singing - which I don't mind Ja doing at all, it doesn't always sound good but he can hit it (check his hits), we gotta ask if we're buying in to the G-Unit gang-mentality a little much. We ain't part of G-Unit just 'cause we rock a hoody and think we paid a $100 membership fee, and I'm not obligated 2 pick a clique.

Hell, I'm'a fuck with both of 'em, "Between Me and You" was a hot song that reminds 'ayebody to mind their own business.

There's lots of reasons to call everyone out, and we've all got shit that someone else doesn't feel, but on the real we gotta realize that long before "21 Questions" we've always loved artists "singin' for ho's".

Hell, I sing 4 all mine...


6. "How the hell did 50 Cent turn into $50 million?"

He's smart.

No really.

I know Many Men hate him on principle, so (from XXL #67) I'll let him explain...

"I always try to appear less intelligent so I can stay ahead of them. (Laughs)"

"I can say Fuck the 'hood" 'cause I'm from the 'hood. And I don't know nobody that wants to be there."

"If they doubt me, then that's cool. It makes me feel like I'm making my first album again. I'm trying to destroy [Get Rich Or Die Tryin']. But musically, I'll never top how you felt when I first came out. Music marks time. Certain music comes on, and you can remember the girl you were with at the time because y'all used to play that song while y'all were together or hung out. But I can make a better record."

"We (Jay-Z and I) never have any friction... I guess it's 'cause he has his own money to count - while all these niggas spend all they time counting mine. I respect dude."

"(On conscious MC's) Absolutely, I enjoy their music... Common Sense, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Dead Prez... Somebody else is always going to have some quality that you don't have."

"(On U.S. Troops) These are just kids in the hood that joined the military just so they can go to college. You get around the soldiers out in that situation, they are kind of different because they constantly have death around them. I'm sure the people that I met over there weren't the people that the U.S. knew before they went off to war."

And so on.

Anyone that can't learn from him and his success outside of biting his shoot-'em-up style on mixtapes just isn't trying, and as you know, he Got Rich without Dyin' Tryin'...

"If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?" -Everybody

7. "No please, call me Marshall..."

Eminem's smart.

Hell, he was smart-enough to flip a crack-dealer a million dollars – and make a 100 million dollars.

(Yeah – So fuck your Nortel stock.)

And, he's on some of that old "Save The World" shit.

I know. I recognize. I'm on that shit myself.

From "White America" to "Mosh", to remixing his hero 2Pac for white-people on "Loyal To The Game", to...

"Mockingbird".

A music video of his home-movies (see why he's hella hard 2 beat?), a crazy ballsy concept of publicly singing a private song to his daughter that he makes work, as he humanizes himself after years of complaining about being a character. He was always in favour of being considered an "artist" keeping it "real", as opposed to keeping it "real" and then being an "artist", and his shit had a point (free speech, neurosis, relationships, beef, politics) that wasn't always apparent, especially early.

So, why's he fucking with G-Unit? Why's he pimping the biggest gangster rappers in the world?

If he doesn't feel the politics he doesn't need the money, and he doesn't need the drama of some crazy Queens killah poppin' off at him 2 get signed by The Inc.

I hope to sit down and politik with 'em to figure this out. I can see the signs of consciousness beyond the thuggery, and I'm starting to see some evidence on a "take over the world and then save it" level. Like advancing within a political party (or the world), sometimes you gotta play by the rules to get up in the game first.

Who knows?

I guess we'll see...

XXL: "Is it true you no longer drink or smoke? Are you a health-nut?
50 Cent: "I ain't got time for that shit. I'm trying to win."

(Did you hear that kids? Now put the blunt away like Uncle 50 told you, and finish your fucking homework...)


8. "Playin' The Game..."

Uh-oh, The Game's callin' G-Unit out at shows, you know G-Unit gotta buck-back, and you know they gotta go at it until...

...they don't wanna.

"Who You Wit'?"
- Jay-Z, "Who You Wit'?"

I'm not saying it's not a real beef, but I'm not saying it is either.

All I know is apparently you gotta roll with either The Game or 50 Cent, and their respective camps. So, who's it gonna be? How you gonna decide? I got both their new albums, and they're both good...

"Like Banks, he understands. He watched it go from, "Yo I like Banks better than I like 50..." to "Yo, I can't front, I'm feeling Young Buck, I ain't feeling Banks..." You see what I'm saying? But internally, in the camp, we have no problems."
- 50 Cent, XXL #67

So, now the hottest thing to discuss in hip hop is who you feeling: Shady/Aftermath/G-Unit artists, or Shady/Aftermath/G-Unit artists.

(...)

"Clickety-clank, clickety-clank, the money goes in, to my, Piggy Bank..."
- 50 Cent, "Piggy Bank"

9. "The Media Massacre..."

George Bush Sr. recently said out-of-the-blue that his son Jeb Bush doesn't plan to run in 2008, and that he expects Hilary Clinton to run for the Democrats. He also said however, that Jeb would actually make a great President, since he knows the issues, and he's a strong leader.

(???)

Why am I fucking with these dudes in this article?

Every public communication is rehearsed, and the bigger the institution the more rehearsed it is – including in hip hop. Even if your small 3-person catering company is getting some shine from your local paper, the 3 of you are going to get together to make sure you say what you should for the most shine – or the desired effect of more business.

So...

Ol' George goes:

"Nah, Jeb ain't runnin', but Hilary is..."

And the Red-States go:

"Hilary???”

“Man, we HATE that bitch!!! A good First-Lady should always kick it like Laura Bush - the strong, silent, and stupid type! Oh Jeb, pretty-please-please-please run, please continue the Bush Dynasty until we can amend the Constitution so that Ahnold can run! Please Jeb, save us from Hilary!!!"

And so, to quote the immortal Mortal Kombat:

"It has begun..."

(...)

"Are you a moron? Just listen to Shady!; We still gotta Mosh, for the kids and ya lady!"
- Black Krishna, Song: "Bomb Dropping Shenanigans"

10. "If You F--k With Me, I Will Kill You-- Hey girrrls..."

Yes, it's all about the music, and I gotta say – this shit is a guilty pleasure that I don't feel guilty about.

Fuck that.

I was trading convo with some hip hop activist friends who poo-poo the "bling-bling" and the "gangsta", and I asked them point-blank if they'd seen the movie "The Matrix".

They said: "Yeah, of course, we loved it!"

So I said: "You WHAT??? You watched and supported a $100-million movie??? Do you know how many people could've been helped by that money??? Do you know how many starving Africans could've been fed with that money???"

(...)

It's bullshit.

We can have fun, but we shouldn't be takin' serious shots at each other over this shit when we got real enemies fuckin' up our lives, and we shouldn't be pickin' sides with our music – as our fave artists who are way-smarter than us figured out a long time ago.

When 50 Cent was guest-editor of XXL, he picked his favourite MC – Talib Kweli, to interview. Then, Talib said his favourite MC was 50 Cent – a fact corroborated by Kanye West, who said that's all Talib played when they were on tour together.

So, what's the beef?

It's bullshit.

"See— the movie Goodfellas, and 'hood-yellas, are nad-swellas; Just the bling in ya pinky-ring, got my whole-house jealous!"
- Black Krishna, Song: "If You F--k With Me"

(...)


G-G-G-Gandhi Unit!!!

Peace and Change...
BK