Curtis

50 CENT

Shady/Aftermath/Interscope

Graduation

KANYE WEST

Roc-A-Fella

The images line the shelves of stores nationwide. One artist glares at the camera while the other opts for anime by renowned Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. It’s hardcore thug tales and club bangers versus “messages” and fashion boasts. With both discs released on Tuesday of last week, the mainstream media couldn’t help but hype the event as a monumental showdown, one that would dictate the future of hip-hop and perhaps the ailing music industry in general. We’ll see.

50 Cent has milked his crack-dealer past to no end; so has his label and just about every music writer in the country. He’s not cuddly yet like Snoop Dogg, but it’s getting harder to take his thug routine seriously. For instance, the threatening “Fully Loaded Clip” attempts to reassert Fiddy’s street cred, but he sounds silly making smooching noises in between rapping: “When Jay and Beyonce were kissing, I was cooking 1,000 grams in the kitchen.”

This article appears in Sep 5-11, 2007.