50 Cent "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" [2003]

It's no secret street 'hoods who go all gangsta don't likely do too well in school, but less than a decade after Tupac and Biggie Smalls are senselessly killed, they still have a taste for the tragic, real-life handgun murder and mayhem of rappers like 50 Cent? Just how stoopid does one have to be? And we wonder why so many otherwise well-meaning people have permanently turned their backs on all the bad neighborhoods in this country. Then again, it's all a charade, isn't it? Sure, 50 Cent has a couple bullet scars and found his ass in prison for a spell (he's "authentic," in other words), but industry sell-outs Dr. Dre and Eminem are ultimately behind "Get Rich or Die Tryin'." In fact, it could be strongly argued that the only reason Fitty got a record deal in the first place is so Marshall Mathers could pretend he was gangsta, too (at least give him credit for knowing he couldn't get away with it on his own albums). What you hear track after track on 50 Cent's debut is violent power fantasies for the ultimately powerless; it must be some perverse therapy I can't quite fathom, but it boils down to the same sad phenomenon that perpetuates liquor stores and lotto in the ghetto. And 50 Cent has the nerve to keep saying he "ain't playin'" when he's cashing the fuck in on his old 'hood's various miseries and laughing about it? Shee-it.