"Get Rich or Die Tryin'"
2003
by RAIL Albany, March 2003
If the title of 50 Cent's latest album, "Get Rich or Die Tryin'," doubles as his mission statement, it would be in the interest of social progress if he reached the latter fate. While this may seem a strong statement, it's nowhere near as strong as the evidence the 50 Cent's thinking contained on this album is as backward as humynly possible.
Throughout it we are subjected repeatedly to macho boasts, casual references to the subjugation of wimmin, and other categorically oppressive material. There are songs celebrating the escapism of drug and alcohol use as well as the unrelenting greed prevalent in the oppressor nations. This offering of garbage is then garnished with numerous references to god and "scripture".
50 Cent makes his attitude towards wimmin very clear with lines like "...catch a dick, shit, trick." On the track "In Da Club" he sums up the album's treatment of wimmin in one phrase: "hoes down, Gs up." 50 Cent manages to up the ante on "Gotta Make it to Heaven," letting us know that not only does he have sadistic feelings towards wimmin, but he dislikes wimmin of low income (by oppressor nation standards) in particular because "them broads in the projects is straight up whores."
This rap artist seems not only to have a problem with wimmin, but with dealing with reality altogether. As the song title "High All the Time" would suggest, he claims to "smoke that good shit, I stay high all the time." On "In Da Club" he offers "I got the x if you into taking drugs." While this does explain the quality (or lack thereof) of his work to some extent, it's no excuse for the negative message he perpetuates.
In keeping with the album's title (as well as his previous, unreleased album Power of the Dollar) are the majority of the album's songs, purveying an overall sense of individualistic bravado ("keep thinking I'm candy till ya fuckin' skull get popped") and greed. To quote every line from "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" that reinforces this attitude would be nothing short of a full transcription.
While 50 Cent takes shots at wimmin and "haters" (those with less wealth than him) in one breath, we find him getting religious in the next. At one point he states "My songs belong in the bible with King David." At least he's close on the mark with this statement, in that both his music and the bible are complete wastes of time that are hazardous to society.
Perhaps the saddest thing about this album is that the listener can occasionally hear very, very faint traces of a positive message (twisted and perverted as it is) lingering among the trash. On the song "Patiently Waiting" he proclaims, "...in this white man's world I'm similar to a squirrel." Here we can see a hint of awareness in recognizing the oppression of the internal semi-colonies of the U$. Not to mention that when compared with figures in contemporary Black history such as the Black Panther Party, a squirrel seems an appropriate representation of the base mentality of 50 Cent's politics. The rapper then immediately goes on to crush any hope you might have of hearing valid social commentary by adding the next line, "lookin' for a slut with a nice butt to get a nut."
Although the subjective material conditions of 50 Cent's childhood (he was raised by a single mother who was murdered) may cause some to excuse his backward politics, they only go to reinforce how wrong he is. Someone who has suffered from the war on Black Amerikkka in such a direct way and learned no positive lessons from it is nothing less than a tragic reminder of the death grip the capitalist superstructure can have on people.
It is the artists that draw upon the ugliness of our society to make art which not only exposes the horrors of capitalism but points to Communist revolution as the solution that will help lead this world to a better place. Perverse icons such as 50 Cent will have no place there except to serve as negative examples of just how bad capitalism made things.
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