That could very well be the headline found in major newspapers tomorrow if early projections hold up. Last Tuesday, Kanye West: Graduation and 50 Cent: Curtis were launched and the hip hop community was abuzz. It’s not just because these are two of the world’s most prominent rap artists, but more because of a stupid ultimatum that Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson set out for himself.
50 Cent said that if he did not outsell Kanye West in the first week that he would retire from solo rapping. He said that he would still do collaborations, but he would never do a solo album ever again. Kanye West, on the other hand, made no such promise. Although he can be pretty ignorant sometimes (you can’t tell me nuthin’ cuz I’m way mo fresher), Kanye isn’t stupid enough to make such a bold-faced claim.
I’m a bigger fan of Kanye West than I am of 50 Cent. Even though Graduation isn’t as good as College Dropout or Late Registration, West’s freshman and sophomore offerings, it’s still solid enough that it can be quite enjoyable. Tracks like Good Morning, Stronger, and Big Brother make up for less favorable songs on his third CD.
According to early estimates by three unnamed major record labels (as reported by Reuters), Kanye West: Graduation is on the track to outsell 50 Cent: Curtis by a small, but significant margin. They’re saying that Graduation is on pace for between 575,000 and 700,000 copies in its first week, whereas Curtis is projected to hit between 500,000 and 600,000 copies. It’s a close battle, but it looks like Mr. West is coming out on top.
Kanye made an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live this past week and, as always, he sounds pretty confident that he’ll beat “the other guy.” In that interview, he also cast the negative reviews aside, saying that they don’t matter so long as the fans like it (and buy it).
The first sales figures are due at midnight tonight. If everything goes according to plan, it’s goodbye Mr. Jackson. See you later, Fiddy. Just more evidence why too much positive thinking is bad.
And here’s the outspoken Kanye, in case you forgot:
As talented as he is, Kanye needs to learn to think about what he means to say before communicating them openly. He also seems to be about 200 years in the past when it comes to the American black rights movement. New Orleans was a disaster that affected millions of Americans, the flood waters didn’t discriminate with skin color. Let’s not pull the race card.
Apparently Kanye is now boycotting MTV because he didn’t win an award at the recent VMA.
I don’t know about the not winning an award bit, but I know that he was upset he didn’t get to perform on the main stage at the VMAs. Instead, MTV got him to do a performance from a separate party room. I watched the show and a few other performers also had their performances that way too.
He’s just angry at everything.
Can’t say I would miss 50 Cent. Anybody that glorifies guns, drugs and killing people shouldn’t deserve to make music. So I say good riddance…
I don’t think he’ll stick to his promise