“Now that the first week of the rap battle between 50 Cent and Kanye West has drawn to a close, many are wondering who will prevail. Both rappers released their albums on Sept. 11, with the understanding that 50 Cent would quit rapping if Kanye sold more albums than he did in a week.”
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Now that the first week of the rap battle between 50 Cent and Kanye West has drawn to a close, many are wondering who will prevail. Both rappers released their albums on Sept. 11, with the understanding that 50 Cent would quit rapping if Kanye sold more albums than he did in a week.

Although Kanye trounced 50 – outselling him by about 300,000 albums, everyone is still sure to come out a loser.

Kanye was projected to win the contest. Even though he did sell more albums than 50, it still doesn’t excuse his anti-MTV hissy fit he threw after the Video Music Awards.

Apparently Kanye thinks that just because he was nominated for five awards he shouldn’t have come up empty-handed. What he doesn’t understand is that nominations only mean that his music video is in the running for an award, not that it is the best in that category.

The sad thing is, his antics at the VMAs are nothing new. He has had other outbursts that include publicly bashing president George W. Bush in a Hurricane Katrina fundraiser and allegedly assaulting officials backstage at the American Music Awards.

If his outlandish behavior continues, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a loss of respect from his fans. Ultimately, losing his fan base would put him somewhere above Britney Spears and below Michael Jackson on the loser’s scale for musicians.

Even if 50 had made a comeback and come out on top, the rap business would lose. Kanye’s new release Graduation is superior to 50’s Curtis and from a strictly musical perspective, should not lose to it.

Curtis is a far weaker version of Get Rich or Die Tryin’, and it’s clear that 50 doesn’t have the same passion for rapping that he had in his debut. Curtis, unlike 50’s gun, is not a Fully Loaded Clip of hits.

It was as if 50 unloaded his Glock into the album itself and left it for dead. The only way this album could have fewer hits is if he handed his gun to Stevie Wonder and let him try his hand at shooting at it.

Kanye and 50 aside, nobody loses on this deal more than the fans. No matter what, this competition was just a huge media circus to get people to buy rap albums. Probably knowing that he had a weaker album this time around, 50 decided to release his album on the same day to ride Kanye’s coattails and make a buck.

On the flip side, buying one of Kanye’s albums only supports this egomaniac’s whining and moaning over not winning awards.

Overall, this whole rap promotion is a huge loss to everyone regardless of the winner.

Kanye’s victory only fuels his ego and makes him think he can continue his absurd and classless behavior at award shows. A victory for 50 would only have projected just how ridiculous the rap industry is becoming. The fans either fed money to an egomaniac or invested in a weaker album.

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