Remember the first time you heard a Fifty track? And no, It better not have been “In tha Club”. For those that followed the New York mixtape circuit in the late 90’s, you’ll know just what I’m talking about. This is a time when you had rappers like Canibus, Noreaga, Jay-Z and even Jadakiss making serious moves toward the thrown. Come to think of it, this period in rap was the last hooray of the NY scene as this period marked the last time anyone would check for the next NY artist to blow. A mist all these new comers came 50 Cent.

When Fifty first came out he was the antithesis to Jay-Z, who had just gone mainstream with Volume 2 going five times platinum. Him positioning himself in this way, helped him market himself to the new tastemakers and trendsetters that saw Jay-Z as being “played out”. In fact, Fifty took many brazen jabs at Jigga right from the start on his infamous “How to Rob” to his down right hood classic “Be A Gentleman”.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brBtlOakAtM]
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M7QFKIZknc]
This style Fifty was on was what got heads interested, he had the lyrical wit of Jay and the charisma of Mase. It was almost guaranteed that Fifty would be the next big thing in hip-hop. He had so many hood classics, it wasn’t even funny. Check “Life’s on the Line” where Fifty goes at Ja Rule for the first time and the infamous “Ghetto Qu’ran” where Fifty allegedly “dry snitches” on his neighborhood peers.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVguYtALEFA]
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I34hn-vgbTc]

Then reality happened. Well, you know what happened. Fifty was shot nine times. The feeling during that time was that no one still really knew who Fifty was, keep in mind this was before the internet blew and Fifty had not put out any material for a while so it was like he dropped off the map. It’s similar to the Stack Bundlez situation, a great artist comes out on the mixtape scene and then you don’t hear about them for a while and then out of nowhere you hear they have been the victim of a shooting. I was disappointed that Fifty was shot, cause of the possibility he may pass and not be able to see his true potential play out. This is when most people stopped checking for Fifty.

Then a year later, Fifty re-emerges with a new “Tupac” esque attitude and a Southern drawl. I was like the WTF happened to this dude. This is when Fifty dropped his best record ever “You Not Like Me” and everything changed.
[youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHz0lxAuIHY]
Fifty rhymed, “Since my last shootout I got a dimple on my face, its nothing, I can go after Mase fan base,” and so he did. This is likely where most of yall were first introduced to Fifty when he started really working the mixtape scene with the “50 Cent is the Future” mixtapes and the introduction of G-Unit. He was still witty, but he had turned down his lyrical prowess a few notches and began to really dumb down his lyrics for mass consumption.

As the story goes this is when Eminem contacted him and the rest is history. Fifty went on to create the biggest song of his career and likely of the decade; “In tha Club” which took him from an unknown New York rapper on the verge of death to the top of the charts and unimaginable riches. His first official album, “Get Rich or Die Tryen'” was seen by the same tastemakers and trendsetters who backed Fifty early on as now being played out. In all fairness, that album still held true to Fifty’s witty style backed with a Mase-like flow though now Fifty had a Southern drawl.

Fifty really changed musically on his 2nd album, “The Massacre” with his hit song “Candy Shop”.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDFEoCOhRZQ]
The first time I heard “Candy Shop” I was in total disgust. Fifty didn’t sound like Fifty anymore, he sounded way more raspier, more lazier, and had lost all the wit he once had. Candy Shop was a big record no doubt, but the song is good in a “one-hit wonder” way (like Huricane Chris “Ay Bay Bay”, Fifty had been regarded as the type of artist that didn’t have to go into this space for a hit. In fact, “The Massacre” although still a good album, presented a new dumb down Fifty with a very raspy voice delivered with a fatigued flow. Check “Just a Little Bit”.
[youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yiK7tf17RY]

With Fifty’s third album, “Curtis”, Fifty has put out his worst material to date. Where in “The Massacre” Fifty still showed he had some ounce of ambition left in him with tracks like “In My Hood”, “This is 50”, “Get in My Car” and “Ryder Music”, there is absolutely nothing on “Curtis” that Fifty fans new or old can bang out too. (For a complete review of 50 Cent’s “Curtis” check out the review here). No, today Fifty has got rich and stopped tryin’. This has been the evolution of 50 Cent.