Get Rich Or Die Tryin' (Special Edition) [ECD] [PA] - 50 Cent

...on Eminem's Shady Records, entitled Get Rich or Die Trying, has more bark than its bite. Even Aftermath CEO and legendary producer / rapper Dr. Dre was quoted in saying that this album was going to be another hip hop classic, along the lines of Reasonable Doubt, Illmatic, The Chronic, and Marshall Mathers LP. Boy was he ever so wrong...

Get Rich or Die Trying is nothing but a big cloud of hot air. Even I myself expected a lot from ...
...and immediately started work on Get Rich or Die Tryin.



Track List & Rating

1. Intro (NOT RATED)
2. What Up Gangsta? (3 Stars)
3. Patiently Waiting f/ Eminem (3 1/2 Stars)
4. Many Men (Wish Death) (4 Stars)
5. In Da Club (2 Stars)
6. High All The Time (1 Star)
7. Heat (2 1/2 Stars)
8. If I Can't (3 Stars)
9. Blood Hound f/ Young Buc from ... more

After ruling the underground and mixtape scene for the past 6 years, Queens, NY emcee 50 Cent has finally gotten his big break after signing on the dot to be the next new rapper on Eminem's "Shady Records". Young Curtis Jackson finally got in the big league with the big boys, and it was time for him to unleash himself upon the hip hop industry. Built upon as one of the most anticipated new albums of 2003, 50 Cent's major label debut on Eminem's Shady Records, entitled Get Rich or Die Trying, has more bark than its bite. Even Aftermath CEO and legendary producer / rapper Dr. Dre was quoted in saying that this album was going to be another hip hop classic, along the lines of Reasonable Doubt, Illmatic, The Chronic, and Marshall Mathers LP. Boy was he ever so wrong...

Get Rich or Die Trying is nothing but a big cloud of hot air. Even I myself expected a lot from this album, but what i got was a big steaming pile of sh*t, with only a few shining moments. After hearing 50 Cent's legendary underground track "How to Rob an Industry N*gga", i immediately was intrigued 50's amazing charisma and attitude, as well as his balls. On that track, he disses everybody who you can think of in the hip hop music industry, and does it in such a matter, its funny. Since then, he has dominated in guest appearances and mixtapes all over the underground. His most recent one included a variety of disses towards his rival: Murder Inc. commercial rapper Ja Rule. So i figure, anybody who hates Ja Rule cant be too bad... but thats not neccessarily true. After a long underground bidding war, Eminem won and signed him and immediately started work on Get Rich or Die Tryin.

Track List & Rating

1. Intro (NOT RATED)
2. What Up Gangsta? (3 Stars)
3. Patiently Waiting f/ Eminem (3 1/2 Stars)
4. Many Men (Wish Death) (4 Stars)
5. In Da Club (2 Stars)
6. High All The Time (1 Star)
7. Heat (2 1/2 Stars)
8. If I Can't (3 Stars)
9. Blood Hound f/ Young Buc from G-Unit (1 1/2 Stars)
10. Back Down (4 Stars)
11. P.I.M.P. (1 1/2 Star)
12. Like My Style f/ Tony Yayo from G-Unit (1 Star)
13. Poor Lil' Rich (1 Star)
14. 21 Questions f/ Nate Dogg (2 1/2 Stars)
15. Don’t Push Me f/ Lloyd Banks from G-Unit and Eminem (4 Stars)
16. Gotta Make It To Heaven (3 Stars)
17. Wanksta (2 Stars)
18. U Not Like Me (2 Stars)
19. Life’s On The Line (3 1/2 Stars)

50 Cent's current momentum in the commercial rap music scene has exploded. Since his amazingly popular hit from the 8 Mile Soundtrack called "Wanksta" hit the scene, he's been increasing in popularity and demand. He is very well known now, much more than he was just 6 months ago. Now Two of the singles from Get Rich or Die Tryin" are currently getting loads of radio-play and club play nationwide. This boggles the mind as to somehow, somebody so untalented like 50 is so popular. After months of waiting, 50 brings us an album that is a fetid piece of crap.

Get Rich or Die Tryin kicks off with "Intro", which is very short and simple. Features a coin, then a gunshot, only 7 seconds, in which leads right into "What up Gangsta", which is 50's opening song. Immediately, from the beginning, we get a simply banging instrumental which is very well produced. With some thumping, somewhat apocalyptic drums and synthesizers, this provides the perfect intro for 50's flow, or so we think. 50 Cent introduces himself to the world as being a "Gangsta", telling everybody that he is here now, and to beware his wrath. 50 Cent spits basic braggadiocio rhymes, with a few pretty clever rhymes, but it has some materialistic rhythims, but the lyrics are simply average. There are some moments on this track where 50's lyricism improves a bit, using a multi-syllable flow at times, but this doesn't last. Not to mention the "gangsta" lyrics is boring as he raps about killing people and such. Typical 50 Cent trash. Its bad, but trust me, later on it gets worse, but before we get that low, we get the relatively above average track "Patiently Waiting", with Eminem.

Besides it being produced by Slim Shady himself, he also decides to drop by with a verse. 50 Cent raps about his urge to finally make it to the game, and claims that he will NEVER fall off... I find that hard to believe. 50 Cent is very full of himself, claiming he is a genius, which i doubt because he is a very POOR lyricist. As usual, Eminem comes on the song and completely rips it apart limb from limb with an amazing flow. On this track, Eminem uses a deeper tone of voice and sounds evil, which fits the song awesomely as he makes himself as the evil scientist who released 50 from his prison. He dominates the track so bad lyrically, that it makes it impossible for 50 to keep up, which is one reason why the track loses points, and also because of some of 50's wasted filler lyrics, luckily not too many. The track is a typical G-Funk sounding Dre-influenced track, using a snare, synthesizers, and some trumpets, which is a complete banger produced by Eminem.

Moving on we get to the first truly above average track on Get Rich or Die Tryin', the underground single "Many Men (Wish Death)". Immediately, we are hit with a hauntingly catchy piano loop produced by Eminem himself. The track gives it a street sort of feel, similar to the way Havoc producer albums, only less haunting. 50 Cent improves his lyrical game a tad bit, this time relying in street poetry and introspection. On here we have 50 Cent rapping about the infamous incident in his life where he was shot nine times in a drive-by and survived. Here we find 50 questioning his own religious beliefs, his purpose in life, and how he can relate to everybody who has ever felt pain through the streets. With lines like: "Death gotta be easy, 'cause life is hard, It'll leave you physically, mentally, and emotionally scarred", its easy to see why its a better track. 50 Cent gives us a sing-song chorus, which matches perfectly with the subject matter as he is preaching. Of course, this track is nowhere near being classic. 50 Cent remains a poor lyricist, but this some of his better work on Get Rich or Die Tryin'.

"In da Club" wins the award for the most annoying single of 2003. Yes, even more annoying that Lil Kim's Tha Jump Off. Not only is this track the most overplayed radio track in the history of mankind (statistically), but its purely commercial. Underground fans reek at this track due to its clubbish beat (which is well-produced, but commercial), materialistic rants, and thuggish, gangsta talk. Im not going to get into detail because im 100% sure you've heard this somewhere, probably more than once too.

Do yourself a favor and skip over "High all the Time".

This is the obligatory weed track, which is expected. 90% of rappers nowadays have to have a dedication to their favorite suicide brain cell killing weapon. As usual, 50 Cent raps simplistic, normal, and materialistic rhymes about being high, and how he is crazy and even goes to far as to say that he drives high, and gets into gunfights high. He even pulls an Eminem, telling his fans to "leave him alone", and claims that he is gonna join Nas and Jigga for the throne of "King of New York". Yeah right, he wishes. Nothing special here.

But of course, 50 Cent's message is to make a new version of The Chronic, but he failed miserably. 50 Cent's popularity comes from the fact that he claims he is a real gangsta, which is shown more on "Heat", than on any other track on this album. 50 Cent raps about pure violence mixed with mafiosio lyrics: pure gangsta-rap. The instrumental has its good and bad parts. It has a reccuring "cock-n-blow" gun sound, mixed with organ pianos, which sounds good, but repetitive at times. Its sad that the great Dr. Dre gave us a beat this simplistic. The lyrics lower the standards of the song, but it still has an underground feel to it, which gains it a few points.

50 Cent celebrates his signing to Shady / Aftermath Records with "If I Can't". Immediately, the light-hearted, well-produced piano loop and thumping trumpet beat produced by Dre hits us hard with a quick head-bobbing feeling. This track would be a perfect commercial single, but 50 Cent decided not to go that route. 50 Cent switches around his subject matter from the way hes feeling, with a mix of senseless violence and materialistic lyrics. His lyricism is still horrible, with the exception of a few clever punchlines, but not many to look forward to whatsoever. I can see why some would like this, but its not really in my style.

"Bloodhound" features Young Buc from G-Unit, and its the first G-Unit guest appearance on the album. This track is pure garbage, with an annoying synthesizer beat and terrible lyricism about street violence and gangsta life. This is more than worth skipping, specially for the excellent track which is next entitled "Back Down".

The infamous 50 Cent / Ja Rule Beef takes a new turn here as 50 goes all out on the Murder Inc rapper. 50 Cent completely takes down Ja Rule hard with very clever and hilarious rhymes dissing the pop-star. Unfortunately for 50 Cent, he too is joining in Ja Rule's footsteps of being a mediocre rap artist with bad lyrics, and relatively good beats, strummed along with weak subject matter. But this is a good moment of the album due to the fact that we get to see 50 do what he does best, and thats diss people, which is probably why Eminem signed him to Shady / Aftermath. You cant help but gringe at 50's terrible lyricism, but its acceptable here due to the targets that its hitting and the extremely clever punchlines aimed at not only Ja Rule, but the entire Murder Inc record label. With hilarious punchlines like "And your boss is a b*tch, if he could he would, Sell his soul for cheap, trade his "Knight" to be "Suge", You can buy cars but you can't buy respect in the hood" and the infamous "I'm back in the game shawty, to "Rule" and conquer, You sing for hoes and sound like the cookie monster". As for the production, its a major improvement, with haunting piano loops, violins, and drums giving it us a very atmospheric diss track, which is a pleasure to listen to, in my opinion.

After this excellent track, we find 50 Cent resorting back to gangsta-rhythims and commercialism to sell Get Rich or Die Tryin. "P.I.M.P" is 50 Cent's view on mysogony, and he is terrible at it. This song is typical gangsta themed music with simplistic lyrics about abusing women and money. 50 Cent raps about his "pimp game", which is one of the most plaid out themes in hip-hop music. His lyrics are pretty simple, and its beat is as commercial as it gets. With a spanish sounding, bongo drum track, its easy to see why this is played in clubs, but its terrible in my opinion. Tony Yayo from G-Unit joins 50 on "Like My Style", which is another mysogonystic and materialistic 50 Cent track loaded with bullsh*t. Here we get 50 rapping about how women like his "style". Once again, another commercial sell-out song with materialistic lyrics and subject matter. It appears to me that everybody in G-Unit is talentless. More skippable crap. "Poor Lil Rich" is, in my opinion, the worst track on Get Rich or Die Tryin. On this track, 50 borrows a page out of the book of Cash Money by rapping about seducing girls with his money, jewelry, and cars. Complete materialistic, and commercial bullsh*t which makes me gasp at thinking that this album was gonna be classic, or even much good. This is below mediocrity. Terrible...

Usually when Nate Dogg does the hook on a song, its excellent. Well, Nate Dogg does an excellent chorus on "21 Questions", the second lead-single from Get Rich or Die Tryin. We are immediate greeted with a tight instrumental using fast, hard basslines, and catchy guitar licks, but thats as far as the track goes. 50 Cent raps some simplistic rhymes, asking himself and the world if his fiance would still love him, even if he was poor or in jail. 50 Cent pulls a page out of Snoop Dogg's book, trying to use his charisma to push the track. True, the track is very charismatic and loaded with pretty clever punchlines, but 50 Cent's lyricism can no longer be overlooked. The worst part is that 50 Cent is not only a bad rapper, but a hypocrit, as he always disses Ja Rule for giving us bubble-gum pop love songs, yet 50 himself makes one, much less a single. Dont get me wrong, the track aint terrible and its a great concept, but 50's hypocrisy and microphone skills are average at best.

"Dont Push Me" is a huge improvement, but nothing classic. Eminem delivers a raw, deep, underground sounding beat, with its own thumpingness in it. This track deals with a variety of subject matters, each exhibited by each artist on the song, making it terribly out of order. Lloyd Banks and 50 Cent both give us gangsta-like lyrics about murder, gun-play and such, however both approach the track in a different way. As usual, 50 Cent gives us senseless gun threats and a terrible verse, but Lloyd Banks switches his style a tiny bit, sounding more retrospective, explaining all of the pain he has felt in his life due to street life. Lloyd Banks outmatches 50 Cent lyrically and subject matter-wise, and to me, is a much better lyricist as he gives us a rap display beyond any other member of G-Unit thusfar. Of course Eminem is the MVP of the track as he once again, completely tears the walls down with a raw-a** lyrical verse about censorship and rising above the competition. The gap of lyrical talent between Eminem and 50 Cent is shown on here as clearly as possible.

"Gotta Make it to Heaven" is a lot more introspective than people give it credit for. 50 Cent gives us pretty interesting subject matter about how friends can easily betray you and how 50 Cent is keeping an eye out on everybody in the industry. However, his lyrics are elementary and poorly-written, but the subject matter makes it listenable and interesting to hear what 50 Cent is trying to say, which isn't too bad. However, the track will indeed get on your nerves after the second verse, where he turns up his commercial radar as high as possible, giving us street stories of violence and such. The instrumental is listenable, but nothing special as it is a bunch of synthesizers and violins put together.

Apparently 16 Tracks of 50 Cent "trying" to rap isn't enough, as we are treated to three bonus tracks composed of 50 Cent's earlier work. "Wanksta" is not worth covering, as on my 8 Mile Soundtrack review, i already covered it. "U Not Like Me" is a trip back to 50's earlier work on Guess Who's Back. 50 Cent comes on this track with typical violent lyrics about street life, but nothing complicated or nothing. This is purely simplistic rhymes (with a few good moments), however, the instrumental sounds a lot like an underground beat, which i like. The words he choses to rhyme have been used time and time again, which makes this a very boring track, but a respectably dark beat. "Life's on da Line" is considered to be classic by some, but i just think its average. 50 Cent's lyrics and the instrumental are a BIG improvement from some of his work on this album, and this was recorded years before. He actually spits pretty clever punchlines. Put as usual, its subject matter uses some simple "thug" rhymes and the same old tried concept, its just done a lot better on this song, where he sticks in clever lyrics to add to the boringness. Not to mention that the chorus is another shot to Ja Rule.

What I expected from Get Rich or Die Tryin i definetely DID NOT GET. I expected 50 Cent to rap about his conquerence of the game, tell stories of the underground hip hop struggle, be inventive and clever, and diss a WHOLE bunch of people, all accompanied with amazing Dre and Eminem production, which would've been awesome. But instead we got something reminiscent of a Big Tymers or 3-6-Mafia Album, only a TAD bit better. He spits some of the most typical, simplistic, and boring rhymes ive ever heard. He rhymes the easiest words, and keeps a single or double syllable flow throughout the entire album. 50's mumbling and stumbling gets on my nerves, and his commercialistic and materialistic money rhymes are extremely played out and boring. His use of the words "Rims", "Hood", "Bigger" and "Rich" are monotonous and continously boring.

Now, youd think an album executive produced by masterminds Dr. Dre and Eminem couldnt be so bad, could it? Boy was i wrong. As i said, the production on Get Rich or Die Tryin is handled mainly by Dr. Dre and Eminem, but a few other cuts are done by Kon Artis of D-12, Sha Money XL, and Proof of D-12. However, dont expect an album filled with completely banging beats. I mean, this isn't The Chronic or Marshall Mathers LP. Surprisingly enough, the majority of instrumentals here are mediocre, or average. In my opinion, even Eminem has surpassed Dr. Dre when it comes to production, on THIS album. While Eminem manages to piece together a few great pieces of production, Dre continously makes average beats with only a few shining moments. I'm really worried Dre is falling off, but i hope not. We will know on the upcoming Ice Cube, Rakim, and of course Detox albums this year. But on this particular outing, Dre falls short.

Get Rich or Die Tryin has MUCH more bark than its bite. Featuring just 4 or 5 pretty good songs, and absolutely NO 5 Star songs whatsoever, this is definetely NOT worth buying at all. Its mediocre production, and EVEN MORE mediocre lyrics completely destroy its credibility with TRUE underground hip hop fans. Don't believe the hype whatsoever, because this track is nowhere near being called a classic. In fact, its TERRIBLE. It amazes me that 50 Cent has sold more than 8 Million Records with this trash, what is the world coming to? Hopefully, this was just a f*ck up and they will get back on track with the next Aftermath release. The trio of 50 Cent, Eminem, and Dre tried to piece together a tight album, but died trying...

2 1/2 Stars... Rounded down to 2...

 

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