50 Cent vs Kanye West
On September 11, 2007, Kanye West and 50 Cent released Graduation and Curtis at the same time.
50 Cent was a pure product. Besides "Many Men," which is such a dope song, the rest of the hits on his biggest album were cool, but in that fake, shallow way that no one could put a finger on because the actual artist behind 50 Cent was as real as they come. He was shot nine times, and he lived.
Kanye, on the other hand, was the typical American kid who goes to college and whatnot. He did not have a lot of street cred to carry him, so his energy was instead invested in expressing the most real version of himself possible.
No one calls this a battle because 50 Cent lost his first one. People were still a little bit scared of him. I think what most people were worried about—that Kanye was oblivious to—is that the real 50 Cent kills people. He survived getting shot nine times because he didn't shoot first. Most sane people would argue that the near-death experience reprioritized 50's desires, making him acknowledge that in order to be the man he wanted to be, he needed to sacrifice a bit of that realness. He decided to be fake so he could make a good life off selling realness to average motherfuckers like Kanye.
Kanye called the nigga's bluff and put so much realness into his music, and people fucking believed him. Kanye won. He has been leading since then, despite all the effort that has been invested in taming him. They even pushed Ye to talk about Hitler and whatnot. That shit didn't stain the nigga because the people who believe Ye's music know who that nigga is. They know more of him than any idiot can tarnish on a podcast. Maybe it is true that Jesus truly saved that nigga, who knows? I honestly think Kendrick is the greatest right now. I think his movements, skill, quality, morals, and politics are all in the right place today. I don't know how such a bet would be resolved, but I would put my money on Kanye West to win in 5 years.
After Graduation beat Curtis, 50 Cent was dead. Kanye had finally cured hip hop of that fake shit. Its now on TV. I think "Many Men" deserved a Grammy. It is one of the best songs of all time in any genre. The truth is that the rest of his work is trash(Besides some of his collabos with The Game). I wonder why he never did any work with Drake. Maybe even he, couldn't resurrect him. The only thing we remember about 50 Cent, besides the music that UMG forced down our ears, is the numbers. Not the nine... Album sales and whatnot. But now we know that Jay Z lied. The numbers do lie. So if Kanye hadn't actually won, and it's the numbers that were cooked, 50 Cent would still be making music.
