Ye and Curtis Wrap Up – What Does It All Mean?

I don’t think anybody can be overly surprised by the results: Kanye released a critically well-released album that the majority found artistically pleasing with a persistent minority grading it as less than compelling (re: boring) “hip-pop”. Across the board, Curtis was thought to be derivative, with commentary ranging from pointlessly worthless music to ‘not as bad as some people say’. Ultimately, the music industry won big by getting the most impressive first week numbers from any two albums in recent memory. Ye came through in the head to head battle, bringing in the largest first week sales since T.I.’s King, considerably out-legging Curtis, ultimately causing 50 to furiously back peddle with excuses over his guarantees of outselling the Graduation. In the end, 50 failed to even mention those threats (!?!) of retirement, settling for the more tried and true PR-friendly statement to address matters.

All in all, this made for good theater, but is this the end of 50? While this has been an exercise in public embarrassment for Mr. Jackson, his career will still be dictated by his future work. For better or worse, 50 still has the ear of the music buying public, which is a huge commodity in the record industry. Marketing mistakes were clearly made by a panicky record label, who, fearing the lack of buzz, rushed the unveiling of multiple singles before the album’s actual release. But at the end of the day, it’s on 50 that these singles were basically hot trash: if ‘I Get Money’ had been the first single, things may have played out differently.

However, the one thing ‘Curtis’ did reveal is that he may be falling prey to the same force that has afflicted past chart topping rappers such as Eminem and S. Dot, amongst others: 50 appears to be running out of material. Overcoming adversity has always been a big part of the American Dream and hood posturing has become a slightly twisted take on this ideal, if not a hyperbolized version of its most compelling form. However, the questions always remains of what happens when you leave the hood/trailer park: how long can you rehash that old lifestyle that garnered you all those listeners in the first place, especially when the marketing machine takes away that choice, forcing you to keep it (industry) real. Ironically, 50’s edge in the rap game has always been his impossibly hard image, which would appear impossibly difficult to maintain; Kanye has invented himself as the ostentatious, everyman underdog, and in a celebrity-obsessed age, gives the listener an opportunity to be a witness to his rise to fame through his music. Unfortunately for Curtis, when done right, the ‘Entourage’-rapper has become just as compelling an option as the ‘gangsta’ alternative as far as mass appeal goes, with the bonus of allowing for a much more realistic shot at longevity for the artist.

If there’s anything concrete to be taken from this so-called battle of the ‘hip-hop titans’, it’s that a new business model is now in effect for the record industry. There will be no gimmick too contrived to be used to drum up record sales, and I have a feeling the pseudo-rivalry thing is just a start. As if on cue, Jay-Z has launched the hype machine behind his latest comeback (!?) effort, an album inspired by the movie American Gangster, which will have a joint music-film release in November. Shawn pulls off a double coup, by declaring this effort will be inspired by the notorious drug kingpin depicted in the movie, giving him an excuse to return to his acclaimed Reasonable Doubt hood-tales roots topically, and abandon the less successful President Hov steez that he currently is beholden to (although some would say it was all an act to begin with). The first leaked single is a Pharrell-produced minimalist venture called Blue Magic (yes, a clean version awaits...props to Nah Right for this one), and yes, that’s Skateboard P doing En Vogue on the hook. Funnily enough, Curtis is already promising a competing release to be dropped on the same day Shawn’s project: judging by the first single, he may have a legitimate shot at redemption.