“With Plies, if you say he’s a college kid, so what? I wish I was a college kid. I wish I didn’t grow up under the circumstances I had to grow up under. I would have liked to just go to college and study business.”

-50 Cent, XXLMag.com

Okay, 50. I'm with you there. Nice to hear a nigga say they'd rather have done things differently...

“I see him rap about the girls a lot, so that’s true... From my perspective, Plies, his strong hit records are about females…and ‘Bust It Baby’ and that type of material. To me that’s authentic. He gon get the girls. You see him, decked out, he’s right, girls like him. That’s official.”

-50 Cent, XXLMag.com

While Plies may have secured his biggest hits by pandering to women, being the "realist"--as opposed to "realest", of course--and a "goon" have always been his platform, but okay...

“What was awkward was [Rick Ross] being part of law enforcement and completely writing drug dealer material and the biggest drug dealer in the world material... That was a little bit fictional. I mean hip-hop in general…I don’t think anybody is actively out, anybody with good sense ain’t actively out doing exactly what they said on the record or they won’t actually last cause you’ll get attention from law enforcement based on what you saying... Can you imagine what it’s like…when you convince the general public that you’re that person, you’re also convincing law enforcement... This is why you don’t see me out and about as often as you see these other guys at frivolous events, just wherever. I’m not with it.”

-50 Cent, XXLMag.com

Slow down in that jag. You lost me.

So, it's okay for Plies to be a fake-ass gangsta because he's got a couple of songs pointed at the ladies? If Rick Ross could take his shirt off and go sexy-flexy without making people ill, would his Fleece Johnson-wrangling past get a pass?

By this logic, perhaps T.I. should have gotten Alfamega a Trey Songz feature instead of a Greyhound ticket back to the traphouse.

In Alfamega's case, he couldn't rap anyway. Ya Woy Ply and Officer Ricky, however, both create music people seem to find entertaining. As per 50's own back and forth analysis, this appears to be the bottom line. You can't be doing what you say in the records, right?

Ironically enough, this all comes in 50's great new campaign to legitimize his forthcoming project. Taking the argument one step too far, 50's trying to get people to drink the Kool-Aid that suggests "harder is better". This is the same mantra he came into the game with when he assaulted Ja Rule... then made some of the exact same candy-ass shit his platform was built to terminate [on sight].

The difference is that Get Rich or Die Trying is a classic album. From what's leaked from War Angel, the shit sounds like it's going to be another $12 coaster.

There's no need to discuss other niggas' careers to put real and fake shit into perspective when you've done some of the exact same hit-chasing bullshit for most of your own. When you can't run a hit down anymore, it's time to "keep it real" and go hardcore, I guess.

Whether it's "21 Questions" or "Many Men", your song's gotta be good in order to matter. Despite how labels currently do business with their artists, there is no magic formula for a hit record. The artist who only panders to the irrational bloodlust of school children ends up broke and whining about it on World Star.

50 needs to leave Rawse alone and reflect on what it was about his music that made his initial ascent so effective.

[Hint: It wasn't just "In Da Club"]

Questions? Comments? Requests? It's in there... and it's begging to be unleashed. ron@ronmexicocity.com

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