Back 2 Da’ Future…

^ Shouts to Gooch for sending me an e-mail with a bunch of these pics.

I cringe when I see Eminem do this. He really doesn't need to dress like some foolio wigger. It belittles the dudes actual talent for rapping and makes him look like a B-boy mockery. Someone e-mail Elliott Wilson and beg Eminem to NEVER dress like this again. Evar! And for that matter, don't let Bruno teabag you either even if MTV execs tell you it will be funny. It really wasn't.

I remember visiting Detroit in the summer of 2003 to attend the homecoming of the Anger Management tour. Obie Trice was on the rise through the Shady ranks, D-12 was solidly doing their thing as Eminem's back up boy band and 50 Cent was the fucking monstar. The shows had Ford Field packed to the rafters and I would have to go back to my memories of the Fresh Fest at Madison Square Garden to get a vibe with similar energy.

The world belonged to Eminem and 50 Cent back then. They were the Boston Celtics with Bill Russell and Bob Cousy, The Pittsburgh Steelers with Bradshaw and Franco Harris, the Yankees With Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams, the Detroit Red Wings with whoever those white dudes wearing skates were. I'm talking an official dynasty. The entire rap universe was turning on the Shady model. In order to get in any record label meeting you were going to have to be either a ridiculously wordy white rapper or someone shot nine or more times.

Then there were the low points that 50 and Em had to go through like 50's personal problems with his BM and Em's loss of his best friend and actual weedcarrier Proof, but in 2009 they looked to return to prominence and capture their forgotten glory. 50 came close against Rick Ro$$, but was ultimately turned back as his album release stalled and the machine at Universal DefJam pushed Ro$$' album forward. Eminem found a new high, or low, depending on who's calling it for establishing his brand of sociopath rap.

Now in order for 50 Cent to successfully re-emerge he is going to have to add to the level of contempt and madness that he used to establish himself in the first place. Just like when he buried Ja Rule. It wasn't all of his own doing but the fact that most of usa were tired of Ja's syrupy sweet rap songs. The fans on a whole were tired of the Rick Ro$$ character too but somewhere in that equation 50 didn't have the knock out punch. It was Ro$$ who was making all the hits.

How does a former rap juggernaut re-awaken? Or does 50 just let his rap career die on the vine? He has a shitload of other revenue streams to juggle. Is it even worth the effort to rap any longer?