We can always count on 50 Cent to be busy in the night. From vitamin water to energy drinks to competitive headphones, 50 has not stopped the ball from rolling in terms of keeping his spot among the Forbes list. To our despair, we have seen the effect of his success with the production of lackluster musical pieces, stemming from his almighty shine atop platinum selling albums and the late G-Unit movement. Since the release of the album Before I Self Destruct and mixtapes including 5 (Murder by Numbers) and Magic in Queens, his music has fell short of the sucker punch given by his earlier works. In an interview with the Breakfast club on Power 105.1, 50 says that he is eager to recreate the feeling of producing music that has importance to the state of Hip Hop presently and he hopes to do so with the release of his new project. Tomorrow, June 3rd, 50 will drop his latest solo album appropriately titled Animal Ambition.
As a treat to the fans, and unorthodox of traditional album releases, 50 dropped each one of the singles to his album periodically over the passed few months, only to quickly remove them from the site. Giving the audience a chance to listen to the entire album before buying it was genius, given the modernity where downloading is the norm and people would feel the need to hear the album before paying for it when they could easily obtain it from the Internet for free. This could become a trend, however it could backfire on album sales if the public generates negative views of the album before its release. From the way the album sounds, he won’t have that problem.
You can always count on an album filled with some heavy and direct lines from 50. “Hold On” gives us some of the core principles that he lives by: supply and demand, and take initiative. The production done by Frank Dukes was a sampling masterpiece, offering a smooth ride for 50 to speak to us. It was almost as smooth as the production of “Irregular Heartbeat”, created by G Rocka and Medi, who give a professionally soft sound with a unique drum effect resembling a heartbeat at the end of the chorus. Not to mention, all three verses (including features from Jadakiss and Kidd Kidd) make it a song that will be played more than once. The deluxe version includes some bonus tracks, including “Flip On You” featuring Schoolboy Q and produced by Nascent. The radio-hit “Smoke” including Trey Songz is also featured among the tracklist.
It could not have come at a better time for 50 to co-weekly release his executively produced gritty crime thriller, Power. Omari Hardwick and Naturi Naughton star in the original series due to be aired on Starz this week. 50 also rocked his performance at Summer Jam 2014 on Sunday, bringing out the entire G-Unit crew along with Fabolous, Yo Gotti, and others for a touch back down to his street roots (including the usual on-stage commotion). This is an important week for him, and I am sure he will spare no expense at the celebration party.
Cameron Haslip is a contributor to the A3C news blog. Follow directly on IG: @camhaslip.
