![Get Rich Or Die Tryin [Clean Version]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/617vsjUWMZL._SL500_.jpg)
| Stabbed, shot, assaulted and now with a million-dollar record deal, 50 Cent lives up to the title of his latest album Get Rich or Die Trying. The New York native comes from the same school as B.I.G, Shine and Mobb Deep--a raw street rhymer who mixes the thug and poet in one perplexing package. 50 cent earned extra cred by coming up through mix-tape popularity after his first album was dropped when the ex-boxer was shot on the eve of its release. Guns, threats, drug deals and misogyny populate 50 Cent's outlaw world, but it's a popular mix--hence his recently sealed link with Eminem's record company. The excellent "Wanksta" was pulled onto the 8 Mile soundtrack and Dr Dre produced the crunching first single, "In Da Club". Jamaican Sean Paul puts his now familiar patter on the hypnotic "Dem Not Ready". "If You Want It" is a ridiculously rude party joint, while "Cocaine Dreams" takes a pop at Ja Rule. "Got the Hood on Smash" is, undoubtedly, damn funky. Sadly his first single "How to Rob an Industry N***A" (reminiscent of B.I.G's equally scabrous "Dreams") doesn't appear. Even the most hardcore have to tone it down sometimes. --Jake Barnes |
