| Two years on from his pledge to get rich or die trying, New York's Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson is turning his guns on the opposition. Barely ten seconds into The Massacre, the first innocent - a young woman opening her Valentine's present, no less - is dispatched in a hail of gunfire, and from there on in, the carnage seldom lets up. "Piggy Bank" sees him tossing insults at Jadakiss, Ja Rule, Nas, Fat Joe, and Kelis in the verses, and counting his big piles of money in the chorus, while "Gatman and Robbin" - featuring vocals and production from Eminem - paints the pair as gun-toting supergangstas with bulletproof vests and an all-for-one-and-one-for-all attitude to beef. And when there's not violence, there is sex. The single, "Candy Shop", debuts new G-Unit singer Olivia, who gives 50 the opportunity to test out some of his best double entendres: "I'll melt in your mouth, girl, not in your hand." There's not a track here with the cross-over capacity of "In Da Club", and at 21 tracks long, it would be disingenuous to claim The Massacre is wholly without filler. But the beats are tight, and 50's still got one of the most confident styles in the game: it would be absurd to suggest The Massacre was going to be anything other than huge. --Louis Pattison |
