S. Samuel
50 Cent recently justified his past reliance on "club" records and said the record labels force artists to create a particular radio sound in exchange for the appropriate marketing budget.
Speaking on the industry’s mixed reactions to his Curtis album, Fif explained his fusion of club and street records.
“If you don’t make a record that can actually play to a certain amount of audience, there is no possible way you’re going to get the marketing dollars necessary from your system to promote the project to the point that you have the huge successful records that I’ve had. Now I’ve made enough street material prior to Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ for you to forget ‘In Da Club’ was ‘In Da Club.’ And then the Curtis album, I didn’t make any of that music prior to that album and while other artists chose to sing their entire record, I chose to collaborate with other singers and they said that was the weakest album for me because the hip-hop community feels it’s up to me to give them the aggressive content. They don’t believe the other guys have experienced any portion of that lifestyle.” (Hot 97)
The G-Unit leader also said the popularity of R&B has had an impact on Dr. Dre‘s delayed Detox album.
“When’s the last time you heard a hip-hop record that didn’t have an R&B chorus in the Top 10,” Fif asked in an interview earlier this month. “You understand what I’m saying? It’s changing hip-hop music to the point where it’s necessary for you to have an R&B artist or perform like an R&B artist on the hook…You can tell the deejay to slow down but when motherf*cking [Black Eyed Peas‘] ‘Boom Boom Pow’ is No. 1, how you gonna tell the artist what to make?” (The B-Side)
50 recently spoke on the rap game needing to make a return to hardcore hip-hop.
“This one was exciting for me,” Fif said about his mixtape. “I have [writing] spurts. Like when I did [the original version of] The Massacre. I recorded the album in three days. It was like this [with War Angel]: two-verse songs. No third verse is on these records…It’s a cycle, creatively…It was a lot of soft music, a lot of lighthearted music, then DMX came out. Then it was like, ‘That’s what I’m talking about.’ ‘Get at Me Dog,’ it was that material that had that energy around it, then it got all lighthearted and soft all over again. Then there was 50 Cent, and that went on for five years.” (MTV)
Slim Thug also said the rap game has changed within the past few years.
“I’m really just out there like not giving a f*ck.,” Slim explained in an interview. “So it’s gonna be hard for me to find a decent single that could actually go on the radio. Sh*t like Jay-Z‘s ‘D.O.A’ sh*t, I feel him on that. N*ggas is too soft right now. It’s all about the girls. It ain’t used to be like that. It used to be about everything else, the streets. And that’s what it’s about with me. I’m just trying to keep that sh*t alive.” (Vibe)
Check out Fif’s interview below:
