S. Samuel
With Timbaland, Lady Gaga, Birdman and more releasing albums on the same day, SOHH asked Rick Ross how he felt about his Def Jam labelmate Rihanna going head-to-head against 50 Cent.
Rick Ross was very confident in Rihanna’s selling ability.
“Of course,” Ross said about Rihanna’s new album out-selling 50. “That’s Rihanna, one of the most beautiful, talented human beings on the planet. You can’t even say her name next to woodface. But more importantly, that’s a nice line-up of artists. Birdman, that’s my brother. I look at 50 Cent and Lady Gaga as the same. So I really recognize Lady Gaga, I mean Birdman and whoever else you said but at the same token but I feel like we’ve won already because the state that the industry is in, you know, it’s hard to break new artists and you know, we’ve brought Triple C’s to the table six months after me receiving the number one album [with Deeper Than Rap] and we pretty much did this hands-on by ourselves.” (SOHH)
50 Cent recently confirmed reports of Before I Self Destruct dropping on the same day as pop stars Rihanna and Lady Gaga.
“I guess I should be devastated that I’m up against Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga and Britney Spears?” 50 said in an interview. “This is a great competition, you mean to tell me I get the chance to go into a battle against pop singers? I don’t see myself in competition with artists that aren’t even in the same genre. Could you find a rapper for me to compete with please? Now I gotta fight Justin? I’m gonna fight him and kick his a**!” (The Canadian Press)
Fif has also called the album a prequel to his 2003 debut.
“Not particularly this song, but the entire project — I meant for it to be a little harder and what I fell in love with about hip-hop and within hip-hop,” 50 explained about his upcoming project. “I accomplished it. Before I Self Destruct is absolutely harder than Get Rich or Die Tryin’ or other projects in between. The Massacre had some real aggressive content on it, but there were other things I wanted to do, like ‘Ryder Music,’ ‘Baltimore Love Thing,’ ‘Build You Up,’ featuring Jamie Foxx. This project, I kept all of those things out of it. I just made it what I wanted it to be. This album is my album right now. It’s like the prequel to Get Rich — the things I missed on that project.” (MTV)
Rihanna and Fif will also face-off against new artists like Cash Money Records’ Jay Sean.
Universal Music Group is serving up a plentiful feast for Thanksgiving week. Some of the biggest names in music will all release their high-profile albums on the Monday before the holiday. The recording giant has moved up the majority of its November 24 releases by one day to Monday, November 23, a day before the traditional Tuesday release. The shift extends across the Universal umbrella, including Interscope Geffen A&M, Universal Motown/Republic, and Island Def Jam. The new date will take advantage of the start of the holiday shopping season when customers flock to stores to stock up on gifts. 50 Cent’s Before I Self Destruct, Rihanna’s new album, Timbaland’s Shock Value 2, Lady Gaga’s The Fame Monster, Jay Sean’s All or Nothing and Birdman’s Pricele$$ will all drop on the same day. (Rap-Up)
Check out Rick Ross’ SOHH interview below:
