the 50 cent album after one listen

- dude could have made this record a lot funnier! before now i thought of 50 as kind-of detached, watching thugged-out shit around him with a raised eyebrow so he can apply it the same way he applies those r'n'b singer jokes on "love me" (the twisting of other people's tracks on those mixtapes he put out was done with absolutely no love towards the originals - it sounded more like he wanted to be apart from the rest of hiphop so there could be a 50 cent version of everything), but maybe dre or someone has schooled him on the direct-action style. we get told every five minutes he was shot nine times, stabbed, etc so he could afford to take a wittier route without anyone thinking he should be in black sheep!

- i'm not feeling his torso, although i spent a long time looking at it yesterday.

- i think 50 spends a lot of time working on that elasticated, addictive flow. haven't caught many great micro-hook moments like that one part in "wanksta" ("daaamn homie / in high school you was the maaan homie / what the fuck happened to you?") or virtually all of "in da club" , but i'm thinking they'll start to hit me after a few listens. just as possible i'll never play the whole thing again though, i could be listening to the radio.

- the aftermath/shady records default sound is now, sadly, way worse than the roc or murder inc default sound! (look for the rakim record to be the most tedious good album of the year.)

- of the two eminem guest spot tracks, one sounds like ukg dude wiley playing at 33 (i mean instead of 45, mp3 headz!), and one ("patiently waiting") is a brilliant creeping-death gothy thing!

- my other favourite so far is that completely-out-of-place tender rap ballad with nate dogg.