50 Cent Once Shared That He Didn’t Like the Direction Hip-Hop Was Headed
50 Cent has been a major contributor to the rap industry since the Power show-runner made his debut. But there came a point where the rapper wasn’t too sure about the new era that was dawning in the rap industry.
50 Cent didn’t appreciate gangster rap being criticized
Rapper 50 Cent’s content was heavily influenced by the troubled and dangerous environment that he was raised in. Because of this, he’s shared that his lyrics have often reflected his experiences. The nature of his music has led other rappers like Ice-T to label 50 Cent the last gangster rapper in hip-hop.
“Because he basically embodied that image, that ‘I don’t give a f***.’ 50 Cent had you really believing you didn’t wanna f*** with him,” Ice T once said in an interview with Unique Access.
50 Cent was so passionate about the music he made that he was willing to defend the genre against others who criticized the sub-genre.
“I’m prejudice(d). I don’t like people who don’t like me. If you don’t like the content that I write because of my experiences; I am being who I am when I am writing it. I fall into that ‘label’ as far as you considering artists creating ‘Gangsta music,’ we fall into that,” he once told The Show Buzz (via CBS).
50 Cent once shared he didn’t like the direction hip-hop was heading in
Sometime in the 2000s, hip-hop began to move further away from gangster rap music. The dominant form of rap was becoming less aggressive with a different crop of artists emerging. 50 Cent took notice and wasn’t too keen with the way the genre was changing.
“It’s missing what I fell in love with about hip-hop culture,” he once said in an interview with the LA Times.
50 Cent felt that hip-hop was breeding a new generation of rappers that lacked the conscious awareness of prior generations.
“The younger kids coming up missed that time frame, and even the conscious rap is gone, too. The stuff that Common Sense and Talib Kweli and Mos Def were rhyming about. What was socially conscious and responsible about the music has been replaced by hipster kids in skinny jeans and mohawks,” he said.
To the “In da Club” hitmaker, rap was catering to a different demographic of fans that were influencing the genre’s direction.
“They’re trying to look like their audience to attract their audience. Now you can’t tell the difference between a Led Zeppelin fan and a hip-hop fan,” he said.
50 Cent once shared why he didn’t believe his rap music should be cleaned up
50 Cent once commented on the belief that his type of music could lead to real-life violence. The correlation between hip-hop music and violence has been a topic of debate for ages now. But 50 Cent felt there was no true correlation.
“They don’t mind the cable television programs giving you the same content; they don’t mind the Internet having the same content available. I think it affects people a lot more to see a film where somebody realistically gets their head blown off than to listen to somebody rapping for three minutes,” 50 Cent once said in an interview with Spin.
The business mogul believed his younger fans could make the distinguish between reality and entertainment. Ultimately, he felt the actions were up to the individual.
“If a person is so out of whack that they allow music to influence them to do something violent, then they can be influenced by anybody they have a conversation with on the street,” he said.
