A kung fu fighter in a disco

Fiddy embodies a lot of lowest-common-denominator 'urban' music which I am totally a sucker for - the completely generic, formulaic vaguely Eastern sound, usually with a tinny strings/flute in there, usually Scott Storch will be in the vicinity, production always buffed and polished so that it has this awesomely tectonic metallic sheen to it, futuristic in that totally obvious way that a lot of mainstream sci-fi signifiers are. I am writing about this re the new Pussycat Dolls single for my column and I have compared it to the recipe for a cupcake perfected over generations - you follow it to the letter every time and do not fuck with any of the ingredients or quantities because you know it makes the PERFECT CUPCAKE!

Beyoncé's 'In Da Club' was even better than this - in fact one of my favourite mp3s ever is the 10-min megamix of Beyoncé's cover, then Mary J's cover, then the original mixed into each other.

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good analogy re cupcake

'In Da Club' is about arriving in style and i do love beginnings. it's actually really disappointing that 50 had nowhere to go after this that could impress you in any way.

the only way he is a good role model is that he acquired skills to pay bills and escaped the ghetto like many others before him. but as usual the bigotry is not just part of the act and this makes him endearing only to plebs who feel the same way as he does about women, the gays and whatnot.

not a particularly good artist or even businessman, or even a good product (compared to Em, Luda and others since)! just adequate. 50 actually seems more niche than other big MCs because his schtick is directly post-gangsta with seemingly no interest in exploring other areas unlike even Snoop. everything has been set up for him as it is with popstars and so you wonder what he'll do when everyone loses interest. it seemed to take only two years for the creative juices to dry up.

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carsmilesteve.livejournal.com

no interest in exploring other areas unlike even Snoop.

pffffffffffffft.

sorry, my mind is in the gutter...

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altho is the MC the icing on the cupcake, or the cake itself?

50 ends up more like one of those edible ball-bearings in the end.

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What, you mean "Amazing! What will you HUMANS come up with next!"?

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He's a good role model in that he illustrates that any talk of popstars being role models in the first place is so much nonsense. He's thick, and not very talented, and probably a bit bigoted, and he got v rich, and you know what - it doesn't matter. It's not a question of moral outrage, despite the almost hysterical condemnation of him at times.

(In the formulaic cases the MC/singer is generally the icing on the cupcake - in fact if at any point the performer becomes cupcake him/herself, I would argue that it's not really the generic lowest-common-denominator stuff I'm talking about)

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Lots of people aspire to be like him because he is the latest who embodies/represents certain 'values'/lifestyle that are marketed as seductive. When 50 is gone someone else will do that (but T.I. won't get to his level so that's interesting - actual decline now in effect wrt generating new rap stars? at least in the UK). Pop stars just are role models, regardless of whether or not they should be ('yes when they do this, but not when they do THAT'), so yes it is daft in that respect.

Also it's weird that Busta has somehow gone back to top of the pile and this seems to leave the likes of 50 and The Game even more marginalised here.

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I don't think The Game is so much marginalised as "between albums", surely? It's Game who arguably really renders Fifty irrelevant, you don't need the latter when you've got the former.

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but Game is even worse than 50! and i got the impression he was washed up already. there was all that in-fighting that was supposed to be good publicity/for sales but doesn't seem to have got them very far.

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Game is technically the better rapper (where do I get my authority on this? - who can say?), seems to have more spark and intelligence, and has a wider range of interests.

Good Game tunes that don't have Fiddy on: Dreams, Put You On The Game, I'm sure there are others.

Good Fiddy tunes that don't have the Game (or Mobb Deep) on: er, the one in this poll and that's it.

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I mean basically if you have 50 a beat like the one on Put You On The Game he would have zero clue what to do with it!

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But he embodies them in such a cartoonish way that I think even if you did aspire to the same material values, the way you set about acquiring them would necessarily have more to do with you than him. It's like the old music/violence arg - similar values existing in parallel rather than one causing the other.

I think The Game is pretty rubbish, actually - a couple of decent singles but nothing as spectacular as 'In Da Club' or even 'Just A Lil Bit'.

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carsmilesteve.livejournal.com

but fiddy is such a dreadfully lazy rapper, i agree the production ("in da club" in particular) is super excellent but then his little weedy expressionless drone appears over the top and almost ruins a topclass track, and frankly most of his backing tracks have been significantly worse than this...

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I like his rapping! Of course it doesn't have any character or anything in it, but it's the equivalent of Britney's singing - it is so penumatic and robotic it barely sounds human, it sounds like it has been CONSTRUCTED in a FACTORY rather than coming from vocal cords.

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