Your Favorite White Boy

They say confession is good for the soul. Today we offer another installment of The Confessional, a new feature on Your Favorite White Boy, where your man B-Double will be confessing certain things that he would not dare bring up in the company of his hip-hop brethren.

Bless me Reverend Run for I have sinned.

It’s been 14 days since my last confession.

I’m by no means a big 50 Cent fan. I may have been digging him if he had kept his pre-fame “How To Rob” style, but 9 shots and a need to dumb it down to double his dollars took care of that. So, I’m not checking for Before I Self Destruct in any real way. Sure I’ll pick it up when it finally comes out, but its whatever. But I think the rap community takes an L when a guy that set the pace for a minute falls the hell off.

No doubt, Fifty has his fan base. Over the length of his career, he has sold tens of millions of records and judging by how many bloggers and stans are hyped as all hell for BISD to drop. I mean, even a week effort like Curtis sold 5 million.

But love him or hate him, Curtis Jackson has always had an important role to play in hip-hop. Since his big entrance into the game with “Wanksta”, Fifty has challenged the status quo of rap and stirred up some serious ish. He goes beyond a typical drama setter, taking it hard to some your (formerly) favorite rappers while having the business acumen, heavyweight hip-hop affiliations and sales figures to back it up.

He quickly became a giant in the game and kept everyone on their ps and qs. He started setting the trends that other rappers only followed, from his mixtape hustle to his ability to craft a memorable hook. He reinvented the idea of rap beef and even managed to sink some rappers’ battleships. In some way, he was the ultimate MC: braggadocio on the mic and in real life and wasn’t afraid to claim he was the undisputed best. If you wanted to compete with Curtis, you better be ready for war.

But on the eve of his latest release, I am observing a 50 Cent that isn’t setting trends, but is coasting along. BISD may still ultimately earn a platinum plaque, but it doesn’t nearly have the buzz of Get Rich or Die Tryin’ or The Massacre (or even Curtis for that matter). He couldn’t kill The Game, Fat Joe or Young Buck and now he’s taking on Lil Wayne. Wonder how that will turn out. Kanye aired him out on the sales tip and he welshed on his bet to retire. With his inability to evolve for the times, when he talks his ish these days, it just sounds mad corny.

And you know what? I’m sad. This dude used to be a check on rappers who thought they were the illest. Curtis has the whole industry shook at one point – you never knew who he would go after next and he kept everyone on his agenda. I thought that was good for hip-hop. At its essence, rap has always been about crushing the top dude, about taking the crown by all means necessary. Not only did 50 embody that, he made rappers step up their game.

It looks like Fifty can’t keep the pace any longer and has decided to coast through and start resting on his record. And we all know that spells an imminent demise in the rap game. Evolve or die. If that is the case, I think hip-hop loses. You don’t always have to be a Andre 3000 or a Nas to change the game.

50 brought fight back to rap. Unfortunately, no matter how great the boxer, you can’t fight forever.