50 Cent’s Piece on ABC’s Nightline Sells 50 Cent and the Maturity of Hip Hop Fans Short!
I just watched Dan Harris’ ABC Nightline piece on 50 Cent, and I’m livid.
Dan follows 50 on a humanitarian mission to a Somalian refugee camp to see where 50 Cents charity is actually saving lives. I saw the whole piece as a way of trying to tear 50 Cents persona down, instead of build him up. Trying to “expose” him where there was nothing to be exposed.
It’s slight, and not so slight at times, but it’s there. The jabs, digs and mockery.
The piece starts off with mentioning how 50 Cent is best known for,
“Bedding women, drinking champagne and getting shot 9 times”
If this was 2005 that would be true. This is 2012. 7 years after his 2nd album. 50 is known for much more than that now. How about being on Forbes Richest Black Entertainers list? How about starting G-Unit and launching several hip hop careers? How about his multimillion dollar Vitamin Water deal? How about “thisis50.com”, listed in the top 2000 websites in the US. Top 5500 in the world. How about saying simply that
50 Cent is known for his Hip Hop Business Acumen.
However I realize this is Nightline aka “White-line” so let’s cut them some slack.
After they show 50 at a security briefing Harris says that 50 “claimed” not to be nervous at all.
When asked directly 50’s response is,
According to the briefing it can be pretty dangerous but we don’t get briefings in the environment where I come from and it can be pretty dangerous there also.
Just the fact that Dan Harris said, “Claims” pissed me off. 50 would choke this cat out, if he could get a free pass and no jail time 50 would have Harris’ lunch money.
When 50 goes on to tell him that he is looking for a way to make his life, his legacy more meaningful, Harris says that 50 Cent is
A Bad Boy rapper with an Identity Crisis
How the f*ck is that an identity crisis. Just because someone beds a lot of women, dealt drugs before and now has money and wants to do something positive, how is that an identity crisis? He dealt drugs to make money, now he deals records. He’s still a business man. Since when can’t someone pop bottles of champagne and sleep with beautiful women and still be a humanitarian. Bono doesn’t’ party? Matt Damon doesn’t party?
Then in a montage of a past interview with 50 at his Connecticut estate combined with clips of him with the children at the refugee camp, he says that 50 Cent
Is in real life, very different then his public Image.
That is the issue right there. That statement right there. It’s the public image that the media created of 50 Cent. So instead of Dan Harris admitting they perhaps had him wrong. That they [the media] painted the wrong picture, 50 Cent is labeled with an identity crisis. Almost as a phony.
He says that this refugee mission would further alienate his core audience. “Further”? We are still there. We are not animals either. We want to see hungry children get vaccinated and fed. And like 50 said, those who aren’t following might not necessarily be growing at the same pace.
Harris is selling hip hop fans short; as if we aren’t mature enough to understand world hunger and famine. Now when i go to i-Tunes I’m going to feel a lot better about buying a 50 Cent album then a Rick Ross album. Real talk!
He wraps the piece up by calling 50’s journey a “spectacle”.
The education of 50, the battle for this rappers soul is a fascinating spectacle to behold.
Spectacle is just not the correct word. It’s borderline but purposeful. These are real journalist and I suspect that they choose their words carefully. Yes it can mean impressive or dramatic, but it can also mean ridiculous.
No it’s not a spectacle; it’s a clear misunderstanding of America’s concept of where he’s from, and what he’s overcome. Is Ice Cube a spectacle, Jay-Z, Ice T or Floyd Mayweather. Many of us can identify with 50 and appreciate what he’s doing. It’s more of a spectacle if there was no growth. Listen to Biggie’s first album, then his 2nd. What he talked about from the time of hustling drugs to when he was hustling albums was different, but at the same time, still the same.
Bottom line, 50 Cent hasn’t changed who he is. He’s matured. He has money, and like he has when he was selling drugs, he realizes that more money equals more resources. The core of the man is still there. His instinct for survival is still there. Now he’s in the boardroom with the suits and beating them at their own game (Vitamin Water). The only reason he agreed or sought after the piece on Nightline because it helps his cause. It gets his message out there to the masses. At the end Nightline doesn’t cater to the demographic of his fans and those that do watch are on board with 50’s mission. So despite the underhanded mockery, it was another brilliant chess move by 50.
You strip away everything, drop him off on any Martin Luther with one pair of clothes and 20 bucks and he will change that into a wardrobe and a million. The core of the man will always be there.
Props 50!
-Cosmo
Street King Energy Drink
This is 50
