CD Review: 50 Cent -- Curtis
50 Cent
Curtis
(Shady/Aftermath/Interscope)
By Quibian Salazar-Moreno
Earlier this year, 50 Cent made millions from an investment in Glaceau Vitamin Water — so much loot, in fact, that he's bragged about how he "doesn't even have to rap." That's clearly the case on Curtis: 50 is no longer hungry, and it shows. This summer alone, he released five singles (with four videos), but none of them really caught fire, and it's not hard to see why. As a lyricist, he hasn't progressed: He's still rhyming about money ("I Get Money") and girls ("Peep Show" and "Amusement Park") or dishing out idle threats of violence ("My Gun" and "I Still Kill"), but we've heard it all before. By enlisting hot-at-the-moment artists such as Akon, Justin Timberlake and Robin Thicke to sing the hooks, 50 thinks he's creating music the masses want to hear. Instead, he ends up with a hodgepodge of wannabe ring-tone hits that don't provide any of the energy that made us want to be down with G-Unit when Get Rich or Die Tryin' first dropped. Although tracks like "Fully Loaded Clip" and "Man Down" bang, overall it looks like 50's spent.
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