50 Cent is Independent
The biggest news this week was that finally 50 Cent might just get to release an album after being put on the shelf for about three years. By now we should all know that it isn't going to be through Interscope which has has been his home, but through an independent venture that eventually filters through Universal. This is pretty significant for a couple of reasons, one of which is that we still care about what Curtis Jackson does musically.
Let's be honest, 50 isn't the most relevant musically. There are some people who are fans like myself, who can find something on most of his projects that takes us back to when he was first hitting us with the G-unit music of the early 2000's. He has struggled to get the formula that would allow Interscope to put something out, although that seems to me that there were other issues because if it's one thing 50 can do it is create singles that can move something. In a way he is kind of victim to the same thing that befell Nelly, expectations get placed so high that anything that moves into the realm of normal sales for a rap artist who has been out that long in today's climate feels like a loss. Reality is, only Jay, Em and Ye have even sort of the track record of 50 can still can move major units and headline major tours.
In light of this, the move to independent is a good move for Fif. He has a huge social media presence with Thisis50 being still relevant and he is constantly putting out music videos and content for the website as well as being heavily involved with the Shady channel on Sirius Xm. He does a lot of traveling and still gets a lot of love overseas and has his SMS brand which while not as popular as anything that Jay or Puffy put their hands on must have some type of sales behind it.
What it also does is remove the pressure to put up huge numbers and when they don't happen, find reasons or excuses for low or middling sales. His most recent mixtapes have been alright but nothing really huge so finding that as the happy medium and being able to get up to about 100k will be a success now. The other thing is being able to control just how much, now 50 can put out ep's of 6-8 songs (I guess a full album is over 10) and be able to have some success with those and see what works without so much pressure for promotion and profitability. The constant videos have made the costs for them a lot less than it used to be. These days now you just have someone whom you pay a salary instead of some huge name guy for just one single. The entire project can be done in short order and cross promoted by being on the website as a source of content.
Overall it's a good deal for 50 which is what I think he has been angling for over the last couple of years.
Let's be honest, 50 isn't the most relevant musically. There are some people who are fans like myself, who can find something on most of his projects that takes us back to when he was first hitting us with the G-unit music of the early 2000's. He has struggled to get the formula that would allow Interscope to put something out, although that seems to me that there were other issues because if it's one thing 50 can do it is create singles that can move something. In a way he is kind of victim to the same thing that befell Nelly, expectations get placed so high that anything that moves into the realm of normal sales for a rap artist who has been out that long in today's climate feels like a loss. Reality is, only Jay, Em and Ye have even sort of the track record of 50 can still can move major units and headline major tours.
In light of this, the move to independent is a good move for Fif. He has a huge social media presence with Thisis50 being still relevant and he is constantly putting out music videos and content for the website as well as being heavily involved with the Shady channel on Sirius Xm. He does a lot of traveling and still gets a lot of love overseas and has his SMS brand which while not as popular as anything that Jay or Puffy put their hands on must have some type of sales behind it.
What it also does is remove the pressure to put up huge numbers and when they don't happen, find reasons or excuses for low or middling sales. His most recent mixtapes have been alright but nothing really huge so finding that as the happy medium and being able to get up to about 100k will be a success now. The other thing is being able to control just how much, now 50 can put out ep's of 6-8 songs (I guess a full album is over 10) and be able to have some success with those and see what works without so much pressure for promotion and profitability. The constant videos have made the costs for them a lot less than it used to be. These days now you just have someone whom you pay a salary instead of some huge name guy for just one single. The entire project can be done in short order and cross promoted by being on the website as a source of content.
Overall it's a good deal for 50 which is what I think he has been angling for over the last couple of years.
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