Kanye West & 50 Cent - Album Battle - Kanye West & 50 Cent

“What I want everybody to do right now is take your cell phones out, get your cameras out," said 50 Cent at the Times Union Center in Albany, New York. And then, he said he would be performing the first single off of his upcoming album, “Before I Self Destruct”. However, he was to make a joke first. The instrumental electronic soundings of Kanye West’s “Love Lockdown” began, and Fitty began to sing “I’m not loving you…” in an obvious mock of West.

The two rappers are once again allegedly in a SoundScan battle. On September 11th of last year they both dropped albums, however Kanye’s thumped 50’s most notably. The quality, diversity and content of “Graduation”, Kanye’s third album, were much to be admired and remembered. On the other hand, I did enjoy rockin’ away to hits like “I Get Money” and “Ayo Technology” but let’s face it; there probably wasn’t a real competition there. 50 showed some grace on “Curtis” by featuring Justin Timberlake in a song, but Kanye drew in talent from many genres even Techno (“Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”). It seems this is what music-lovers look for today.

Sad to say, aside from the fact that these artists are some of the biggest in the world, and are usually known for awesome material, these two records are looking sort of grim. Fifty seems to be going for the ever efficient “start some drama” tactic and Kanye seems to have lost touch with his original fan base.

Last time, 50 promised with all of his heart that he would retire his career if he should lose, unfortunately for 50 Cent-haters he did not, because of contractual obligations to his label (which I believe he was aware of when he made the promise).

At this point, the release dates for, “Before I Self Destruct” and “808’s and Heartbreak” are December 9th and December 16th, respectively. These dates can be changed easily to rebirth a rivalry that most of us don’t care enough to entertain again, but will do so solely for the love of Rap. However, with only about a week separating them these two albums are sure to kick up some December dust, or snow, if you’re into that sort of thing.