It has been the talk of the past few weeks: Two titans of hip-hop releasing albums on the same day. And when the egos involved are as large as Kanye West’s and 50 Cent’s, the faceoff becomes epic. They started it, but we finish it by breaking down the merits of each rapper’s latest album, which hit stores Tuesday.
MUSICAL INNOVATION
(winner) West: West continues to push the genre forward with synthesizers, piano and electric guitars.
Fitty: Um. No comment.
BEST LYRIC
(winner) West: “Haters, start your engines / I hear ’em gearin’ up / People talk so much [bleep] about me at barbershops / They forget to get their haircut,” on “Everything I Got.”
Fitty: Take your pick: Nearly every lyric on the record features 50 firing a gun, obsessing over his money or having sex, none of it particularly interesting.
BIGGEST GUEST PERFORMER
West: Coldplay’s Chris Martin on “Homecoming”
Fitty: Justin Timberlake on “Ayo Technology”
BEST MOMENT
(winner) West: “Stronger,” featuring a skittering electronic sample of Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.”
Fitty: When it’s over.
WORST MOMENT
(winner) West: Chris Martin, trying to get his funk on over steel drums on “Homecoming.”
Fitty: The hyper-macho violence permeating the entire record.
THE WINNER: KANYE WEST
Kanye’s record is far from the masterpiece many hoped for, but he has more personality and sounds better than 50 Cent, who’s still stuck in the gangsta cliches and one-speed rap style that made him a star in 2003.
