Since coming back to Montreal I've noticed that downtown has become more francophone, Concordia has buildings all over the place and 50 Cent mania is still going strong. Being spoken to or served in French has been refreshing (you need to understand I don't hear much Francais in China), watching Concordia give McGill a run for their money is amusing but seeing and hearing the infamous Curtis Jackson's message of greed, ruthlessness and selfishness wherever I go is everything but pleasant.
50 Cent, like many of today's music and sports stars, is not here to help save or change the world. He's not here to be a positive force in Hip Hop. The rapper has made it clear in many interviews that he's not here to be a role model either. Mr. Jackson is here to teach us how to 'Get Rich Or Die Trying'. For those who forget, 'Get Rich Or Die Trying' was the title of his first cd that sold 12 million copies. It's also the name of his film that will be hitting movie theaters on November 11.
Regardless of how ignorant or offensive some may see 50's message, he continues to be a media darling. If Bow Wow is Mr. 106 & Park, 50 should be called Mr. MTV. His songs and videos receive the most play. There always some music channel or radio station that wants to do a one on one with him. MTV films produced his movie and MTV books published his autobiograph. His story of dealing drugs as a kid, receiving jail time, getting getting shot 9 times and then signing a 1 million dollar record deal continues to fascinate the media. They're behind him they same way they were behind Micheal Jordan. I haven't read or heard of any high profile journalist or media outlet come down on 50. The media knows that any attack on 50 Cent would be an attack on the 'American Dream'.
The mainstream media isn't the only one standing behind 50. One afternoon I was checking out some sneakers in Sport Fever and made jokes to my friend about the store looking like the 50 Cent fan club headquarters. There was posters of him and his G Unit everywhere. As luck would have it, one of his songs came on. I told my friend that I hoped one day Fif would think of something more intelligent to say in his music. My friend laughed, but the young female clerk who was behind us wasn't amused at all. She jumped on me as if I was talking about her mother. "But at least he's rich though!" she said, looking as if I was crazy to say anything bad against Mr. Jackson and the G-G-G-G-G-G-G Unitttt. I had no idea she was even listening me. "What's your point? He makes good music and he's so f------ing rich," she added. Shocked and a little alarmed by her defense of 50, I told her that I saw things differently and left it at that.
Next to Eminem, 50 is the best selling and most known rapper on the planet. I'll never forget the two teenagers I met in a small town south of Shanghai who were rocking 50 Cent T-shirts. They could barely speak English, but they were proud to show me that they knew the rapper from Queens. The spolight is on him similar to the way it was on Micheal Jordan. 50 literally has the world's attention, just as Jordan did. It was a shame that all Jordan said while he was the most recognizable man on the planet was: "just do it" , it's equally as shameful to hear the face of Hip Hop not say anything more than Get Rich Or Die Trying.
Fimo R. Mitchell " Cultural Icons Without a Cause", Community Contact (August 2005)
