Get Rich Or Die Tryin 2CD SHADY, 493564, 2003, DBL 22 Track  Stabbed, shot, assaulted and now with a million-dollar record deal, 50 Cent lives up to the title of his latest album Get Rich or Die Trying. The New York native comes from the same school as , Shine and --a raw street rhymer who mixes the thug and poet in one perplexing package. 50 cent earned extra cred by coming up through mix-tape popularity after his first album was dropped when the ex-boxer was shot on the eve of its release. Guns, threats, drug deals and misogyny populate 50 Cent's outlaw world, but it's a popular mix--hence his recently sealed link with 's record company. The excellent "Wanksta" was pulled onto the 8 Mile soundtrack and Dr Dre produced the crunching first single, "In Da Club". Jamaican puts his now familiar patter on the hypnotic "Dem Not Ready". "If You Want It" is a ridiculously rude party joint, while "Cocaine Dreams" takes a pop at . "Got the Hood on Smash" is, undoubtedly, damn funky. Sadly his first single "How to Rob an Industry N***A" (reminiscent of B.I.G's equally scabrous "Dreams") doesn't appear. Even the most hardcore have to tone it down sometimes. --Jake Barnes Review Get Rich Or Die Trying is boldly tipped to be a hip-hop classic. This 26 year old New Yorker 50 Cent aka Curtis Jackson, the biggest new hip-hop star of 2003, a ghetto celebrity, ex-crack dealer who turned to hip-hop as a way out of a gangstas fate: prison or death. He sold 2.1 million copies of his dark debut album in the first three weeks of its release (on Eminem's label) and he is already being compared to posthumous legends Tupac and the Notorious BIG. The single "In Da Club" a spectacular party anthem produced by Dr Dre,highlights 50 Cent's ability to twist his words effortlessly. "Lifes on the Line" and "Many Men (Wish Death)" delve into the ghetto morality where life is a cheap commodity and the rule of law is drugs, gangs, guns and ultimately death. 50 Cent was famously shot 9 times and as he muses without irony, "death has to be easy as life is hard." The surprise on the album is "21 Questions" which shows that even a gangsta has a heart. The need for emotional support results in the repetitive question "would you love me if I was down and out?" In an environment where ones fortunes could be anything from working in a burger joint, prison or worse - the need for a woman who is there is a "blessin" Get Rich or Die Tryin is the antithesis to the pop looped chart friendly sound of mainstream hip hop and offers listeners a fresh innovative approach. This album defines the urban black experience in 2003 in the same way that Curtis Mayfield's "We People who are darker than Blue" did in the 1970s. --Joy Dunbar This link will take you off in a new window