Get Rich or Die Tryin'

Tough, raw and X-rated, this #1 best seller is being downloaded faster than 50 Cent can rap.

Artist: 50 Cent
Genre: Rap Label: Interscope Records Parental Advisory: Yes Edited Version Available: Yes Release Date: 02/06/2003

Common Sense Note

As famous for his Kevlar vest as for his acid tongue, 50 Cent isn't going from the top dog slot any time soon. Containment is the issue. His music is available in edited form -- it's a bit like listening to the Osbournes -- but know that kids get what he's talking about. They'll tell you they don't agree with and aren't influenced by 50 Cent's misogynistic, brutal lyrics and just like the beat. Don't count on it. Find a way to surface what they like and then discuss it with them so you at least get your 2 cents' worth.

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Common Sense Review

Reviewed By: Cynthea Riesenberg

GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN' begins with the sound of a 50-cent piece spinning on a table. That's the last sound some parents will feel comfortable with in this raw and energetic album produced by rap icons Dr. Dre and Eminem. It's a one-stop shop of crude references to genitalia, drugs, violence, obscenity of the four, ten, and twelve letter variety and, in its explicit version, the N and F words. Parents be warned: This CD should be reserved for mature teens, and may offend all but the most rap-hardened parents.

But teens are downloading this #1 best-selling CD and its individual songs like crazy. They like the way 50 Cent scornfully observes the world of the street. Drug users, prostitutes, label-obsessed consumers, and religious converts -- everyone gets skewered, sometimes all in one track. In "Heat," the rat-a-tat of automatic weapons and the squealing tires of a car chase are set to hymn-like chords, a "dis" to gangstas who find themselves seeking God only after bullets penetrate their vital organs. "P.I.M.P." has lines that are grim and misogynistic, but crudely humorous: "I holla at a hoe 'til I got a bitch confused/ She got on Payless, me I got on gator shoes." "Don't Push Me" sizzles: "Pistol in hand homie, I'm down to get it popping/ Once I squeeze the first shot/ No I ain't stopping till my clip is empty." Thus, much of the album lives up to its pre-release buzz, thanks to 50 Cent's clever lyrics and the swagger born of surviving the hood, multiple stabbings, nine bullets, and time in the joint -- or, as he drawls in "In Da Club," "Been hit wit' a few shells but I don't walk wit' a limp."

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