In 2016 with all of the technological advancements we have and how easy it is for a person to listen to a specific genre of music, we are in a great position to be able to witness and judge different types of music according to our own likes and dislikes. However, music is a great way for us to understand what an artist is trying to convey through his lyrics and beats. Gangsta rap was a style of music that personified the “thug” or “gangsta” lifestyle. Once a hardcore hip hop genre, it has evolved into a new distinct form due to the help of numerous artists and their change in their work because of the shifts in mainstream music. One such artist that attempted to bring out a last gasp for gangsta rap was 50 Cent. Curtis Jackson, or 50 Cent, with his album Get Rich or Die Tryin depicted his life of drug dealing and hardcore street life through his rhythm and lyrics. His album exemplified and sometimes even glorified the hard life that is involved in living in the streets and performing crimes.

After hearing the songs in the album and without doing any research on 50 Cent himself and about his life, one would assume that he was mixed in with the wrong crowd since his youth. He was born in the South Jamaica neighborhood in Queens. He grew up during the 1980s crack epidemic and started selling drugs at the young age of twelve. Tragedies and Jackson’s life seemed to go hand in hand for throughout his adolescence as his mother was murdered when he was eight years old and this caused him to live with his grandparents and practically be raised by the streets. The exposure of selling drugs in the streets along with other experiences with gang members and the police influenced his music. Along with an experience he had of being shot nine times also had a huge influence on the life he wanted to live. South Jamaica, in Queens, was designated as a poverty zone back in 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. It already was put in a terrible disadvantage and it became worse as the crack epidemic hit in New York City as South Jamaica became a hotspot for the epidemic. Different gangs practically operated the neighborhoods. These disadvantages made living in this neighborhood hard and affected the youth that lived in this area at the time. In high school, 50 Cent decided to pursue a rap career and this was where he put out a small initial album which got him enough recognition to sign a contract with Dr. Dre and Eminem. In 2000, he dropped his first major album, and probably his only major album, Get Rich or Die Tryin featuring both Eminem and Dr. Dre.

The album itself encompasses what it meant to be living in the streets of New York City. 50 Cent himself talks about his experiences being a drug dealer in many of the songs in this album. Overall, the album reminisces his experiences during this dark time in his life and basically gives us an inside look into the mind of people who have to live this life. The hip-hop era that started in the end of the 1980s and the 1990s had a huge impact on the hip-hop scene and this album can be thought of as a product of this era of hip hop. The idea of being a “gangster” was looked as an exciting aspect after listening to this album. The thrill and danger can be seen as an exhilarating lifestyle that most people crave even though they don’t understand the real situation that 50 Cent had to go through. While growing up, kids my age always started speaking more slang and pretended to be a “gangster” because this lifestyle and culture was really appealing and it has become more prevalent as more artists bring that aspect into their music and art. During the turn of the new century, a portion of New York City music was dominated through rap and hip hop and this album was considered a huge success during it’s time due to its excellent beats, and lyrics that people started to enjoy and started becoming more mainstream.

However, the whole genre of gangsta rap deals with a lot more than what 50 Cent had in his album and the popularity of its album. In the beginning, rap was generally only taken seriously by young inner city youth who had similar backgrounds to that of the artist or could relate to the lyrics in any sort of way. In simpler terms, thugs listened to thug music. In my opinion, Hip-Hop always seemed to be a genre of music that emphasized trying to be ‘cool’ in the eyes of different people.  50 Cent did a great job trying to show how his life can be taken in a new and excited way through his lyrics and through his beats. After doing a little initial research on 50 Cent, it became a little clearer why the lyrics went into such great detail on different situations of street life. Even the album title and album cover picture depicts what it really means to put your life on the line to be successful in street life. It comes down to either you are going to make it big or your going to probably die if you are not good enough. The album also goes into people trying to pretend like they are “gangsters”. In the song, Wanksta, 50 Cent raps about different people that pretend they are about the street life but are actually pretending to be something that they are not. In his song Wanksta he says, “You said you a gangsta, but you neva pop nuttin’.”Through his controversial lyrics and his extremely enticing beats, he uses his art as a way to express his past life and struggles in New York City along with educating others about the rigors of the street life of New York City.

Rap is considered a mainstream drama today but it is completely different from the original gangsta drama that was presented decades ago. Today, rappers like Drake and Macklemore have become hugely popular with their affective rap. They do not talk about hardcore street life or try to encourage it. As oppose to earlier rappers like, Ice Cube and Dr.Dre, they were fixed on getting their message across to  public. Rap groups like the N.W.A. had collisions with the authority’s numerous amounts of times, but that didn’t stop them from sharing their rhymes and lyrics with their fans. While his thuggish ways distinguished him in the world of gangsta rap – helping to produce millions of record sales and generating media attention that in turn produced more record sales – since the unsolved murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, hip-hop culture and the music industry that continues to profit from it has changed. It has moved on from the sensibility that unchecked violence in the music has no consequences in reality. That’s not to say that drugs, violent crime or gangsterism has been completely eradicated either in our communities or in the music of hip-hop, but we have certainly moved on from the unchecked celebration of it, and some of the very same folks who were bangin’ in the 90s are helping to save young people in the streets today.  Rappers like Ice-T and Ice Cube are currently television and movie celebrities because of this new trend that takes away from gangsta rap. Ice Cube and other like him play pivotal roles in trying to bring awareness to the youth of today of not living a life that they lived in their youth. Recently, Ice Cube came out with a movie called Straight Outta Compton which beautifully depicted the struggles they had to go through in a time where segregation was blatantly obvious and it was extremely difficult for them to express their issues with society. They know have strong voices when it comes to racial or segregation issues and have become huge influences to kids in the inner city and try to help them from that lifestyle.

As a last gasp of relevancy, 50 Cent’s album shows how this genre of rap has evolved into something much different than how it started out. He can be declared the last gasp because many of the albums put out today are nothing like Get Rich or Die Tryin as they do not need to show thug life or harshness anymore. Today 50 Cent has merely become just an afterthought in terms of celebrities and famous rappers. His name only pops up here and there for different controversies that he finds himself in and he hasn’t put in an album of quality since this album which gave him his fame. His album and fame demised because of the aforementioned change in rap style. 50 Cent lacks what artists like Drake and Kendrick Lamar bring into the market and this is why he is considered just a mere afterthought. This is extremely surprising after his album sold 12 million copies and the album made Rolling Stone’s list of the top 50 albums of the decade and became one of the most commercially successful rap albums of all time. Though 50 Cent’s decline was due to himself and all the controversies that he got himself into, it also speaks volumes of the decline of gangsta rappers like him in today’s age. Recently, he was even got taking a video of a disabled airport employee who he had thought was high and putting it on his social media. Along with social controversies, he filed for bankruptcy recently to keep himself safe from lawsuits that have been filed against him. This has much relevance when we talk about his decline because it has much to do with it.

Get Rich or Die Tryin was in a sense the last gasp of gangsta rap before it completely diminished from mainstream music. It was an excellent example of what gangsta rap was because of its violent lyrics and hard beats. It exemplified the life of inner city youth and how living in the streets was something hard to deal with but somewhat cool. After a short decline due its extreme violent themes, gangsta rap came back but only to decline once again after new artists like Drake and Kendrick Lamar changed the landscape of rap was and the possibilities it could bring in terms of the lyrics they sang. 50 Cent has become a mere afterthought after his album brought him to the top. A generation of gangsta rappers have now been silent in their rap game as a new era of rap emerges.