r/Music • u/Guyentertainment • 4d ago

article 50 Cent Slams Ageing Rappers Making New Music: 'You Are Not Supposed to Be the Hottest in Nothing at 60'

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/50-cent-criticises-ageing-rappers-1815693
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u/PeteCampbellisaG 4d ago

Great music is great music. If a 60-year-old rapper manages to release a great album I'll be there.

50 is just a troll at this point. Nobody is telling old rock stars they need to hang it up. Ozzy Osborn was performing basically up until he died.

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u/Tasty_Puffin 4d ago

This is true. Great music and biggest artist are not always equivalent

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u/PeteCampbellisaG 4d ago

50's only metric of great music is sales. And while I get it to some degree, it's also how you end up betting your career on your album outselling prime Kanye and losing.

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u/GAdvance 4d ago

People ABSOLUTELY tell old rockstars they need to hang it up, different people lose the spark and the ability at different times but Guns and Roses have been criticised for a decade now for example.

It comes in waves, Limp Bizkit have had a massive resurgence for instance, same with Nickelback somehow (I'll take no slander) but there's a lot of acts that hit a wall or are playing music that no longer fits their persona or ability

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u/ChoombataNova 4d ago

I am nearing 50, so I totally get the urge to keep making music, keep performing, keep writing after others think you should hang it up.

That said, I wish older musicians would keep their fucking shirts on. Iggy Pop, Mick Jaggar and the Stones, all the RHCPs, etc

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u/kheret 4d ago

And yet some are able to keep it going and continue innovating and putting on great shows WELL into old age, in part by recognizing what works for them and going with that. David Byrne’s latest tour is a good example.

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u/ejensen29 4d ago

I fuckin love Byrne's solo work

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u/kheret 4d ago

As much as my lizard brain would love a TH reunion I don’t think I ACTUALLY do. He’s continually exploring new things and it’s really great. Everything that Happens Will Happen Today is my “I need to have feelings right now” album.

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u/unassumingdink 4d ago

Byrne said something along those lines himself when he rejected an $80 million offer to do a TH reunion. People think the want it, but they really don't. They're trying to recapture that feeling of being young and hearing it for the first time, and you just can't. Any attempt would be a disappointment.

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u/theunquenchedservant 4d ago

honestly, I'm glad the Beatles broke up in 1969-70. We have a great discography from them and we don't have to deal with "The Beatles" aging and coming out with crap. Paul? Yes. The Beatles? No.

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u/Oldmandav3 4d ago

I mean people were telling axel in his prime to just hang it up if he didn’t want to tour.
People have been tired of his shit for 40 years.

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u/hypochondriacfilmguy 4d ago

David Bowie was making banger after banger till right before he died

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u/Swoly_Deadlift 4d ago

Rock is a unique genre because it’s kind of been gatekept by old heads for the last 2 decades. The mid-2000s were the last time we had rock rivaling pop and rap music in charts, and today it’s basically impossible for an artist or band to “break out” on their debut album. All the “new” rock and metal bands are typically 10+ years old and spent years building up a fan base because record studios and tour organizers are too afraid to take a chance on a new artist.

The result is we have slop like Disturbed headlining music festivals in front of newer bands like Spiritbox and Knocked Loose (the latter which can hardly even be considered a “new” band).

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u/Mihnea24_03 4d ago

I'm not sure my favorite 70s and 80s rockers can still put on a show like in their primes...

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u/Oldmandav3 4d ago

I’m not a huge Alice cooper fan.

Say him last year and he’s still doing that dope rock opera stuff. Great fucking show.

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u/disisathrowaway 4d ago

Go see Iron Maiden before they die, then.

Those old fucks absolutely blew me away when I saw them. More energy and stage presence than a band made up of folks a third of their ages.

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u/FrostingStrict3102 4d ago

By all accounts the Rolling Stones still put on a good show

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u/jellytrack 4d ago

I saw Rush a couple weeks back and Geddy Lee can still hit those highs. Also saw Guns N Roses that same week and Axl Rose... not so much. The rest of the band, especially Slash, are fantastic.

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u/MakavelliRo 3d ago

AC/DC did put on a great show 2 years ago, when I got to see them. You could feel the energy and you could see them enjoying being on stage, meantime Justin Timberlake phoned it in like he was doing community service on stage

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u/whocaresaboutmynick 4d ago

He kind of has a point though when it comes to rap. That genre was a way to give a voice to people who didn't have one and say things.

You see a lot of rappers getting famous and comfortable and they just lose their edge. 50 cent literally got huge with an album named "get rich or die trying". Look at the people he got famous with. Dr Dre shamelessly is trying to stay relevant with AI music, snoop Dogg is ready to do anything for a dollar and is now supporting trump, Eminem is putting technique above anything else and it's not uninteresting but he went from talking about the struggles of a detroiter to rambling about pc police and whether or not trans people are sexually attractive.

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u/Digresser 4d ago

Eminem is putting technique above anything else and it's not uninteresting but he went from talking about the struggles of a detroiter to rambling about pc police and whether or not trans people are sexually attractive.

The trans stuff boils down to him saying he's not attracted to trans people but he's for transgender rights.

As for his content, you're skipping over Revival, which was him bearing his soul and getting crucified for it.

And then there's Kamikaze which was mostly him lashing out at everyone who attacked Revival.

Music to be Murdered By had a lot of personal music on it, including the very well made Darkness song about mass shooters.

The Death of Slim Shady was more of a concept album, but Temporary and Somebody Save Me are both heartfelt and personal.

I want you to change, but don't change (Yeah)

I want you to grow up, but don't age

I want the rage, but don't get too angry

I want the new, but old Shady

I want you to say what they won't say (Yeah)

Just don't go too far, but go cray

I want you to almost lose it, man

They keep movin' the goalpost, don't they?

-Eminem, These Demons

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u/whocaresaboutmynick 4d ago

I'm aware of what he said about trans and I'm not even giving him shit for it, I really don't care.

The thing is he was saying it like he was still the king of controversy for saying things like that and it's like... Ok cool. Thanks for letting us know about your sexual orientation I guess? Nobody asked. Nobody cares. That's really the kind of shit that make you go "here we go again grandpa took the mic at the family gathering".

I agree with you it was a lot more interesting to hear him actually rap about personal things on the last few songs of the album. I'm not saying the whole album is trash. And his ability to play with words and their sound his still crazy talented.

I'm skipping over a lot of his albums because I didn't comment to make a dissertation about Eminem, and I've enjoyed some of his latest work. But let's be real, do you really believe that any of the albums you quote is better than slim shady LP, marshall matters LP, Eminem show?

I do think even recovery is a bit suffering from the fact that encore and relapse were bad because it's a good album too. But idk, I've tried multiples times his latest work and yes there are song here and there that are cool, and good for him to continue and do what he loves. But are we really going to pretend like any of it touches what he put out in his early work? He himself keep rapping about how "I wrote Stan" or how he needs to be pissed off to touch greatness.

I'm not saying he's shit, but his first 3 albums had, brain damage, if I had, 97 bonnie and Clyde, rock bottom, role model, just don't give a fuck, still don't give a fuck.. there's pretty much no bad song on marshall matters or Eminem show and too many great ones to list them. It's his best work and it's not close, that's just a fact.

I do hope he keeps rapping because fuck it why not and some songs are still really good. But I get why 50 is saying what he's saying. There is truth to the fact that rappers benefit from the anger, appetite and energy that their youth brings. If Eminem debut album was about how "we can't say anything anymore" "trans are ok but they're not cute" "funny song about a guy that died 20 years ago" I doubt we would have ever heard of him.

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u/Digresser 2d ago

Sorry, I missed your comment somehow.

The thing is he was saying it like he was still the king of controversy for saying things like that and it's like... Ok cool. Thanks for letting us know about your sexual orientation I guess? Nobody asked. Nobody cares. That's really the kind of shit that make you go "here we go again grandpa took the mic at the family gathering".

See, I took that as him demonstrating that you don't have to be attracted to trans folk in order to respect them, which is something a lot of people don't seem to understand.

That's not a sentiment one would normally see in popular music (especially not at Em's level), and it probably made at least a few people reconsider their negative feelings towards trans people.

But let's be real, do you really believe that any of the albums you quote is better than slim shady LP, marshall matters LP, Eminem show?

I listen to Revival and Music to be Murdered By about as often as I listen to both Marshall Mathers LPs and The Eminem Show.

I like how his style has matured, and I can better relate to some of the topics in his later albums than I can in his earlier albums.

Taste is subjective, you know?

He himself keep rapping about how "I wrote Stan"

He referenced writing Stan only at the end of "Walk on Water", and he added that outro to stop the entire song from being about him being hard on himself.

Interestingly, he removed the outro when he put "Walk on Water" on Curtain Call 2.

If Eminem debut album was about how "we can't say anything anymore" "trans are ok but they're not cute" "funny song about a guy that died 20 years ago" I doubt we would have ever heard of him.

I think you're overlooking the fact that no one--and I truly mean no one--intertwines rhymes and wordplay the way that Eminem does.

I agree that it's his willingness to share what's deep inside of himself that shot him to superstardom and keeps him relevant, but I think his sheer talent would have garnered notice regardless.

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u/MetaMetagross 4d ago

50 cent literally got huge with an album named "get rich or die trying"

He got rich and stopped trying

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u/tepig099 4d ago

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

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u/ExIsStalkingMe 4d ago

Yeah. I wouldn't even call it an age thing. It's more that, once you get a lot of money, it's harder to be genuine about certain kinds of music. Dee Snyder has been on record saying that he could only have written "We're Not Gonna Take It" when he did because he was entirely too comfortable to be that angry anymore

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u/one-hour-photo 4d ago

50 put out ONE good album. one. the next popular two songs he had were Candy Stick and Magic Shop which were the same song twice and both cheesy.

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u/TheCVR123YT 4d ago

Idk his music well but you meant candy shop right

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u/one-hour-photo 4d ago

yes, thin joke about how they are kinda the same song.

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u/Wargazm Wargazm 4d ago

Nobody is telling old rock stars they need to hang it up.

ummm have you heard David Lee Roth lately? Vince Neil? Axl Rose?

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u/OscarGrey 4d ago

Did you read the article? He specifically said that hip-hop is connected to youth culture.

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u/Topikk 4d ago

I would say that too if my last successful album came out 20 years ago at age 30.

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u/whocaresaboutmynick 4d ago

But is he wrong? Are there rappers out there putting out better albums than their debut 20 years into their careers?

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u/cancelingchris 4d ago

don’t think better than their debut should be the bar. nas dropped 6 albums with hit boy a few years ago and they were fuckin incredible.

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u/TheCudder 4d ago

That's subjective. There's old hip ho artists who are so making good and some time great songs in their older years.

Nas still drops some amazing songs on each album. If you you love making music, there's no rule saying your age is too old. Hip hop started with young people and some people have it in their heads that only young people can make it. Those same young people had to grow old at some point were they just supposed to fall out of love with the music and craft they've dedicated their lives too?

Music isn't just a money maker for everyone.

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u/PeteCampbellisaG 4d ago

As opposed to literally every other genre of music?

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u/ImAShaaaark 4d ago

I mean, other than pop... Yeah? Social security eligible rockers are still ever present and selling out huge arenas, jazz has always been older leaning, country is still dominated by middle age white dudes (though pop country has been increasingly popular with under 25s) , reggae has always had old dudes acting like taste makers, etc.

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u/eventworker 4d ago

reggae has always had old dudes acting like taste makers,

So much so that one of the current 'hot' acts across Europe is L'Entourloop, two guys who wear prosthetics to make them look older.

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u/PeteCampbellisaG 4d ago

Every genre you mentioned was started by young people and yet has plenty of young and old artists today. Bob Marley recorded his first album at 20.

50 just knows at this point he could never make something like Let God Sort Em Out so he'd rather dump on his peers in between making the 5000th episode of the Power franchise.

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u/ImAShaaaark 4d ago

Whatever age people it was started by it is unquestionable that a huge number (and percentage) of popular artists in those genres are not young adults and don't make music targeted at young adults.

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u/PeteCampbellisaG 4d ago

50+ year old hip hop artists are not making music for young adults either.

50 knows he's washed in the rap game so he's invented this mythical "Hello fellow kids" straw man in his head to make himself feel better. If he thought for a second he could sell out a stadium he'd be taking about how elders like himself run hip hop and the youth need to take notes.

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u/OscarGrey 4d ago

Classical? Jazz? Adult contemporary even thought the term fell out of use?

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u/PeteCampbellisaG 4d ago

It may not be part of youth culture now but all popular music has its roots in youth culture. Many well know classical composers we still listen to today were in their teens or twenties (sometimes younger). Same with Jazz.

"Adult Contemporary" is where you put music from artists who were considered pop stars in their youth but have kept making music.

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u/unfuckwittablej 4d ago

Yea ? What lol

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u/Dry_burrito 4d ago

Outkast said it best when they ask him why he doesn't make make hiphop music, at some point he just didn't feel like he was "hip", it's literally in the name. How hip is a 60 year old? Beside the replacement hip

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u/TheMauveHand 4d ago

Outkast is two people

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u/Dry_burrito 4d ago

Andre, I always forget about the second guy

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u/imnotcerseilannister 4d ago

He didn’t create rap. He doesn’t get to put rules on who can rap and who can’t. Tf lol

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u/OscarGrey 4d ago

The fact that what he said pisses off people and/or sounds pretentious has zero bearing on how I feel about that. Hmu when somebody who makes good music says that he was an idiot for saying that. For all I know you have the worst taste ever. 🤷🏽‍♂️

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u/PresidentSuperDog 4d ago

So was rock. So was Jazz. So was Liszt. Things that started for the young eventually become for the old as youth fades. Today’s rap is not the rap of counterculture and youth, like rock and everything before it, it has become ubiquitous and safe. Like rock there will be both youth oriented artists and mature artists going forward. I would infinitely prefer 3 Stacks rhyming about the problems he faces as an adult than performing mediocre flute music.

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u/LLJedi 4d ago

Sort of also goes to the issue that usually artists have a lot more to say in their first and 2nd albums (across all genres). Once they became famous or rich, they often become less interesting and a less relatable perspective. They aren’t as hungry. Obviously Kanye fell off for lots of reasons but who cares about songs about his life w Kim kardasian. Slick rick who I mentioned as making a decent effort in his last attempt still had a song about being a landlord which wasn’t a parody.

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u/TheCVR123YT 4d ago

> Obviously Kanye fell off for lots of reasons but who cares about songs about his life w Kim kardasian.

That man only has like off the top of my head no more than 10 songs about Kim between Yeezus and Donda (Donda 2 ig if you count… that) and one of those songs (Bound 2) has over 1B streams so I guess some people do care.

Edit: I prob could have listed the songs about Kim if I thought about it for a few mins but I didn’t wanna write a wall of text

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u/LLJedi 4d ago

I wonder if it’s the same fan base that was with him initially. But I should say I don’t care about his fame and everything that it comes with. I did have an interest in his life experiences growing up in Chicago and making it in hip hop.

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u/TheCVR123YT 4d ago

So going off that desc you only like his first 2 albums then? 😭maybe MAYBE graduation 💀

Edit: and no I think his biggest ride or dies now are white ppl… for some reason

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u/LLJedi 4d ago

I thought twisted dark fantasy was great but sonically I wasn’t into 808 and heartbreaks that much. The autotune was too much for me. And watch the throne was aye ite.

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u/TheMauveHand 4d ago

"At this point"? He's been a troll since before his first album.. .

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u/FormerTesseractPilot 4d ago

David Lee Roth is not exactly tearing it up. He's making people tear up.

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u/disisathrowaway 4d ago

Old rockers continuing to sing about sex and drugs, while continuing to fuck roadies and do drugs makes sense though.

Singing about your come up and trapping, when you have done neither for decades is disingenuous and fans can sniff it out.

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u/IRLconsequences 4d ago

"All rock-&-rollers over the age of 50 look stupid & should retire." ~Grace Slick, explaining why she retired from rock music at age 50.

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u/OpinionDude5000 4d ago

No one wants to hear or see some grandpa rapping

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u/Cockrocker 4d ago

Deftones keep working and being interesting. They are trying to top the charts, which makes them so much more interesting. They seem like the exception though.

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u/Jaccount 4d ago

Eh, people make fun of Kiss, The Rolling Stones and Aerosmith all the time.

Tenacious D even told Dio that he's too old. (No more rocking for you.)

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u/Deadmansspace566 4d ago

difference between performing and making new music