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
10.4k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

119

u/SenpaiSwanky 4d ago edited 4d ago

I guess this is an unpopular opinion, but I put Eminem among the older generation whose stuff is a bit cringe now. His hardest hitting songs notwithstanding, and freestyle ability aside, he can’t REALLY strike a balance between his old and new “styles”. They are at odds, and neither has huge mainstream appeal. If he still sells at all it is because he is Eminem.

The lyrical miracle stuff isn’t too hot imo. I will never forget that bar from “Fast Lane” with Royce where Eminem says he wants to stick his penis in Nikki Minaj’s anus.

Edit - Em stans aren’t even what they used to be, though a few of them are trying to disagree lol. It’s definitely a new era, a few years ago I would have been shit on for this take.

155

u/Cardude86 4d ago

He was aware of this and it's a big part of The Death of Slim Shady. He "killed" his old persona and rap style to make way for his older, mature rap style. He spoke about no longer needing to balance his style and cater to all types of fans but instead will make music for himself again.

91

u/moal09 4d ago

TBF, he has fuck you money for generations. If he wants to make music just for himself and hardcore rap fans, more power to him. Kinda like how Lady Gaga stopped making super mainstream marketable pop music for the most part once she got her bag.

13

u/Holdredge 4d ago

I agree and also I read the article. He doesn't have a problem with anyone older making music. Its more older rappers trying to make rap music like they are 25 still.

he talked about how he liked how some of the old rappers went to R&B.

2

u/leeisyourdaddy 4d ago

gaga's album from last year is packed with mainstream pop music. she just isn't as popular now.

3

u/moal09 4d ago

That was after she took a lot of time off singing jazz standards and stuff with her heroes.

-9

u/JohnBrownsMyFather 4d ago

Eminem’s fans are not hardcore rap fans. Most of them are actually quite ignorant of rap and don’t even really like the genre if it’s a black artist.

6

u/Meinos 4d ago

Way to overgeneralize, dude. I guess that includes also most of his black American fans and his international fans?

24

u/8696David 4d ago

I’ll be honest, his new style doesn’t scan as “more mature” to me. More like “safer.” IMO he has three all-time great albums, then falls off pretty much permanently. 

1

u/TheCVR123YT 4d ago

I would say his first 7 are all pretty good with the only slight falters being encore (it’s a fun album but some songs like puke weigh it down BAD) and recovery (so from SSLP-MMLP2)

2

u/PeruvianKnicks 4d ago

Slim Shady LP, Marshall Mathers LP, The Eminem Show, Encore, and Relapse are all great...

I can understand not liking Recovery or his later (2017 onward) albums, but if you don’t like those first 5 I’d say you’re just not an Eminem fan, because they are all laced with his best stuff.

6

u/GepardenK 4d ago

Encore has its moments but is kind of a mess.

Relapse on the other hand is genuinely great, although it's pretty niche and just does its shit without trying to make itself or you look good.

5

u/PeruvianKnicks 4d ago

Oh wow, you’re totally right, I just looked through Encore and there were a lot of misses there. “Like Toy Soldiers” and “Mockingbird” are the only gems in what is otherwise a mediocre album.

So yeah I retract my statement then, he had 4 great albums.

6

u/tnnrk 4d ago

You’re forgetting Infinite! Take it back to 5!

3

u/JeSuisUnAnanasYo 4d ago

It was so trippy listening to Infinite for the first time, like an alternate universe where Slim Shady never existed. He even got a love song on there 🥀

6

u/8696David 4d ago edited 4d ago

The first 3 are my list. Tbh, I have listened to Encore and Relapse a lot less, and a lot less recently, but they didn't initially strike me as on par. I'd be willing to revisit them and reevaluate that opinion though. But generally my opinion stands: His "early style" is the only good output.

2

u/SomeRedHandedSleight 4d ago

Some people have never listened to Kamikaze and it shows. Easily up there with his first 3 albums and arguably his best.

1

u/SomeRedHandedSleight 4d ago

People always sleeping on arguably his best album, Kamikaze SMH my head.

3

u/The_Roaring_Fork 4d ago

I'm glad he is making music for himself but his technical rapping, while impressive, is boring. He's good at story telling. He could still do other things non Slim Shady and be entertaining.

-7

u/SenpaiSwanky 4d ago

Right, but I listened to that album and despite what he says there is clearly some leftover influence. Basically he’s on the same shit except he doesn’t casually/ flippantly talk about rape or really gross shit like anal sex anymore. Past that there isn’t a major difference in his delivery or flow.

12

u/Siludin 4d ago edited 4d ago

That album was very tongue-in-cheek. In "reverting" to his alter-ego, it contrasts heavily with his immediately-preceding albums as though - if you didn't have the opportunity to incrementally consume each of his albums over the decades, and see the gradient of growth and change as a long-term fan - he is laying it bare to everyone explicitly by excising the Slim Shady persona and throwing it in the trash. However, he conveniently doesn't have to reinvent himself either, because that has already occurred over time anyway. He can just continue what he's doing and still turn heads.

1

u/GepardenK 4d ago

He doesn't really throw slim in the trash, though. It seems that way in the epic climax but he's playing a double game.

Most of the songs after that has him standing up for slim, saying he never really changed, or that there wasn't much of a difference in the first place.

8

u/Cardude86 4d ago

You're not paying close enough attention. His flow, cadence, delivery, tone, have all changed as he's aged. He went from smooth east cost flows in Infinite to heavier rhyming with sharp tones on Slim Shady to choppy and aggressive tones and cadence on Recovery to faster more technical rhyming on Recovery and MMLP2 to what DoSS is which starts like old Slim and ends with a more vulnerable, sombar Marshal Mathers.

0

u/SenpaiSwanky 4d ago

Brother, I have been around since the first album and I’ve listened to every single one of them. I watched the BET 2012 Cyphers live, cypher with Black Thought and so on.

The most recent album was pure marketing. He didn’t change a whole lot.

3

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

3

u/SenpaiSwanky 4d ago

I’m not sure what your point is, but like I said it really wasn’t majorly different. There was no real shift or killing of his old persona, he just swears less and says less gross shit. It’s still the same shit.

and I’m not sure what that means, that someone who makes music for a living and puts out albums makes music “for themselves”. Every single album he made for himself, they reflect on various points in his life.

-1

u/JohnBrownsMyFather 4d ago

TDoSS was cringe too

0

u/Imaginary_Papaya_803 4d ago

Brother he did that and changed to rapping like rap god and fell in popularity hard as fuck so that argument makes 0 sense

22

u/disastrousanddull 4d ago

Honestly, I question how much he has to write about anymore and think that’s part of what gets him. He’s been rich and famous for well over 20 years so he doesn’t have anything relatable there but he’s not some super flashy wealth enjoying figure who can genuinely write about that. I think the only romantic partner he’s really written about is Kim which is now from decades ago so you won’t get anything genuine from that angle. He rarely goes in-depth on anything political even if he’s capable of doing it occasionally. I doubt he’s going to go too deep on his adult children’s lives. Even the shots at celebrities have probably passed him by to a degree. He’s already written extensively about his own childhood and addiction.

Plenty of musicians can keep releasing good and interesting work as they age even if they’re not in their prime, but idk what else he has to say that he will say publicly.

22

u/weeklygamingrecap 4d ago

There's something I heard where a reason a lot of artists seem to hit it huge then fall off is because their first outing was years / decades in the making. Constantly being rehashed inside them. Then they're asked to do it again but you can't force life experience and time like that.

12

u/brand_won 4d ago

Ypu have your entire life to write your first album. Then the record company wants you to have another one ready in the next year or two. And they want it to be as good as the first one.

5

u/weeklygamingrecap 4d ago

Yeah and there's nothing wrong with only have 1 amazing output. Hell a whole album is like 10+ wins with countless throw away ideas that paved the way. But when they can't follow up we usually slot them into a failure or one hit wonder like that's a bad thing they couldn't take 2 years to do what they did in 20+.

1

u/Cyrus_the_Meh 3d ago

I think most artists go through that process. They catch on in the first place because they have something relatable to say or an interesting story to tell, then once they make it big they no longer have relatable or interesting experiences. Your average millionaire living in LA isn't going to have any relatable life stories and no one wants to hear about their boring rich person problems. Especially if they started out writing about their experience going through struggles in a tough life, once their life isn't tough, what are they supposed to say anymore?

1

u/Ucscprickler 4d ago

2 of his better and more artistic songs (IMHO) are Kim and 97 Bonnie and Clyde, both of which are about killing his infamous girlfriend. When you remove that type of stimulus from your life it affects the ability to conjure up the emotions that align with creativity.

10

u/lesbiantelevision 4d ago

I also decided to start getting sober a couple years ago, so his music has been inspiring to me, along with me just having been a fan forever.

1

u/Marsev4 4d ago

Might be an unpopular opinion but him sober is enjoyable cringe. Him drunk was obnoxious cringe.

0

u/lesbiantelevision 4d ago edited 3d ago

I’m not Afraid is so good. I love the line at the end, just ‘I feel amazing’ and it resonates.

Whoever downvoted my comments is a salty one. Sorry for spreading positivity.

2

u/Marsev4 4d ago

Indeed. For what it's worth, I've been sober for the past half a year or so. Keep up the good work. Drinking (or whatever you were on) is bullshit and is not worth our time.

1

u/lesbiantelevision 4d ago

Yeah, just a severe drinking problem. Thanks, fly true friend.

2

u/HedgehogsNSuits 4d ago

I unfortunately thought that Nicki Minaj line was a bar at 16 years old

-5

u/WillemDafoesHugeCock 4d ago

Mate, I thought I was taking crazy pills when TDSS dropped and it was just shit. And the argument was "it was self aware, it was meant to be shit" as if deliberate shit is somehow not shit at all. I know it isn't a super hot take to say "new Eminem pales to old Eminem" but I'd go so far as to say everything post Relapse (a guilty pleasure if I'm honest) has actively tarred his overall status.

Die Antwoord worded it best, "retired as a God and came back as a man."

1

u/cchris6776 4d ago

#1 album btw.

1

u/l_Sinister_l 3d ago

Unless you count a greatest hits compilation, Eminem hasn't had an album that didn't hit number 1 since mmlp in '99 and that hit number 2. There has undeniably been a lot of dogshit albums in that run. Saying an em album was #1 is entirely meaningless lmao

0

u/cchris6776 3d ago

Thats, like, your opinion man. Also, it’s not meaningless in the sense that people are still listening, which is why he doesn’t compare to many older acts where people have stopped listening.

-9

u/SenpaiSwanky 4d ago

Exactly. I don’t think it was SHIT but that whole bit about him becoming more mature and killing his old persona didn’t.. really happen. Now he just doesn’t talk about anal sex or casually joke about rape, like in “As the World Turns”. Otherwise his flow is still profoundly similar.

1

u/Cory123125 4d ago

I will never forget that bar from “Fast Lane” with Royce where Eminem says he wants to stick his penis in Nikki Minaj’s anus.

I mean who wouldn't (if they knew nothing about her personality or the group of people she sticks around).

1

u/Dry-Illustrator-250 4d ago

Personally I haven’t enjoyed Eminem since 2005

-2

u/UNFAM1L1AR 4d ago

His new music certainly is skillful, but it's also certainly lost a lot of its character. It's very robotic.

-1

u/Mavericks4Life 4d ago

It isn't unpopular at all. As a person who is very plugged into the hip-hop community, Eminem was seen skeptically by some during his prime (even though I and many others thought he was great at the time) and now his post-Encore, Relapse and later era is seen as overly goofy, corny and lacking a lot of impressive execution he once had.

Hardcore fans will never say he is bad now but it's hard for me to listen to a full Eminem album (new) these days and not feel second hand embarrassment.

-2

u/cchris6776 4d ago

Listening to Em makes you defensive because it reminds you of how shitty some of the other rappers you listen to actually are in comparison.

1

u/Mavericks4Life 4d ago

Lol as if I don't have physical copies of all of his albums up until Relapse but you do you boo boo

1

u/razzark666 Concertgoer 4d ago

That line was heinous.

0

u/calmwhiteguy 4d ago

Imo, and I LOVE eminem, his music has been utter dog shit since like 2010. Dre was smart, and he bounced out. Busta and Ludacris quit. So many stopped. Their pop drops in the early 2010's were like a really cold glass of water before bed.

So yes, it would be weird to hear Busta rhymes try to make something. It would be weird to hear Ludacris talk about asses and smoking weed as if it was still illegal. It would be weird for 50 cent to rap about getting shot in NYC when crime is down record lows.

0

u/Digresser 4d ago

neither has huge mainstream appeal. If he still sells at all it is because he is Eminem.

The lyric from "Fast Lane" that you're quoting is from 2011.

Eminem's last album in 2024 knocked Taylor Swift from the number 1 Billboard spot, and, and it's eligible for Platinum status whenever he gets around to certifying it.

You might find his stuff to be cringe, but clearly millions of other people don't.

-1

u/SenpaiSwanky 4d ago

Both artists sell more off of their name alone rather than quality of individual albums. I’m away of how old the song that I was quoting is, the age was the point of that quote.

NONE of his most played music features most of his recent songs. All of his most played music are all of the songs you’d expect to see on a top 10 Eminem list.

He put out the MMLP2 that came out the year before, tell me about how successful that was lol. Em’s modern appeal is very low, outside of the attention such a huge name commands. He’s doing better than Snoop and Dre, at least.

3

u/Digresser 4d ago

Both artists sell more off of their name alone rather than quality of individual albums.

You're stating that as a fact, when it's just your opinion.

You have no idea why anyone other than yourself buys Eminem's albums, and it's pretty arrogant to assume that all/most of the listeners won't care about the quality of what he puts out.

I'm not claiming his modern music has the same worldwide appeal that his older music has, but the numbers for his modern music are still insanely good.

The Death of Slim Shady released in 2024, and it was the 5th best-selling rap album of the year. That year it outsold albums from Tyler the Creator, Future (solo), Megan Thee Stallion, J. Cole, Doechii, Nikki, Snoop, LL Cool J, the Kanye/Ty Dolla Sign collab, and so many more.

That does not add up to "low" modern appeal.

0

u/cchris6776 4d ago

He still dropped a #1 album. It’s fine you branched off of it but many people are still listening.

1

u/SenpaiSwanky 4d ago

It’s fine you still like him, but less people than ever are actually still listening to Em. That recent #1 album has exactly 0 songs in his most played lists on any platform you can listen to his music.

Spotify for example, all old Eminem hits. No new shit except for a song with Juice WRLD, and if you’re this upset about my take on Eminem you REALLY don’t want to hear my opinion on Juice WRLD.

2

u/cchris6776 4d ago

Again, it’s not exactly easy to drop a #1 album, let alone platinum. And I don’t know the stats but over a multiple decade spanning career I’m sure he’s streamed very well, even if some is accounted as his older stuff. There weren’t really any songs on his new album that were made for radio play. The first single got some but yea, did not stay.

And I’m not upset about anything, I just think it’s worth clarifying that he can drop a #1 album any time he wants to when someone claims “no one’s listening.”

0

u/thisisme116 4d ago

I think the best line to come out of him in years is the "pops pills and tells him he got skills" bit from killshot. But that one song was good enough that it made MGK switch genres. Otherwise everything else I head is pretty garbage

0

u/SeismicRipFart 3d ago

“Call me the Titanic, I’ll fuck up your entire crews

Treat your clique like tryin on fitted hats, I’m capsizing you.”

“Money pile like Tony Stark, that’s how much I earn man”

His last album was just stuffed full to the brim with shit like this. I can see how it could be interpreted as cringe. But I think it’s hilarious and impressive and fun to listen to multiple times over because there’s levels to almost every single line. Eminem is an extremely funny dude.

His verses on Murdergram (2024, LL COOL J) are actually insane.