billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - july 27, 2019 (VIDEO)

Man, this was an interesting week - I think next week is going to be wild, but we'll have to see...

In the mean time, looks like I'll have the Flaming Lips next, but I've also got Rock Coliseum tonight, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - july 27, 2019

Let's be honest: there's one primary narrative going into this week. I could talk about the mini-album bomb unleashed by Ed Sheeran, or the other scattered arrivals, but the reason anyone is paying attention to the Billboard Hot 100 right now, be you in the music industry or outside of it, is the race at the very top, where a record is being tested as we speak and barring any unforeseen circumstances could be broken next week... and all from a track that I thought would flame out in a week or less, goes to show how much I know!

video review: 'animal ambition: an untamed desire to win' by 50 cent

Man, I was hoping this was going to be better. But then again, my expectations weren't that high.

First review of the night, second coming soon!

album review: 'animal ambition: an untamed desire to win' by 50 cent

It's really mind-boggling to me that 50 Cent's biggest years were around a decade ago.

I mean, do people remember 2003, when 'In Da Club' was the biggest song of that year? Maybe it's just me, but to some extent, the gangsta rap scene has both evolved and yet stayed the same enough to be just as receptive to 50 Cent now as it was ten years ago. With the right singles and the right leverage, I could buy 50 Cent holding down gangsta rap in the same vein as Schoolboy Q or Pusha T.

But at the same time, the question remains that even though we're finally getting a new 50 Cent release five years after the last album, do we really need another 50 Cent album? Bursting onto the scene off of some well-received mixtapes and a pretty damn solid debut album, 50 Cent brought a certain visceral punch of brutish charisma and solid wordplay to his records, and became most notable in rap music for crushing rival Ja Rule's career. But as the decade wore on, the gangsta image 50 Cent put forward got shakier and shakier. He threatened to quit rap if his single 'Ayo-Technology' didn't outsell Kanye West's 'Stronger', and when he didn't do that and instead released a decent-at-best record in 2009, the question began to arise what intangible qualities he brought to the table outside of any other gangsta rapper. And when he didn't manage to end Rick Ross' career in the same way he crushed Ja Rule, proved to be one of the worst actors working in Hollywood, and lent his voice to two utterly masturbatory video games which basically served as terribly written action hero fantasies for our protagonist here, I started to wonder if 50 Cent's gangsta cred had been too tarnished to return to mainstream rap.

But regardless of whether he should have returned to hip-hop, 50 Cent is back with a new full-length album Animal Ambition: An Untamed Desire To Win, his first album in five years and his first release since a few solid mixtapes, the last being in 2012. Does this album solidify his return and prove that rap music needed 50 Cent?