The lights are off and the dust has cleared. The arena is empty. The fans have spoken. A champion has been named and his name is Kanye West.
The latest battle in hip hop music between rapper 50 Cent and Kanye West has come to a close. West has taken the crown from 50 who became famous by picking quarrels with other well known rappers on his rise to the top. Luckily, this battle wasn’t one of “beef.” It was a battle of sales started by West, who said, “To be a champion, you’ve got to take out a champion.”
In June, Interscope Records pushed back the release of 50’s newest album “Curtis” to Sept 11. Shortly after, Kanye pushed the summer release of “Graduation” to Sept 11 to go toe-to-toe with 50.
“I was the underdog because I sold less records in the past, so it was a win-win for me,” remarked Kanye. “If I lost, everyone would be happy that I even went up against him.”
Nielsen Soundscan reported “Graduation” outsold “Curtis” 957,000 copies to 691,000 copies.
The let down was big for rapper 50 Cent. “The Massacre,” his last album, sold over 1 million copies the week it was released. 50, who had fancied himself at a higher echelon than West, told the world he would retire if bested by Kanye.
In a statement to the Associated Press, 50 stated, “I am very excited to have participated in one of the biggest album release weeks in the last two years. Collectively, we have sold hundreds of thousands of units in our debut week. This marks a great moment for hip-hop music, one that will go down in history.”
50 once said that Kanye was famous because of him. “I feel like Kanye West is successful because of me,” he stated. After he started so many “wars” in rap music the fans were “looking for something non-confrontational, and they went after first thing that came along. That was Kanye West, and his record took off.”
After hearing the news of his victory, Kanye West appeared at GQ’s 50th anniversary to celebrate his victory with a stellar performance.
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