With the arrival of the fifth album by Curtis Jackson, aka 50 Cent, the key question mark hovering over his career is to do with his continued relevance. Whatever you may make of Kanye’s self-obsession and rambling interviews, there is no denying the widespread critical kudos he has earned for both My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and Yeezus, whilst the subversive output and anarchic antics of Tyler and the Odd Future crew have filled the gap in the market for hip-hop bad boys.
Given that so many competitors are now encroaching on his turf, do Fiddy’s slightly old-school gangsta-isms still cut it? Certainly, as a performer and media personality, Jackson remains value for money, generating headlines everywhere he goes. In the past month alone, there was an alleged onstage bust-up between members of 50 Cent’s rap outfit, G-Unit, and a rival crew at a US festival, and Jackson also appeared as a special guest at a baseball game, where he threw a shockingly hopeless opening pitch (he subsequently attributed it to “excessive masturbation”).
So, he can still grab the headlines – but with Animal Ambition, Jackson has a lot to prove when it comes to his current musical standing. Unfortunately, Fiddy is still leaning on the same gangsta poses that may have shocked and appalled 20 years ago, but which seem almost quaint today. The opening ‘Hold On’ finds the rapper jadedly contemplating his playa lifestyle over some pedestrian beats: “I woke up this mornin’, this is insane / Rich as a muthafucka and ain’t much change.”
 A lot of Animal Ambition’s lyrical content is in a similarly world-weary vein: on ‘Don’t Worry Bout It’, Fiddy warns, “Don’t worry bout how I get my money / Bitches I get my money / Don’t worry bout how I spend my money / boy I got a lot”; while ‘Smoke’ finds him sighing that, “It’s complicated, my occupation / Pimpin’ ain’t easy.” The sense that Fiddy isn’t really pushing himself lingers – on ‘Pilot’ we even get the inevitable, “Bitches be on my dick”.
 Indeed, Animal Ambition conspicuously lacks the lyrical playfulness that brought 50 Cent international stardom. Aside from their irresistible grooves, tracks like ‘In Da Club’, ‘P.I.M.P.’ and ‘In A Lil’ Bit’ were notable for their funny, tongue-in-cheek wordplay, whereas the material here seems weighed down by Jackson’s attempts to reassert his hard man image.
Sonically, the album is nothing to write home about either, which is understandable given that the bewildering array of producers (literally one – and sometimes more – for each track) are largely unknowns, apart from the newly minted Dr Dre. Compared to the Galacticos-like array of production talent that, say, Earl Sweatshirt assembled for his debut album last year, Fiddy did not appear to have pulled out all the stops for Animal Ambition.
Of course, Jackson is a performer of considerable talent and as such any album of his is unlikely ever to be a dead loss (unless you’re a rival crew member he has in his sights, of course). There are some genuinely excellent moments here, such as ‘Irregular Heartbeat’, which finds the rapper issuing threats over an eerie synth groove, and ‘Twisted’, which is built around a catchy electro rhythm.
By far the best track, however, is ‘I’m A Hustler’, a funky tune awash with swirling arcade noises. It also contains a bona fide lyrical gem in the lines, “Dominos motherfucker / It’s time to collect / Stack paper like I’m tryin’ to fix the national debt... This is Fiddy on that Muammar Gaddafi shit.”
Unfortunately, there aren’t enough such moments on Animal Ambition. Let’s hope the follow-up, Street King Immortal, due later in the year, finds Fiddy back on top form.