Within a minute of meeting Olivia, you realise you're in the presence of a future R&B star. It's depressing. Depressing because you don't even need to hear a record to know that the 23-year-old New Yorker is destined to be all over MTV and the music media within the blink of an eye.
A former drug dealer, he’s been shot at nine times and lived to tell the tale, emerging as one of the most controversial and uncompromising figures in rap. But there's more to 50 Cent than the popular legend suggests. For a start, there’s a new commercial edge to the music, as his US and Irish number one album The Massacre demonstrates. Plus, as one of the new faces of Reebok’s ‘I Am What I Am’ campaign, he’s taken to the role of cultural icon with considerable zest. Oh, and besides, he’s a bit of a wow with the ladies.
How much of the 50 Cent phenomenon is for real and how much for effect? Danielle Brigham meets the mainman and his crew in Dublin and attempts to make sense of the shootings and the sales figures.
50 Cent’s rise to the top of the rap game has been impressive, but he remains dogged by critics who claim that his fame owes more to a compelling personal history than any remarkable talent. Shows like this represent an excellent, defiant response to the haters, but not quite enough to dispel all lingering doubts about his rap credentials.
50 Cent's skills as an MC are limited, his beats pedestrian, and his show the very definition of low concept. Beneath his veneer of showmanship, there is little to maintain interest.
