Every few years, a rapper comes from nowhere and dominates the game (seemingly) overnight. He pops up on a few guest spots and remixes, and then he just starts dropping massive, inescapable singles left and right. Before you know it, the guy that no one was checking for 12 months ago, is the biggest star in music. But then, something happens. Maybe the fans become bored, perhaps jealously starts to set in or maybe there's just some newer, younger hotshot emcee ready to take his place. Whatever the cause, these guys who seem have a stronghold on the genre, tend to lose control just as quickly as they gained it. 

When the rapper is on top, everyone swears that he is the realest and most legitimate rapper to ever spit 16. Once his star shines too bright for too long, the same “fans” will swear that he is soft, corny and was never all that good. Don't believe me, just ask Ma$e, Ice Cube or (more recently) Ja Rule. Now, here we are in 2008. 50 Cent is arguably the most successful rapper in history. 4 years ago, he was a new artist who could do no wrong. He was on every magazine cover and rap fans swore he was the next Biggie. The mere fact that you are probably reading this thinking: “I never thought he was no Biggie. F**k 50, he is soft. I never really liked him” means that his dissent into Ja Rule-land may be eminent. But, maybe it's not too late.

50 Cent and his G-Unit crew are really the ones responsible for turning artist-made mixtapes into the phenom that they are today.  In fact, they are still putting out some of the strongest and best selling tapes on the streets. This year's “The Elephant in the Sand” was downloaded over 1,000,000 times from the official website alone.  Could it be that as his relevance as a pop star decreases, his stock in the streets could actually be bouncing back?

50 is taking it back to the streets for what could be his most anticipated project to date. For the first time, the three founding G-Unit members (50, Lloyd Banks & Tony Yayo) will unite to release a full album as a trio (reportedly without Young Back). Unlike Eminem's D12 albums, Nelly's St. Lunatics album or even Ja Rule's Murder Inc train wreck, this is not a vanity posse album. The success or failure, in both quality and sales, could set the mood for the next phase of 50's career. After 3 progressivly weaker solo efforts, the damage that a flop would do to his career could be 100x the backlash of losing a silly sales race to Kanye.