Get Rich or Die Tryin’
50 Cent
(Shady/Aftermath/Interscope)
One of the most memorable hip-hop moments of the
past year came in the opening credits of 8
Mile, when Eminem’s B. Rabbit prepped for an upcoming MC battle by spitting
lyrics in front of a bathroom mirror, the song playing through
his headphones Mobb Deep’s “Shook Ones Pt. 2.” The song
rocketed the viewer back to the film’s 1995 setting, capturing
the moment as few other songs could. “I’m only 19 but my
mind is old/And when things get for real my warm heart turns
cold,” one half of the duo rapped on the song, offering a depiction
of their native Queensbridge housing projects as hell on
earth. Over the course of one great sophomore album
(The Infamous) and its one classic single, the duo’s fixation on violent street
life didn’t seem exploitative but rather cinematic, unnerving,
impossible to turn away from. It didn’t last. What had come
across as a warning shot from America’s urban underside quickly
devolved into self-parody, a tired for-addicts-only style
dubbed Murda Muzik on a later album.
Listening to the latest rapper to up the ante on
hip-hop’s dubious “reality” principle, Eminem protégé and current
Billboard kingpin 50 Cent, I can’t help wondering if he’ll meet
the same artistic fate. “Many Men (Wish Death),” the best
track on 50 Cent’s fast-selling debut Get Rich or Die
Tryin’, is a worthy inheritor of “Shook Ones Pt. 2,” witheringly honest
and matter-of-fact about its protagonist’s outlaw lifestyle
but without an ounce of regret. With its dead-eyed,
sing-songy chorus (“Have mercy on my soul/Somewhere my
heart turned cold”) and rising organ hook (lifted from
Tavares), the mood is muted, somber. It takes you there.
It also unabashedly plays off a biography that 50
Cent has exploited more assiduously than perhaps any
rapper ever: The song, indeed the entire album, is informed
by his much-discussed past as drug dealer and
triggerman (he admits to having shot people in the past), by the
nine bullet wounds and one stabbing that scar his body, by
his arrest on gun charges just a couple months before
the album’s release. You don’t think he’s playing this past
for every Sound Scan number it’s worth? This is a guy
who thanks his parole officer (“Miss Donna Harris”) in
the liner notes to his debut album, just above a photo of
him and two associates at a table surrounded by guns,
liquor, and stacks of cash.
50 Cent isn’t the only current hip-hop act to
play off the is-it-a-myth-or-reality that music isn’t a
necessity because the drug money’s so good. But where
the Clipse’s recent also-bad-for-you Lord
Willin’ repays close and repeated listens (given the Neptunes’
fascinating, ear-popping production and unexpected bursts of
lyrical wit, as on the sexually mischievous “Ma, I
Don’t Love Her”), the album’s not inconsiderable
pleasures are all surface: Executive-produced by Dr. Dre
and Eminem, the music is more durable and
sure-footed than ecstatic, 50 Cent’s smooth, articulate flow
more conducive to casual head-bobbing than
headphone scrutiny. The deep, strong meditation of “Many
Men (Wish Death)” and the engaging playfulness of
the deserving smash single “In Da Club” aside, this is
hip- hop as ace background music: Its relentless,
single-minded, tough-guy attitude gets tiresome the
closer you get to it. —Chris Herrington
Grade: B+
Scandinavian Leather
Turbonegro
(Epitaph)
Denim rock is back! Hot on the heels of their
northern compatriots the Hives and the
Hellacopters, Turbonegro — Norway’s tongue-in-cheek answer
to death metal — reformed just in time to capitalize
on the Scandinavian rock revolution. It’s been five
years since the group released the raucous Apocalypse
Dudes (they disbanded shortly after), but as of right
now, Hank von Helvete and the rest of the boys are back
— harder, heavier, and more fun than ever.
Think eighth grade when you put this album on
the stereo — masking hickeys and zits with caked-on
concealer, circling the opposite sex around the school cafeteria, bragging to
your friends about what you would (or would not) do, drinking stolen beer in the
convenience-store parking lot, smoking your older brother’s pot, huffing the glue
that came in that model airplane kit. You made do with Judas Priest and
Iron Maiden then but rest assured: Had Scandinavian
Leather been available then, it would have been the soundtrack to
those blurry years.
“Wipe It Til It Bleeds” combines the sonic assault of Euroboy’s
electric guitar (think Randy Rhodes) with a catchy sing-along chorus,
while “Turbonegro Must Be Destroyed” brings to mind Henry
Rollins-era Black Flag. Verboten lyrics on
“Sell Your Body (To the Night)” add fuel
to the “homo or not” argument that’s followed Turbonegro throughout
their career, while the darkly humorous “Fuck the World” rivals
black-metal kings Mayhem for head-banging anthem of the decade. “Drenched
In Blood (D.I.B.)” takes the party to an even higher level as von Helvete
evokes the late Joey Ramone on the syrupy-sweet chorus. Ironic
rock-and-roll? That’s for you to decide. Chances
are, you’ll down a shot of whiskey, crank the volume up to 10, and pogo
along to the beat. — Andria Lisle
Grade: A
Turbonegro will be performing at the New Daisy Theatre on Saturday,
March 15th, with The Queens Of The Stone Age.
Toward the Sun
Jeffrey Gaines
(Artemis Records)
A decade after his eponymous major-label debut, Jeffrey Gaines has broken
out of his comfort zone as an established soul-folk artist to record the emotional
Toward the Sun. Thanks to co-producer
Mitchell Froom, Gaines’ sexy growl has an underlying edge to it on these 11 tracks,
making for a far more memorable album than anything in his late-’90s oeuvre.
A full band accompanies Gaines’ gentle acoustic guitarwork, while Froom
rounds out the mix with a range of piano, moog, and Hammond B-3 riffs. The group
melds on tracks like “Our Lie,” a
modern-day breakup song tailor-made for Adult Contemporary audiences, and on the
brooding “Beyond the Beginning.” Gaines
really grooves on “In This Lifetime,” a
gritty call to seize the day. Not surprisingly,
the song’s dynamics evoke the shimmering pop rock of his 1998 hit “Belle de Jour”
with its soaring radio-friendly riffs.
More palatable than the overly sentimental Duncan Sheik and
more grounded than the wildly eccentric Terence Trent D’Arby, Jeffrey Gaines
has neatly expanded his soul-folk niche with Toward the
Sun. With any luck, its heartfelt lyrics and unpretentious
folky-yet-soulful rock instrumentation will
inspire Gaines to put his heart on the line and push the envelope even further.
n — AL
Grade: B+
Jeffrey Gaines will be performing at
the Gibson Lounge on Saturday, March 15th.