Music Review: Get Rich or Die Tryin'
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What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that this CD should be reserved for
mature teens, and may offend all but the most rap-hardened
parents.
Families can talk about 50 Cent's tough tongue. Although his
music is available in edited form (with bleeps reminiscent of
the Osbournes), don't kid yourself. Teens mostly get what he's
talking about, so find a way to discuss it with them so you at
least get your 2 cents' worth.
GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN' begins with the sound of a 50-cent piece spinning on a table. That's the last sound some parents will feel comfortable with in this raw and energetic album produced by rap icons Dr. Dre and Eminem. "Don't Push Me" sizzles: "Pistol in hand homie, I'm down to get it popping/ Once I squeeze the first shot/ No I ain't stopping till my clip is empty." Teens seem to like the way 50 Cent scornfully observes the world of the street. Drug users, prostitutes, label-obsessed consumers, and religious converts -- everyone gets skewered. In "Heat," the rat-a-tat of automatic weapons and the squealing tires of a car chase are set to hymn-like chords, a "dis" to gangstas who find themselves seeking God only after bullets penetrate their vital organs.
50 Cent creates a one-stop shop of crude references to genitalia, drugs, violence, obscenity of the 4- 10-, and 12-letter variety, and, in the CD's explicit version, the N and F words. The album lives up to its prerelease buzz, thanks to 50 Cent's clever lyrics and the swagger born of surviving the hood, multiple stabbings, nine bullets, and time in the joint -- or, as he drawls in "In Da Club," "Been hit wit' a few shells but I don't walk wit' a limp."
The RootsKanye West
Common
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information to help parents make media and entertainment choices for their families.
