Paul Lester 

50 Cent: Animal Ambition: An Untamed Desire to Win review – louche, vicarious thrills

It's hard to see 50 Cent regaining the power and notoriety he had at his peak, but this is nonetheless a decent return, writes Paul Lester
  
  

50 Cent
Craving respect … 50 Cent. Photograph: D Dipasupil/FilmMagic Photograph: D Dipasupil/FilmMagic

50 Cent may be fifth in Forbes's rap rich list, but it's for his music that the sometime actor and entrepreneur craves respect – he has another album, Street King Immortal, due this autumn. As he admits on Winner's Circle, "I'm tryna make it feel like the first time/ Like a junkie I'm sorta chasin' my first high." Animal Ambition – his first release not overseen by Dr Dre and Eminem, having severed ties with the Shady/Aftermath/Interscope conglomerate – is going to struggle to match the sales of his multiplatinum 2003 debut, Get Rich Or Die Tryin'. Nor is the former drug dealer likely to recapture the notoriety and relevance he had at his peak. He can, however, continue to offer vicarious thrills via the sinister-slick production of glock fantasy Hold On and the creeping dread of Everytime I Come Around. And if in many cases the beats have been lying around for several years, 50's louche menace and paranoid braggadocio never get old.

 

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