Lines value loyalty (“Fake Love”) and acknowledge how money can affect people (“Things Change”).
More than a dozen tracks glamorize alcohol or drugs such as weed, cocaine and crystal meth. From f-words and racial slang to crass sexual terminology and misogyny, the language couldn’t be much worse. The explicit “Get Low” and “Best Friend” find Lloyd Banks and 50 Cent enumerating the nasty things they’d like to do with the women on their minds. A man describes undressing a girl for a selfish romp (“We Both Think Alike”). Rappers prepare for a promiscuous parade of willing sex partners on “Window Shopper” and “You Already Know.” On “You a Shooter” they “share b–ches” the way guys might pass around a cigarette. Thug violence is the disc’s other big problem. After a series of gunshots, rapper M.O.P. adds insult to homicide on “When Death Becomes You” (“Ahh b–ch! Rest in bits”). For guest rapper Spider Loc, capping a foe creates an adrenaline rush (“Things Change”). Angry threats include “I open up your head and expose your brain” and “I’ma let off a full clip.” “Don’t Need No Help” rages against authorities.
Primarily a 50 Cent piece, this stickered disc also features cronies Young Buck, Olivia, Tony Yayo, Prodigy, Nate Dogg, Mobb Deep and others. Perhaps someday a rapper will record a thoughtful treatise on thug life that doesn’t bask in urban moral decay. This ain’t it.
