Name: Kanye Omari West Birthplace: Atlanta, Georgia Total sales: About eight million worldwide for first two albums. First album:The College Dropout (Feb 2004) Peak position of No. 2. Moved 860,000 the first week in the US. Sold a total of four million copies worldwide, inclusive of three million in the US. It sold 3,500 copies in Singapore. Second album:Late Registration (Aug 2005) Debuted at No. 1, selling about 904,000 copies in its first week. About three million total sales in the US. It sold 4,500 copies in Singapore. Third album:Graduation (Sept 11, 2007) Debuts at No. 1 in Britain and the US, selling 957,000 albums in the latter in the first week. The single, Stronger, reached No. 2 in the US and No. 1 in Britain. A total of 3,000 copies were distributed to Singapore stores on the first day. Personal label: GOOD Music Grammy awards: Six wins from 18 nominations.
50 CENT, 32
Name: Curtis James Jackson III Birthplace: New York City, New York Total sales: Over 23 million worldwide for first two albums. First album:Get Rich Or Die Tryin' (Feb 2003) Peak position of No. 1. It has sold 12 million copies worldwide, inclusive of eight million in the US. It sold 16,000 copies in Singapore. Second album:The Massacre (March 2005) Peak position of No. 1. Moved 1.1 million copies the first week in the US. Over 11 million copies sold worldwide, inclusive of five million copies in the US. It sold 7,000 copies in Singapore. Third album:Curtis (Sept 11, 2007) Debuts at No. 2 in Britain and the US, shifting about 691,000 copies in the first week in the latter. The single, Ayo Technology, hit No. 18 in the US and No. 5 in Britain. A total of 3,000 copies were distributed to Singapore stores on the first day. Personal label: G-Unit Records Grammy awards: 11 nominations, no wins.
LINES have been drawn, affiliations pledged and the battle has started. And that's just in one household.
The impact of rappers 50 Cent, 32, and Kanye West, 30, releasing their albums, Curtis and Graduation respectively, on the same day in the United States - Sept 11 - has been felt here as well.
National serviceman Nizar Sultan, 21, is firmly in Fifty's camp. He is such a fan that he won a 'Rap Like 50 Cent' contest held here by Universal Music in 2003. His prize was a trip to Tokyo to catch the rapper in concert.
On why he prefers 50 Cent to West, he explains: 'I prefer the gangsta type of rap. Kanye is more experimental and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. For 50 Cent, it pretty much stays the same.'
His sister Nuraisyah Sultan, 25, a teacher, underlines that when she chips in that 'he's biased because he always updates my MP3 player with more 50 Cent than Kanye West songs'.
She herself is a West fan. 'I give my support to Kanye West because he experiments with all kinds of styles, whereas 50 Cent always has the same kind of concept in his songs. He has also been boastful and arrogant,' she says.
Restaurant supervisor Fazli Nasser, 23 - who is also a rapper and music producer under the name Freaky Z - is another West-camper. In his view, West is 'more musically inclined, and his lyrics are not just about cars and girls'.
Still, such rivalry seems to be in no danger of escalating into a last-man-standing showdown between Fifty and West.
A month before the release, Fifty threw down the gauntlet, declaring to SOHH.com, the hip-hop website: 'If Kanye West sells more records than 50 Cent on Sept 11, I'll no longer write music.
'I'll write music and work with my other artists, but I won't put out any more solo albums.'
No doubt his confidence was bolstered by his track record. His first two albums, Get Rich Or Die Tryin' (2003) and The Massacre (2005), have sold over 23 million copies worldwide.
In contrast, West's The College Dropout (2004) and Late Registration (2005) have shifted eight million copies.
50 Cent may yet rue those bold words, though.
Now that the dust has cleared, it is West who has beaten Fifty in both the US and United Kingdom by clinching the No.1 spot on both countries' album charts.
Tracking service Nielsen SoundScan indicates that Graduation has chalked up 957,000 in sales in the US to Curtis' 691,000.
Here, sales are neck and neck. Universal Music distributed about 3,000 copies of each title to music stores on their simultaneous Sept 13 launch, two days after the US and UK launches.
The label's marketing director here, Mr Lim Teck Kheng, says: 'It's still at an early stage because sales have just started.'
Where airplay is concerned though, West is the winner.
His single Stronger, which samples French electronica duo Daft Punk's Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, hit No.1 on Radio 91.3FM's music chart.
Fifty's current single Ayo Technology, featuring heavy-hitters Justin Timberlake and Timbaland, has yet to chart.
The station's music director Jeremy Ratnam notes that '50 Cent has always had good support on the air, but recently, the big one has surely got to be Kanye's Stronger'.
He feels that West is 'maybe classier and for a slightly more mature audience, while 50 Cent attracts more teenagers and young adults'.
Graduation's stellar performance is in part due to the popularity of the single Stronger. And in this respect, Fifty has had the edge in the past. In Da Club was Billboard Magazine's single of the year for 2003 and helped propel sales for the album Get Rich Or Die Tryin'.
The Massacre had Candy Shop, which pop culture webzine PopMatters described as 'dripping with sexual energy'.
Andre Reyes, aka DJ Drem, 33, resident DJ at Singapore hip-hop club Butter Factory, says: 'In the clubbing scene, people always want something safe when they are dancing. 50 Cent is good, it's very safe and it rocks the floor.'
But he adds that the crowd nowadays wants to 'hear something different' and is more receptive to Kanye's 'more electronic alternative style'.
In addition to collaborating with musicians outside the hip-hop scene including rockers John Mayer and Maroon 5's Adam Levine, West also worked with Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami on Graduation, who designed the cover art and animated the music video for album opener Good Morning.
Where critical reception is concerned, website metacritic.com posted an aggregate score of 60 for Curtis, indicating mixed reviews, and 79 for Graduation, indicating generally favourable reviews.
50 Cent fan Nizar says: 'I like this whole competition thing. It forces the artistes to have a whole great album instead of just one hit song so people will go out and buy it.'
But how much of the rivalry is real?
91.3FM's Mr Ratnam reckons: 'They're probably the best of friends and it's a marketing hype thing.'
Both rappers admitted as much, according to an Associated Press (AP) report.
After the numbers came out, Fifty said in a statement to AP: 'I am very excited to have participated in one of the biggest album release weeks in the last two years.
'Collectively, we have sold hundreds of thousands of units in our debut week. This marks a great moment for hip-hop music, one that will go down in history.'
No mention was made of his retirement claim.
In fact, Fifty has actually worked with West, in his role as producer, while recording tracks for Curtis. None of the tracks produced by West made it to the final cut, though.
Whatever the truth is about the supposed royal rap showdown, the hype has certainly paid off. Graduation's first week sales are the highest for an album so far this year.
The question now is whether Fifty will make good on his promise about no longer putting out solo albums. But there's already another 50 Cent album lined up for release next year. It has the cryptic title, Before I Self Destruct.
Maybe the West-produced tracks will show up there instead.
