SO, WHO has the killer disc? Let's dissect the two albums.
What's the story?
WHEN it comes to spinning, Kanye West wins hands down. A natural raconteur, he is rap's Raymond Carver with a gift for invoking cinematic narratives that hook one's imagination.
If anything, he makes nerd-chic cool. Graduation is the third instalment in an ambitious series of records which tackle (street) education and embrace school dropouts and late registrants.
In comparison, 50 Cent is all Mr Bombastic - aggro and self-obssessed. Take away the chunky beats and what's left? Imaginatively titled songs like My Gun Go Off and Straight To The Bank say it all.
GRADUATION Kanye West
Rock-A-Fella
Rating: ***1/2
Where's the artistic vision?
Again, Kanye comes out tops.
Just look at his album's artwork: Ultra-hip Japanese artist Takashi Murakami drew the manga cover of a Kanye teddy bear wearing McFly 2015 sneakers as he's propelled from a giant mouth into a purple-and-mauve universe. It's as if Earth is too small for him.
As for 50 Cent, he is squarely earth-bound, tethered to hedonism. The CD cover features a tight, black-and-white shot of him looking half-p***ed and half-worried, his hands holding his botak head.
Inside, there are more arty shots by fashion photographer Alexei Hay - Curtis posing as one of the homeboys; a suited tycoon smoking a cigar; and a hunky lover in borderline risque making-out scenes with a faceless babe. Dull.
CURTIS 50 Cent Aftermath
Rating: **1/2
Where are the tunes?
Kanye is da man.
Sure, West isn't a fabulous rapper, neither as smooth as Jay-Z, nor as deep and astute as Common, but he's got the Midas touch.
His fearless drive for reinvention is his raison d'etre - he's forever pushing musical boundaries, splicing vintage soul samples and getting white folk like Coldplay's Chris Martin as back-up singers.
On Graduation, the beats are more finessed and considered and less harried too, as he mixes and matches genres.
In the fantastic single Stronger, he melds 1980s-styled electro and rap by roping in Parisian house icons Daft Punk and R&B organist Edwin Birdsong.
Best of all, he flaunts his lyrical clumsiness as a badge of honour - it's rather endearing.
In Everything I Am, a laidback shuffle through back-porch soul, he confesses: "I'll never be picture-perfect Beyonce/Be light as Albi or black as Chonce/.. I never rock a mink coat in a winter time like Killa Cam/Or rock some mink boots in the summertime like will.i.am/Let me know if you feel it man/Cause everything I'm not, made me everything I am."
As for Fifty (short for 50 Cent), the album Curtis sounds like a former drug dealer who's become too rich too quick, and doesn't know where to go next.
Sure, his rapping is slicker than Kanye's, but the slickness doesn't translate to a unique selling point.
Anonymous, bruising basslines and sexy, serpentine synths aren't enough to shore up his usual gangsta ballyhoo.
Certainly, he comes across as particularly petty in the song Fully Loaded Clip: "When Jay and Beyonce was um-um kissing/I was cooking 1,000 grams in my kitchen/When Nas was telling Kelis, "I love you, boo"/I was shining my nine, you know how I do."
Fifty's ghetto-integrity schtick might have worked for the first two albums, but it's getting a little tired by now.
