Over the weekend, 50 Cent released “I Got Money,” which, on first listen, we actually sort of enjoyed; its halfway-decent beat was only marred by 50′s lackadaisical flow (and apparently contract-mandated Vitamin Water mentions). As it turns out–and why are we not surprised by this?–said beat wasn’t 50′s at all, but instead nicked from a Massachusetts rapper named Jimmie Hoffa. Nah Right weighs in:
You may recall the minor controversy that arose after 50 released Amusement Park and people immediately recognized the beat from the Jim Jones/DJ Drama mixtape 7 Day Theory that dropped earlier this year. Beatjacking allegations started to fly and the producer behind the beat, Chris Styles, came forward to say that he did not sell the beat twice and that he had no idea where Jimmy got it from.
Well, don’t look now, but it looks like somebody went and slipped Curtis another second hand beat. As noted by my man Bfred in a comment on YN’s latest blog post, the track Curt used on his new street single I get Money, sounds pretty much identical to a track of the same name from a Massachusetts based artist named Jimmie Hoffa. Damn Curtis, all that Vitamin Water paper you’re getting and you can’t do due diligence on a beat? Somebody get Sha Money XL on the phone…
You can hear the original “I Got Money” at Jimmie’s MySpace page, and the 50 version at HHNLive; how this news will affect the already-delayed release date of 50′s forthcoming album Curtis isn’t quite certain, although between this and the forgotten lyrics incident, maybe it’s best for 50 to start fresh. He could even go the Fergie route and team up with his favorite sports-energy drink!
Curtis = Still Jacking for Beats [Nah Right]
Jimmie Hoffa [MySpace]
hip hop beats stolen?
get the beat detectives on the case.
Jackin’ Pop? How about Jackin’ Hip-Hop?
i thought this practice was referred to as “sampling”.
I don’t listen to a lot of contemporary hip hop but as a home studio jockey I can say that the market is lousy with loop-based instruments and sample sets. A lot are full tracks chopped up into their constituent parts, some are just collections of breaks and beats; they are *heavily* bootlegged and traded, even among “pros”. I’m sure a lot of producers are using shit they have no idea where it came from. I haven’t heard the tracks in question but my first guess is that the two producers were using the same *phat* beat from something like StylusRMX or BigFishAudio Hardcore Beatz.
Or Fiddy’s producer just stole the track.
An over-marketed, unoriginal hip-hop artist with no talent isn’t creative enough to come up with his own beat? Stop the presses.
I read something in the New Yorker last year about the author of that “40 Laws of Power” book. A section of the profile dealt with how the book’s been embraced by the hip hop community. At one point, upon knowing the author is going to be in New York, 50 Cent’s people track him down — 50 requests a meeting.
The article goes on to sit in on the meeting, and two things were apparent to me while reading the transcription: that 50 Cent is considerably intelligent, and a super-savvy businessman — even his language and manner of speaking seems to change into something much more professional and eloquent behind closed doors; and he very clearly could not give less of a fuck about the music — he explicitly says as much, whether it’s because he figures the New Yorker is not the type of publication his fan base is most likely to read or what, I dunno. But he says, flat-out, that he could care less about the music, because the money’s not in music, and he’s in the game purely to cash out as large as he can. That’s his M.O.
50′s pretty much the rap equivalent of Chad Kroeger from Nickelback — a businessman with an ear for the formulaic, who understands that formula sells and therefore doesn’t overextend himself as an artist. However, 50′s business model is a bit different because hip hop can be parlayed into millions of dollars in endorsement deals. But as for the music itself, he could basically take it or leave it. And he knows that the white teenagers that snap up “Curtis” from the local Best Buy haven’t been exposed to MC Funkee Fizzle Moe Bizzle from Buffalo’s umpteenth underground mixtape, so he jacks a beat or two. Hell, he’s probably got insurance to cover his lawyers through Interscope. It’s only too bad he didn’t pick better beats to jack in this case.
@Reidicus: oh, yeah. but those ‘amen break’ jackers didn’t call their songs ‘amen break,’ and i’m guessing they didn’t have a lot of people waiting to watch them succumb to some sort of downfall, either. the decline of 50′s public perception over the past few months (vitamin water fortune aside) has been fascinating.
The only difference between Fiddy and countless others who’ve done the same thing is that he (apparently) has gotten caught. (See this amazing video on the history of the 1969 “Amen Break” in electronic and hip-hop music: [youtube.com]
So, I listened. While I may have been right and that is the hook from some sample library, it does indeed sound like he just straight out lifted that beat.
I still don’t get why 50 is so popular. I have a hard time thinking of a rapper with a worse flow.