50 Cent - Before I Self Destruct

50 Cent’s back, he’s mad as hell and he’s not gonna take it anymore. At least, that’s the premise behind Before I Self Destruct, his fourth full-length album. Fiddy described it as a prequel to his blockbuster debut Get Rich or Die Tryin’.

It’s a worthy, if obvious, goal. The appeal of a back-to-basics album is clear, not only in light of the trajectory of 50’s career (I believe “downward spiral” is the correct term), but also given the current hip-hop climate. The prominence of the Kanye-Kid Cudi school of paralyzing self-doubt has so altered the perception of the rap genre that 50 Cent’s bullet-ridden gangster persona is actually something of an outlier.

Fiddy, to his credit, comes out with guns blazing. Whether or not you can take him seriously as he literally snarls his way through opener “The Invitation,” he at least appears to care about these tracks, which itself marks a substantial improvement over 2007’s dismal Curtis.

“So Disrespectful” is the class of the album, with 50 dissing just about everyone who comes to mind while reserving special vitriol for former protege Young Buck. And on “Psycho,” who cares if guest Eminem gets the better of 50? It’s refreshing to hear the two making a song sans clumsy sex rhymes (50) and tossed-off phallic jokes (Em).

Unfortunately, the second half of Before lacks the motivation or the firepower of the first. “Baby By Me” sounds like a 50 single, but the hook, courtesy of Ne-Yo, just doesn’t land like those from Get Rich. By the end of the album’s disastrous closer “Could’ve Been You,” a collaboration with R. Kelly, the aforementioned novelty of 50’s outsized boasts has long since worn off. What’s left is a bloated, overlong attempt at returning to a form 50 may no longer have in him.