50 Cent Commercial - An attempt to rehabilitate his image?

<h1>50 Cent Commercial - An attempt to rehabilitate his image?</h1>

by Jeffrey Lumpkin

<div align=justify>music downloads 50 Cent The rapper musician 50 Cent, has come out with a commercial recently, and it is tied in with a power drink. I wonder if this commercial is also part of a campaign to help rehabilitate his image. In the commercial, 50 Cent is seen walking onto a stage in preparation to conduct a major symphonic orchestra. As he steps on the conductor's podium, 50 Cent first takes a sip from the bottle of a brand of power soft drink. A voice-over reveals the information that 50 Cent has replaced the regular conductor and with the aid of this power soft drink is now prepared to lead the symphony in its rendition of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Not to be confused with renowned symphonic conductors such as Zubin Mehta or the late Leonard Bernstein, one could see that 50 Cent is utterly clueless as to the proper conducting rhythm based on the music. However, the orchestra begins the opening strains of this famous symphony work. Pretty soon, however the orchestra breaks into the tune of 50 Cent's most famous rap song "In the Club". Seeing some of the orchestra members, (including one string player) moving and jiving to the beat of the song is utterly hysterical. It appears to be almost incongruous; associating musicians used to performing orchestral works instead, as shown in this commercial, getting completely into a work from a rap artist. The person doing the voice-over concludes that the ingredients in the power soft drink has prepared 50 Cent to successfully undertake this mission; proving that anything is possible if the commercial viewers would start using this power drink as a part of their diet, as well. I could not help but recognize the underlying meaning in having a controversial figure such as 50 Cent participate in something unexpected like this commercial. I wonder if the commercial was an attempt to tell us that people of different backgrounds can blend together for a common cause, (expecting a person like 50 Cent with his background to perform with a symphonic orchestra to the initial works of Beethoven is almost unfathomable)? Or, is it an attempt by the rapper towards changing the image that is linked to him within the music industry? 50 Cent has a history of portraying anger in his music through his lyrics that tell stories of violence, abuse of women, crime, and race relations. Many of his lyrics contain profanity, usage of the N-word, and degradation of women in general, (referring to them as B's, and "hos"). I am an African-American male. As one who was brought up by educated parents, I never could understand why people of color used the N-word so readily in their everyday language. My parents certainly didn't utter that word in front of my sister and me. I understand that the N-word is used as slang by a certain percentage of African-Americans. But, I fail to completely understand why that word comes out of their mouths as often as it does; and often in greeting other African-Americans. I will just chalk it up to ignorance and the fact that these folks do not completely understand the context in which the N-word was meant during the 17 - 1800's, before slavery was abolished. This word was certainly not meant as a compliment when a Caucasian slave owner addressed the Black individual that he owned, ordering him/her around as if he/she was some type of dog. Even today, while an African-American individual can greet another friend of his/her color with the N-word, there would be an entirely different reaction altogether if a Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian, or Middle Eastern person greeted that same individual using that filthy, disgusting word. More likely, violence would ensue as the African-American individual would be prepared to give a "beat down" to the person who addressed them with that tone of language. The N-word is used prevalently in 50 Cent's rap music, and I for one find it reprehensible. Back in the spring of this year, the noted radio" shock jock", Don Imus lost his prestigious syndicated job when he uttered a cruel joke on air during one of his morning shows, directed towards the Rutgers' University Women's basketball team. In particular, Imus addressed the African-American members of the team, calling them a bunch of (quote) "nappy-headed hos" (un-quote). (For more on this discussion as I addressed it on another blog that I post to, visit this link here). The Rev. Al Sharpton immediately got involved, imploring that Imus be severely reprimanded by his station for the remarks. Sharpton's involvement in the incident started an outrage across this country, in particular from non African-American individuals. They were clear in their feelings, expressing anger that Rev. Sharpton had once again got involved in an incident involving race, and one in which bigoted language was used to describe African-Americans. Some of these people wanted to know why Rev. Sharpton had not expressed anger and outrage at people of his own color when rap musicians, (like 50 Cent) used the same language in the lyrics of their music, in a sense knocking members of their own race? Why is it okay for certain African-American individuals to degrade each other with filthy, racist, degrading words out of the English language, yet when individuals of other ethnicities utter these same words towards African-Americans it becomes a case worthy of criminal prosecution? The positive result of the Don Imus-Rev. Sharpton -rap music connection, started back in the spring with this incident; is that now, more attention has been given to this type of music within the industry. It is a fact that the negativity portrayed by artists like 50 Cent has led to many individuals being turned off by the image and thoughts that these musicians illicit in their songs. CD sales of rap albums within the past year has taken a nose-dive. The crystal clear message has been given by consumers of music to certain rap musicians that they had better start to clean up their acts. If they are unwilling to make any changes in the themes of their songs, then people will no longer buy their products. Indeed, the USA Today national newspaper had an article about rap music, just a few weeks. The article concluded that changes might already be taking place in the musical tastes of consumers in America, and that this trend could be permanent. It was mentioned in the article that last year, the CD album put out by the Disney company with music from the popular movie "High School Musical" completely dwarfed, in sales, those of all rap musicians combined! I believe that the 8 - 18 year old demographic individuals in this country stated their feelings about the type of music they now prefer. One can't help but conclude that adoloscents and teenagers, who make up a strong majority of individuals who buy music in this country, no longer prefer listening to a 50 Cent and his brand of music. (I also did a review of my thoughts concerning the debut of the "High School Musical 2" movie, earlier this week on this blog). I have a suspicion that when Disney releases the CD album to the music of the "High School Musical 2" movie, every kid under the age of 16 in this country will be running to his/her local mall to buy the album. I doubt that they would be making this trip to the store to buy any rap music, either. They probably would not even give it a thought! It is no wonder that rap artists like 50 Cent might slowly be getting the message. Clean up your act, re-do your image, and stop insulting people with your profanity-laced music lyrics. 50 Cent's appearance conducting an orchestra in a commercial is but one attempt on the musician's part to re-do his image. Let us see if 50 Cent can also start giving people some respect in the message portrayed in his music, as well as reduce the amount of R-rated language in his lyrics. For other articles posted on this blog, please visit: http://love--music.blogspot.com. I also welcome any comments to this post! music downloads 50 Cent </div>

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