Animal Ambition (An Untamed Desire To Win)

About

<i>Animal Ambition: An Untamed Desire to Win (Deluxe Edition)</i> is 50 Cent’s answer to his most famous assertion: <i>Get Rich or Die Tryin’<i>, the name of his 2003 debut. As a rapper, entrepreneur, and actor, 50 built an empire, and <i>Animal Ambition</i> is both a victory lap and a how-to guide. On the album, he gloats spectacularly, but he also believes in his fans to achieve the level of fame and notoriety he found through unrelenting determination, a knack for stadium-ready hook, hypnotizing tales from the streets of New York, and unmatched charisma. The album was planned as a two-part serie, to be followed by <i>Street King Immortal</i>, but that album never materialized. The MC put it all on the table with <i>Animal Ambition</i>, a project that from title to concept leaves little to the imagination. The album is 50’s memoir and his magnum opu, the thing he leaves for the next generation to understand him. It’s an attempt to demonstrate how he got so successful, why being rich is the best thing on Earth, and how, with enough determination, his fans might one day be like him. 50 does a clever thing with the record, though. Using Notorious B.I.G.’s lament of “Damn, n****s wanna stick me for my paper” on his 1994 track “Warning,” 50 follows in the footsteps of New York’s rap king, asking why the haters multiply as the bank account adds zeroe. On the ScHoolboy Q–assisted “Flip On You,” which is exclusive to the deluxe edition, 50 lays out his entire artistic philosophy, rapping, “Got a bunch of enemie, I count my friends on one hand/Ghetto philosophy, watch me, I got a hundred scams/Like we could make a few dollar, that there a hundred gram.” Even after a decade at the top of the rap game, 50 can’t stay away from a good deal when he sees one. .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

Start your shelf to read the full take →