Hip-Hop is one of the greatest things to ever happen to the world.  To go from a simple idea and become a worldwide phenomenon is no easy task.  From The Sugarhill Gang to Russell Simmons to Yo! MTV Raps to Rap City there has been no shortage of creativity until recently.  Somehow, Hip-Hop has turned into rap.  KRS-One said it best.  There is a difference between being an MC and a rapper.  Rappers do just that.  Rap.  There is some kind of lyrical content and creativity (It's scarce, but it's out there).  However, that is about it.  If you go to a 50 Cent concert you will get the same kind of concert every other country in the world gets.  He will get up on stage, do his set of "hits" (if that's what you want to call them), and leaves you with a feeling of, "Okay, it was a concert."  He left me with a feeling of where is the entertainment.  I see him on TV and it is the same feeling that I got from the concert.  I could have sat at home and not coughed up 45 dollars for a ticket and been minimally entertained.  He is a rapper, not an MC.  I can sit at home and watch old MC Hammer videos all day for nothing and get more enjoyment than I would at a 50 concert.  It's no wonder why Kanye West outsold him.  I went to both concerts when they came around and I can compare the two evenly.  I went and got both albums, actually paid for both of them, and Kanye West's album "Graduation" crushed (and I do mean crushed) 50 Cent's "Curtis".  I gave 50 Cent the upper-hand and listened to it in the car, because that is the only place where a cd will get my full attention.  It was still horrible.  It was just like the last one.  Same seventeen songs talking about having sex with some girl(s).   Same songs talking about killing somebody with so many bullets from so many guns.  Nothing has changed.  I listen to the Kanye West and it is a progressive process that was well-produced

and well organized.  New content and was generally a breath of fresh air to my choking ears.  Sure, Kanye may not be the best rapper.  Yeah, he is overly-arrogant.  So what if his freestyles are the level of a KRS-One of Cassidy of Jay-Z.  You can't say that he is not an MC.  He is pure entertainment.  Pure energy.  He doesn't need a "Tony Yayo" running around the stage yelling and repeating every word.  I paid to see Kanye and that is exactly what I got.  He didn't need a hype-machine.  He performed like he was at the Grammies or the VMAs.  He performed like he was getting paid top-dollar and it was only homecoming at Vanderbilt University.  50 Cent performed for about 1 1/2 hours.  Kanye performed for 3 1/2 hours.  Kanye had the entire crowd standing for the entire 3 1/2 hours.  Not too many people can say that they do that.  Kanye West raps how he lives.  50 Cent doesn't live like he raps.  He doesn't go out shooting people and buying guns and fighting because someone didn't pay him.  He would be like T.I. right now.  He'd be in jail (or on house-arrest).  Kanye West may exaggerate, but at least he is not flatout lying in his lyrics.  Kanye West is a pure entertainer.  Pure MC.  Pure Hip-Hop.  50 Cent is just playing the part.  He is just acting like an American Gangster just so he can sell records.  He does all this and still didn't sell nearly as many albums as Kanye.  Kanye West double platinum in a week.  Nobody has done that in a while.  And for all the hype that 50 Cent put behind his album and saying he would retire, it looks like it back-fired.  Kanye West may not front like he is "hard" and "ghetto" and "hood," but at least his music and heartfelt and isn't fabrication.  Where is the Hip-Hop? It's there.  It's a tiny spark that is trying to be re-lit, but it's there.  There just needs to be more realism and creativity and less guns and killing.  I'm not saying there is something wrong with all that.  But really...every song?  That's just a little ridiculous, don't you think?