So 50 Cent’s numbers came out and he did 156k, now everybody wants to hate on 50 Cent and claim that he flopped. However people are forgetting a few things as they let the hate blind them.

Firstly, Before I Self Destruct leaked on the Internet a month before schedule. People do not realize the hassle this poses, as they are so used to being able to steal albums in this age. When many people set a date for an album to drop, they have a whole promotional schedule to follow to market the album. An album leaking early destroys that whole schedule, especially when your forced to push the album forward just like in 50′s case.

Secondly, Hip Hop record sales have been at a decline for years. Not many artists can go platinum like they used to back in 2003, its a totally different climate now. With the combination of piracy and the recession, the record business is as fragile as ever. Only artists that have the most amount of hype and controversy at the moment will get the right backing from record labels. The artists that are selling now are straight up cornballs in my opinion, they do not represent real Hip Hop at all.

50 Cent has kept it real, 100% throughout his whole rap career. He will not sell out and use autotune on a record, or create an album full of features with the most popular artists at that point.

When other well established artists sell around 100k their first week, nobody says nothing. When 50 Cent does those numbers everyone is quick to call it a flop just because this is the day they have all been waiting for. The same people hating on 50′s sales are the same people bumping the pirated version of his album.

It is fair to say that 50 is a walking contradiction at this point, as he has clowned other artists such as Officer Ricky for doing these numbers. But that however does not mean that 50 Cent flopped, if the album didn’t leak a month ahead of time you could bet your money 50 would be gold right now.

So stop hating and buy records, support Hip Hop.