Photo By Nigel D.

50 Cent’s, “Before I Self Destuct,” sold 160k records in its first week of sales, including digital sales according to Billboard.com. In comparison, Rick Ross’, “Deeper Than Rap,” debuted with 158k sold in the first week. Other major releases this year were Jay-Z(476k), & Eminem(608k). What do you think of Rick Ross & 50 Cent basically selling the same amount?

So what do you feel is the cause of the decline in 50 Cent’s popularity and sales? (Feel free to say what 48 Laws of Power he didn’t obey)

& if you REALLY wanna know the truth : to me, 50 album wasn’t that bad….. I contributed to that 161,000 … Karma is just a B-I-T-C-H.
- The Game

Rick Ross reaction is below…
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Joblessness for 16-to-24-year-old black men has reached Great Depression proportions — 34.5 percent in October, more than three times the rate for the general U.S. population. And last Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that unemployment in the District, home to many young black men, rose to 11.9 percent from 11.4 percent, even as it stayed relatively stable in Virginia and Maryland.

The jobless rate for young black men and women is 30.5 percent. For young blacks — who experts say are more likely to grow up in impoverished racially isolated neighborhoods, attend subpar public schools and experience discrimination — race statistically appears to be a bigger factor in their unemployment than age, income or even education. Lower-income white teens were more likely to find work than upper-income black teens, according to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, and even blacks who graduate from college suffer from joblessness at twice the rate of their white peers.

“Black men were less likely to receive a call back or job offer than equally qualified white men,” said Devah Pager, a sociology professor at Princeton University, referring to her studies a few years ago of white and black male job applicants in their 20s in Milwaukee and New York. “Black men with a clean record fare no better than white men just released from prison.”

Full Story: Washington Post

Very interesting article, especially this line, “Black men with a clean record fare no better than white men just released from prison.” Black males need to know the odds are against them so they can’t afford mistakes and will the will have to put their all in whatever they pursue.