50 Cent
The hip-hop press regularly hypes the real-life viciousness of whoever shoots his way to the top of the charts, but the overwhelming desire to prove that 50 Cent is the baddest rapper alive sets a new benchmark for tough-guy hysteria in the glossies. Rolling Stone and Vibe have lapped up the story, and the Source ran an article examining comments from previous interviews, looking for factual contradictions. (The Blender writer who stuck his hand in the rapper’s mouth to feel the bullet still embedded there deserves some recognition for his willingness to go the distance for a story.) Even critical think pieces have given themselves over to gangsta hagiography. At the end of a Village Voice career overview, writer Kris Ex indulges in a little mythmaking of his own, imagining 50 Cent as an army of one: “When offered police protection on the night of Jam Master Jay’s death, 50, saying that he felt safer in his own capable hands, left town, presumably with a small arsenal in tow. Try to picture Nas or Jay-Z doing that.”
