Speaking With Animation : Curtis Jackson edition

A constant theme in hip hop culture is the battle. The battle is when two MC's square off and engage in a lyrical confrontation. It has become a marketing tactic of sorts. You engage another rapper in an exchange of words it begins plenty of water cool talk. Arguments ensue between fan bases and each rappers material is talked about more. Earlier this year 50 cent engaged in a very viral beef with down south rapper Rick Ross. 50 cent utilized many types of media. Including animation. Instead of wasting more music on the over weight rapper. 50 cent put together a series of short cartoons aimed at Rick Ross. Rick Ross is a former corrections officer who has this mafia don persona in rap. In the cartoon Rick Ross is Officer Ricky. We track Officer Ricky who is coming up in a hyper real version of the rap world. Another large theme in hip hop is pop culture references. Hip Hop loves to discuss whats going on in pop culture. 50 did a great job at including this in his cartoons. Officer Ricky is seen arresting TI, DMX and even Chris Brown (after he is seen beating up Rihana on screen.) All these people are facing real life criminal charges. He also includes some more less popular hip hop subplots. Like the fight between Suge Knight and Akon's body guard. My favorite cartoon is the last cartoon he has Officer Ricky flip out because his album has been pushed back, 50 uses a monologue from the film Training Day to dub Officer Ricky's voice. The cartoon than goes into a minute long parody of Rick Ross's music. The parody music video features Kanye West, T Pain, and Lil Wayne all being portrayed as non nonsensical idiots. I chose these cartoons because while they didn't impress me visually or with an incredible story, I found them to be very clever. This type of entertainment is very popular and I think it is smart to push the boundaries of what an artist can do to fulfill its audiences needs. If doing cartoons like this cuts down on the amount of pointless diss tracks, name dropping and silly pop culture references its a plus and a change that I welcome. I don't turn to hip hop for these themes but its nice to see someone keep it off wax and try to find another avenue for this. Below is the Link with the cartoons!


THIS IS 50 Cartoons