five 50 mixtape classics

the good die young -- it has the same sample as monica's so gone. it uses that same chugging flute thing as the main part but with sizzling vinyl noise and windchimes and brittle piano and 50 talking to yayo at the start, "niggas be thinkin i'm crazy, right?" and some endearingly generic ny rapper verses that don't really sound like anything else he's done and it's about how he's going to keep being a thug because grimy niggas live a long time.

corner bodega/ghetto qua'ran -- these were the first two 50 songs i heard, on community radio in 02 right after the first source feature. they played them back to back just like they appear on guess who's back. corner bodega is one of those 50 mixtape miniatures that i've never heard anyone come close to getting right, story of re-upping at a coke spot and getting fucked with over the price and into a bored 50 hook and general rundown of the game and it's over and into ghetto qua'ran. the beats match just right, slide into each other. opening with another bored 50 hook, "lord forgive me for i've sinned, over and over again-- just to stay on top," and fuck the way he starts that verse sounds great every time, "yo, when you hear talk of the southside you hear talk of the team / see, niggas feared prince and respected preme / for all you slow motherfuckers ima break it down iller / see, prince was the businessman, preme was the killer." and contrast between on the come-up hustler and jamaica queens street legends, that corner bodega price/weight specificity and ghetto qua'ran names/places specificity, etc. (when i saw g-unit the dj dropped the ghetto qua'ran beat after stunt 101 and i was excited for a sec but it was just interlude music for banks to talk over).

gun runners -- another mixape miniature track. it's got the phone call wake-up thing, dude calls 50 at four in the morning, got his number from heather, heard he sells guns. they meet on the block, 50 in the brown hoopty and dude in the bmw, 50 pops the trunk to show him what he's got, "first i showed him the tec / told him niggas give these shits respect / but you don't want this, man / them shits is known to jam / this is a little smaller, here / and a little more common, 9 mm ruger / sixteen shots, hollow points will go through ya" etc. etc.-- then 50's got one last piece to show him, "i keep it in the small of my back / it's a two shot, it's chrome, my initials engraved in it," BANG BANG, "look at you now, you had to get it / your bm? i'm takin it-- shit, you don't need it / park it where i can watch it at and see if it got lojack / then take it to the chop shop to my man kojak."

surrounded by hoes -- all the best tracks on 50 cent is the future are built around huge, great hooks. this is grinning joyful hook, half a verse, grinning joyful hook, and he talks over the end of the beat, "fuck them other niggas, niggas can't rap! that's why they give you a hundred motherfuckin bars for nothing, man."

50 bars -- it's some epic, read-along shit like ghetto qua'ran, a new name/place every bar, but with fictional east coast hustlers instead of real drug lords, "the lex 450 rolled up, that's cornbread / them niggas from philly would've called him an old head / but he an og remind me of chaz and bump, real low key," and simple loop hip-hop beat with straight strings and interrupting vocal sample.