Today's Pick

50 Cent is definitely riding off the positive momentum that his records have been getting. Sensing the connection between his just-released "Smoke," and the people, 50 Cent again, wastes absolutely no time getting out an accompanying visual to pair with a recent song's release. Produced by Dr Dre, "Smoke" will feature on the 38-year-old New York rapper's upcoming first indie full-length, "Animal Ambition," which 50 Cent said that he has shot 13 videos for, is slated to drop on June 3rd with some heat for the summer.
Call this the return of 50 Cent. On his new single, the Queens boss teams up with Trey Songz as they get everyone down to the dance floors to inhale their vibes. The Dr. Dre-produced high-powered dance track starts with a familiar-but-updated Dre thump. Frantic, striking piano meets a pounding drum track before Songz sets things off. "Somebody pull the fire alarm/ girl where ya from?/ 'Cause you got this club on fire/ and outside I bet all they smell is smoke," he sings on the hook to 50 Cent's new single.
50 Cent is no stranger to setting the club on fire; it's a topic he's visited with songs like 2005's "Disco Inferno." This cut finds the G-Unit MC capo paying tribute to a woman who's more intoxicating than a great big lungful of Smoke as he attacks the beat with his usual charm. Songz enhances the record's already-prodigious pop appeal with a smooth guest hook. "She hood and in the mood, when I'm in the mood/ Erotic, so exotic, I'm psychotic about it," he spits with his eye on the object of his thug affection. It's no secret 50 Cent has been on a roll with "Animal Ambition" releases thus far, but "Smoke" is easily a stand out amongst the other musical offerings he has given us.
Ring the alarm. 50 Cent goes missing in the Eif Rivera-directed action-packed video. When the rap mogul can't be found, the police chief sends his top agent to track him down, fighting off everyone in sight to come to his rescue. The voluptuous cop fights off bad guys before discovering 50 Cent in the trunk of a car in the to-be-continued film. Like always, 50 Cent turns the club record into one helluva cliffhanger of a story. Watch the search party hunt down Curtis Jackson and stay tuned for part two...

50 Cent just released his dark and gloomy action-packed video for "My Life," which the 37-year-old G-Unit hip-hop mogul has enlisted some major star power from his Shady partner-in-crime Eminem and Maroon 5's frontman Adam Levine. The new rap track is the third cut from his upcoming fifth 'more personal' album, "Street King Immortal," which has been delayed to be released on February 26, 2013. And their latest visual is really intended to get a message across.
The track, which premiered yesterday, finds the rappers spitting about their individual struggles the pressures of fame over the years, and expressing some melancholy and confusion of their lives as the singer touts the whole reason this may be a hit. 50 Cent speaking on his journey from the streets to the fame and having friends turn to enemies. After Levine croons on the hook with an undeniable earworm, Eminem reveals that he may not have been ready for the fame that followed "Recovery," but his guest verse is the best thing he's done in 2012.
50 Cent is a weird case among rappers, isn't he? He put out one of the best-selling hip-hop albums of all time in Get Rich or Die Tryin', and his personal narrative is as ingrained in the popular consciousness as any mainstream star’s of the past two decades. On the other hand, he's had a string of duds and non-starters, both in the music world and in the straight-to-DVD universe. But he's still a prodigious talent, and his upcoming album "Street King Immortal" might be the thing that puts him back on top of the rap world.
The Rich Lee-directed video might seem like a simple fugitives on the run from law enforcement story as they desperately try to escape a tenacious helicopter that relentlessly follows them throughout their environments, but it's actually a metaphor for life under the spotlight. The high-budgeted, action-packed is a perfect illustration of the difficulties they face day by day. As Eminem described: "The video is kind of abstract; it's kind of metaphoric in a sense, like the paranoia of feeling like we're being chased. Whether it's true or not, it's kind of how we feel. It's kind of a metaphor for us running for our lives. Personal lives and from fame, everything that goes with the game."