The Massacre
The Massacre is the second studio album by American rapper 50 Cent. It was released on March 3, 2005, by Shady Records, Aftermath Entertainment, and Interscope Records. The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, staying atop for six weeks after selling 1.15 million copies in its first four days. Upon its release, "The Massacre" received generally positive reviews from music critics. Background. The original title for the album was revealed as The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (titled after the 1929 North Side, Chicago murder spree of its gang) and was arranged to be  released on February 15, 2005. However, it was postponed for the following month, and the album title was shortened to simply "The Massacre", due to the release of The Game's "The Documentary". Likewise, this was one of the few factors as to why a dispute between the two began. Originally, a certainty of songs that were originally intended to be included on the album were later known to be "Hate It or Love It", "Higher", "How We Do", "Church for Thugs" and "Special", causing a majority of "The Massacre" to be reworked. After 50 released Game from his G -Unit Records imprint on live radio February 21, 2005, a shootout occurred. Paul Rosenberg of Shady and Jimmy Iovine of Interscope worried that the album would underperform due to the negativity of the Hot 97 shooting. 50 and the Game later truced six days after The Massacre was released, but their animosity later reiterated after Game made fun of G-Unit at Hot 97's annual Summer Jam, where he first launched the G-Unot phrase, later turning to a boycott. After the album was bootlegged, Interscope decided to announce the album's official March 3 release date. Censorship. The  censored version of the album censors out most profanity, violence, and all drug content. The track "Gunz Come Out" has inconsistency in the editing, and contains some profanity. The opening intro removes the shooting sequence, and is cut down to 20 seconds. The album cover also removes guns in the background behind the rapper, being replaced by motifs and a gradient background. In comparison, the album is not as heavily censored as his previous album "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" (2003). Commercial performance. With a release in the middle of the sales week, "The Massacre" sold 1.15 million copies in  its first four days of release, becoming the sixth-largest opening week for an album at the time since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991. This is the second largest opening week for a hip hop album, behind Eminem's "The Marshall Mathers LP" (2000), which sold 1.76 million copies in its first week. In February 2020, "The Massacre" was certified six times platinum for combined sales and album-equivalent units of at least six million copies in the United States. It has sold over eleven million copies worldwide. In 2005, "The Massacre" was ranked as the number one  album of the year on the "Billboard" 200. Sustaining six weeks at number one on the weekly chart from March 19 to April 30, 2005, the album fell off after being ousted by Mariah Carey's "The Emancipation of Mimi". Critical reception. "The Massacre" received generally positive reviews from music critics; it holds a score of 66 out of 100 at Metacritic. "Vibe" magazine found it "full of finger-pointing panache" and wrote that "50 delivers a taut, albeit less explosive, album aimed at both silencing his detractors and keeping the ladies satisfied". "NME" observed "a new depth to the  murderous lyricism" from 50 Cent on the album. Greg Tate, writing in "The Village Voice", said that, like Tupac, 50 Cent is "a ruffian who knows the value of a good pop hook", and called "The Massacre" "the most diabolically sensous collection of baby-making gangsta music since Pac's "All Eyez"." Kelefa Sanneh of "The New York Times" found the album to be "nearly as addictive as its predecessor" and called 50 Cent "a crafty songwriter, specializing in obvious but nearly irresistible tracks that sound better the more you hear them." In his review for "The Village Voice", Robert  Christgau said that 50 Cent's "ugly gangsta lies" are "incidental to the mood of the piece, which is friendly, relaxed, good-humored, and in the groove." In a mixed review, Nathan Rabin of "The A.V. Club" said that, although its strengths lie in 50 Cent's "dark charisma" and "fluid delivery", the album is marred by flaws typical of "big rap releases: At nearly 78 minutes, it's far too long, wildly uneven, and not particularly cohesive sonically or thematically." "Uncut" magazine wrote that, despite 50 Cent's "cool menace", "not even tight productions from Eminem and Dre can  stop things from flagging midway." Lynne D. Johnson of "Spin" felt that it lacks "originality" and makes artistic concessions: "He's tryin' too hard to be everything to everybody." In a negative review for "The Guardian", Alexis Petridis panned him as a lyricist and felt that the album lacks "any of the factors that make the best gangsta rap disturbingly compelling ... There's nothing except a string of cliches so limited that repetition is unavoidable". Accolades. "The Massacre" was nominated at the 2006 Grammy Awards for Best Rap Album, but lost to Kanye West's "Late Registration". It was ranked  the twenty fifth best album of the year by "Rolling Stone". According to 50 Cent, the album received more mixed reviews than its predecessor "Get Rich Or Die Tryin"' because he was focused more on the hooks and song structure: "People fought love for the things they see are significant. Jimmy Iovine was a producer … he loves the significance of production. He loves Dre. I don’t give a fuck what I made … look, I made my whole second album as a 10-record. I knew they wasn’t my best verses but my choruses were right so I focused  on my song structure." Personnel. Credits for "The Massacre" adapted from Allmusic. Section::::"Special edition". Background. The album was re-released on September 6, 2005 as the "Special" edition. It included a remix of "Outta Control" featuring Mobb Deep, which replaces the original version of the song as track eight. This edition included a bonus DVD with music videos for a majority of the album's tracks (with the exclusion of "Disco Inferno", "Gunz Come Out" and the intro), and the trailer for the film "Get Rich or Die Tryin'", which released two months later. Due to the ongoing feud between  50 Cent and The Game, this version omits the G-Unit remix to "Hate It or Love It" as the twenty-second track. Once the special edition was released, "The Massacre" re-entered the top three of the "Billboard" 200 at number two, being blocked from number one by Kanye West's "Late Registration". The original version was also re-issued using the special edition track listing leaving out the parts for the DVD. signifies an additional producer. Informations taken from "The Massacre" liner notes: