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Curtis seems surprisingly modest. The album is neither as contagious as "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" (apparently it's possible to have an entire album stuck in your head) nor as devious as "The Massacre."
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It's a solid performance, that is both better and worse than it could have been.
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What the two boil down to is that a parvenu mastering pop music for money has turned into a made man running on vanity. I find that this renders his expert trivialization of murder and such rather less piquant, and I think he does too--that an audacious formal delight has become routine.
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In the end, Curtis is entertaining but only impressive in that 50 can run in place and still be on top.
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The I-need-love pop tunes are not getting any better, even with Timbaland and Justin Timberlake in the stripper ditty 'AYO Technology.' 'Follow My Lead” is an inexplicable Robin Thicke duet and 'Amusement Park' is even sillier. Much better is 'All of Me,' with Mary J. Blige. Wailing, "I got a feeling like I'm fiending on crack," Blige steals the show without even trying.
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It's a solidly above-average rap record, featuring a generous handful of very likeable songs and only two unqualified duds.
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Curtis is stuffed with tightly wound 21st-century pop songwriting, full of that invisible craft and flow that renders a thing eminently listenable even if it's gratuitously raunchy, politically reprehensible, and sexually retrograde.
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Nothing on Curtis is great, but everything is listenable or better.
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Entertainment WeeklyIn the end, Curtis is nothing more than a competent corporate product. [21 Sep 2007, p.84]
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'My Gun' is one of the best tracks Fifty's lent his name to; Adam Deitch and Eric Krasno's skilful production keeps the tension bubbling just below the surface with a muted hard rock guitar riff; 50's rhyme and flow is more varied and expressive than his usual monotone drawl.... The remainder of the album is as inconsistent as Fifty’s career to date.
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Though the album is good, for an artist of 50 Cent's caliber, it's not great.
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It's unfortunate that "Interscope Jackson" spends so much time here trying to ply believable tough talk--highlights arrive when Fiddy embraces his current, lavish lifestyle.
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He's still capable of cranking out a great single and the occasional clever verse, but he's yet to master the art of making a satisfying album rather than delivering a random assortment of demographic-pandering tracks.
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50's new album is a blatant rehash--a bottom-line sequel that insults the same audience it mindlessly panders to.
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What's missing where these lame boasts exist in Curtis is the vulnerability of moments on The Massacre (especially 'A Baltimore Love Thing') or any of the rich narrative that graced his first album, not to mention any of the goofy, sing-along catchiness that previously made his singles chart events. Musically 50's collaborators don't feel like they've brought anything near their best to the table.
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50 is back with his larger-than-life persona and even bigger Mack 11, remaking his classic first album for the second time, with tiresome results.
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Curtis doesn't sound like it was much fun to make, and it isn't much fun to listen to.
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Shooting people, no-strings-attached sex and being a millionaire has never sounded so boring.
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There isn’t an ounce of life in Curtis.
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50 doesn't fare any better on the softer side: 'Amusement Park' proves he's one of the worst lyricists alive.... It's not just the metaphors, though, it's the execution.
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50 sounds redundant.
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A 55-minute mess called Curtis, undoubtedly one of this year’s worst releases.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 73 out of 208
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Mixed: 25 out of 208
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Negative: 110 out of 208
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Oct 17, 2014
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Jan 10, 2012
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JeremyW.Nov 27, 2007Definitely not as good as his previous albums, a few memorable tracks then lots of filler. Nothing new here.