50 Cent - The Massacre • CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

little thug."

It helps that 50 Cent is the most likable rapper ever to need a bulletproof vest. Like his Kevlar-wearing predecessor and idol, Tupac Shakur, 50 has charisma up the muzzle-hole. But where Tupac could be manic and unpredictable, 50 is cool and easy to be around -- you get the sense that if he weren't so busy getting shot, stabbed and selling millions of albums, he would be an enormously successful fraternity president or restaurateur.

50's bullet-riddled resume provides cover for the fact that he's a major piece of hip-hop beefcake. He works that angle more than ever on The Massacre, the follow-up to 2003's Get Rich or Die Tryin'. The new album's first two singles -- the lascivious, midtempo grinder "Candy Shop" and speaker-shaking party track "Disco Inferno" -- are mostly for the ladies. The tracks display how 50 has it both ways: Only a rapper who's been shot nine times can get away with describing the dance floor as "hot as a tea kettle." That's not G Unit, it's G-rated. The next single, "Out of Control," produced by Dr. Dre, is the best of the party tracks: As 50 chants the hook of the Eighties electro-funk classic "Set It Off," Dre pumps up the tension -- like "In Da Club," it's the kind of track that seems to bear down on you while you listen.

Not all of Massacre is as immediately catchy as Get Rich, but it's close. 50 is so entertaining that you don't mind hearing him wallow in Fat City (usually the very place where these kinds of megahit follow-ups hit the shoals). On "Piggy Bank," he gloats hilariously about how well he's doing, thanks to his G Unit soldiers Lloyd Banks, Young Buck and the Game: "Banks' shit sells/Buck's shit sells/Game's shit sells/I'm rich as -- hell." The gun-waving and menacing talk haven't gone away, but 50 appears to have mellowed a little; you can hear more enthusiasm in his West Coast-style chill-out track "Ryder Music" than in the standard-issue homicide homily "I'm Supposed to Die Tonight."

50 almost never lets you see him sweat -- he wants you to believe that he could be doing something else, like being a drug kingpin; rhyming is just something he happens to be good at. Don't believe him: He works to vary his flow on Massacre, faking a muddy Southern drawl on "This Is 50," assuming a soft, confidential tone on "Ryder Music," going for a dry bark on "I Don't Need 'Em." For someone as prolific as 50 -- he shares Tupac's work habits, recording more than sixty tracks for this album -- he's also very efficient. Tracks like "Gunz Come Out" don't have sky-high ambit

On his much-anticipated second album, 50 Cent offers a strong collection of murderous threats and sensitive-thug love jams. Cameos come from Tony Yayo, Eminem, Olivia and Jamie Foxx, while Dre and Scott Storch contribute tight production. Includes the chart-topping "Candy Shop" and the relentless beef-starter "Piggy Bank.