In our recent interview with Game, he mentioned just how real the beef between he and 50 Cent was at the time. “Yeah. I’ll just be honest, when The Doctor’s Advocate came out, everywhere I went… I bought a bullet-proof suburban and no one ever shot at it,” the Game said. “I spent $500,000 on a bullet-proof suburban and no one ever shot at us. Pause. I say that because I wish I had my money back. I bought it prematurely. At one point in my career, I thought that me and 50 were gonna end up like Biggie and Pac.” That’s an intense admission, and it proves just how real things seemed at the time between Fif and himself.
Of course, after losing just about everyone, he went ahead and made The Doctor’s Advocate, an album that many consider his best work and a classic in its own right. It revived his career, which, before then, seemed like it might become a victim of the curse of 50. Instead, he stood stronger than ever, and a Cold War between the two seemingly continues to this day. This left us wondering, though: Which emcee had the better post-beef careers? Just like our last head-to-head article featuring Jay Z and Nas, we made an apples-to-apples comparison of the full-length LP’s that the two emcees dropped in relation to each other. That means none of 50 Cent’s G-Unit mixtapes or albums. Well, except one. We added both his G-Unit reunion project The Beauty Of Independence and Game’s strange 2014 compilation Blood Moon: Year Of The Wolf to the outlier section.
*Ties count as votes for both parties
The Massacre vs. The Doctor’s Advocate
Release Date: “The Massacre” – March 3, 2005 | “The Doctor’s Advocate” – November 14, 2006
Metacritic Scores: “The Massacre” – 66% | “The Doctor’s Advocate” – 73%
DX Scores: “The Massacre” – 3.5 | “The Doctor’s Advocate” – 3.5
Andre: The Massacre begins with just that. Bullets spinning out of glocks that would, today, make everyone vomit because of the public shootings that have been happening over the past few years. 2005 was a more innocent time, however, and so the women screaming and bullet cases clinking along an imaginary floor barely raised an eyebrow. There was far less of the good Dr. on this one, something that both albums had in common, but 50 replaced him with over-the-top savagery and charm. “Candy Shop” saw us begin to worship a stiff, nearly morose Olivia, and with “Just a Little Bit” and “‘In My Car” running a stellar backup, the album tries admirably to make up for Dre’s absence. For-the-ladies attempts like “So Amazing” and “Build You Up” mar the album, but in my opinion The Massacre was even grittier than his debut sans those missteps. In that way, this album is Fif’s In My Lifetime Vol. 1, and despite Game’s inspired effort, I give this one a tie.
Winner: Tie
Ural: Following his exit and later all out war with G-Unit, The Game mentioned in a recent in an interview with Justin Hunte how much against the wall his back was in the creation of The Doctor’s Advocate. Regardless of how much of a classic The Documentary is, he sounded comfortable and confident considering the company he kept. The Doctor’s Advocate couldn’t have been more defiant and a whole lot more personal. Meanwhile, The Massacre was 50 Cent furthering his dominant run that outsold first sales of his wrecking ball debut Get Rich Or Die Trying. Though never reaching the critical love his first outing received, the passage of time has made The Massacre an adequate follow-up. With the controversy revolving The Game, The Doctor’s Advocate should have been a catastrophe. However, “One Blood” and “Couldn’t Get Far” featuring Kanye West represented a stronger package than “Candy Shop” and “Disco Inferno.”
Winner: The Doctor’s Advocate
Curtis vs. LAX
Release Date: “Curtis” – September 11, 2007 | “LAX” – August 26, 2008
Metacritic Scores: “Curtis” – 58% | “LAX” – 65%
DX Scores: “Curtis” – 2.5 | “LAX” – 3.5
Andre: The showdown with Kanye’s Graduation ushered in the downfall of Fif. His signature antics involving antagonizing his opponents didn’t fair as well as he may have hoped as he stepped into the ring with a Kanye West ready to ascend to the throne. The album didn’t win the sales battle, but Curtis still had its bangers. “Ayo Technology” is right up there on anyone’s 50 Cent top song list, and “Straight To The Bank” felt tortured in a way despite Fif being in full bravado mode. Still, Curtis counting his riches couldn’t exactly stand up to Game’s third in spite of just how much of a mess it was. I’m still not sure how “LAX Files” made the album, but even with all the features and the sprawl, it was still a solid effort.
Winner: LAX
Ural: I’m not going to lie, Curtis and LAX were both disappointments. Fiddy’s third full-length project was thoroughly uninteresting and lacked his signature aggression. No surprise that he came out as the loser during his sells battle with Kanye West. Disappointing considering some of the creative risks he took on Curtis. Going the Timbaland and Justin Timberlake route on “Ayo Technology” or even getting Mary J Blige for “All Of Me” were incredibly too safe. The same could be said for LAX which was almost just as straightforward. At this point, The Game’s third album felt as if he was going through the motions. And yes, “Game’s Pain” still serves as his worst single to date.
Winner: Tie
Before I Self Destruct vs. The R.E.D. Album
Release Date: “Before I Self Destruct” – November 9, 2009 | “The R.E.D. Album” – August 19, 2011
Metacritic Scores: “Before I Self Destruct” 62% – | “The R.E.D. Album” – 61 %
DX Scores: “Before I Self Destruct” – 3.5 | “The R.E.D. Album” – 4
Andre: The R.E.D Album saw a Game rejuvenated and reattached to Dr. Dre. The affiliation came in more than handy, as Game sounded confident and clever on most of the albums 21 tracks.
50 slimmed down for Before I Self Destruct both thematically and feature wise, and the result was a more focused effort than Curtis. But although he seemed to double down on his strengths with tracks like “Death To My Enemies,” “Psycho” featuring Eminem and “Flight (187),” 50 couldn’t quite seem to find the magic that guided his first and, in my opinion, second affairs.
Winner: The R.E.D Album
Ural: To date, The R.E.D. Album may be my favorite album from The Game. It felt like a new start creatively and professionally for him. First, his newest reestablished relationship with Dr. Dre allowed him to have him serve as narrator throughout the entire project. The Great Doctor’s influence is present on each of the album’s 21 tracks. The Game’s narrative ability went into overload this time around. “California Dream” probably serves as the best first-hand account of his career. Lyrically, he transcended thanks to tracks like “Born In The Trap.” Then The R.E.D. Album also features his most diverse guest feature roster to date. For Christ sakes, everyone from Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Nelly Furtado, Wale, Rick Ross, Big Boi, E-40 and even Beanie Sigel are represented. Before I Self Destruct didn’t have any of the past issues The Massacre and Curtis endured. 50 kept the feature list incredibly short with just Eminem, Ne-Yo, and R.Kelly. Though more focused more on the streets, he started to sound a little too formulaic which hampered the project. Even the Jay and Game diss “So Disrespectful” was a poor use of the same Tha Bizness production that Killer Mike and Ice Cube better utilized on I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind II track “Pressure.”
Winner: The R.E.D. Album
Animal Ambition vs. Jesus Piece
Release Date: “Animal Ambition” – June 3, 2014 | “Jesus Piece” – December 11, 2012
Metacritic Scores: “Animal Ambition” – 53% | “Jesus Piece” – 66%
DX Scores: “Animal Ambition” – 2 | “Jesus Piece” – 3.5
Andre: On Animal Ambition we expected to hear a 50 that had been one hit away for some time to both embrace the changes that have occurred since his debut all while expanding his signature sound. That didn’t quite happen, though. We got 50, instead, at his most Jay Gatsby, lamenting his enormous wealth and responsibilities while searching for the green light across the bay. Sometimes success is a lot for a person to handle. But to hear 50 not even attempt to experiment with this sound made Animal Ambition a deeply flawed though worthy part of his canon.
Jesus Piece was instead just plain fun. From “Ali Bomaye” down through “See No Evil” and “Celebration,” the album just sounded like the project Game really wanted to make. He got political as well, and while he did co-opt his co-stars on a few tracks, he retained his grizzly demeanor enough to pull things together.
Winner: Jesus Piece
Ural: For 50’s first go as an independent artist, one would think he’d run with his newly gained freedom on Animal Ambition. The end result was an album that sounded like an album that felt like Get Rich Or Die Tryin lite. Then there was the overabundance of guest verses from Kidd Kidd. Doesn’t mean it totally lacks some heaters thanks to the titular track and “Pilot.” Jesus Piece will probably be known as The Game’s most politically articulate work of art. On the flip side, “Celebration” is probably the best usage of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony classic “First Of The Month.” Though not his best work, it’s still a whole lot better than Animal Ambition.
Winner: Jesus Piece
The Outlier Section:
The Beauty Of Independence vs. Blood Moon: Year Of The Wolf
Release Date: “The Beauty Of Independence” – August 25, 2014 | “Blood Moon: Year Of The Wolf” – October 14, 2014
DX Scores: “The Beauty Of Independence” – 4 | “Blood Moon: Year Of The Wolf” – 3
Andre: The Beauty Of Independence was 50’s G-Unit reunion and it came out the gate independent and strong, surprising a lot of people. Kidd Kidd especially sounded like he’d stepped out of a hyperbolic time chamber, giving some of the best performances of his career. In contrast, Blood Moon: Year Of The Wolf was a world-class mess. Though we didn’t know it at the time, the album was apparently put out to get Game out of his obligations at Interscope. It showed, and an opportunity to add to his mostly stellar catalog was dashed.
Winner: The Beauty Of Independence
Ural: Regardless of how successful The Game has become as a solo artist, he’s had a terrible time successfully cultivating his own as 50 Cent did. The best example was Blood Moon: Year Of The Wolf which should have been a showcase for his Blood Money Entertainment label. Instead, the project comes off as a compilation that doesn’t put the label first as the feature list is out of this world. It’s the complete opposite from The Beauty Of Independence which is solely a G-Unit affair. Therefore, the project sounds like a great showcase for the newly reinvigorated collective. Serving as a replacement for Game, Kidd Kidd actually steps up to the plate beside 50, Tony Yayo, Lloyd Banks and Young Buck.
Winner: The Beauty Of Independence
Overall Winner: The Game (8 Votes to 4)
Andre Grant is an NYC native turned L.A. transplant that has contributed to a few different properties on the web and is now the Features Editor for HipHopDX. He’s also trying to live it to the limit and love it a lot. Follow him on Twitter @drejones.
Ural Garrett is a Los Angeles-based journalist and HipHopDX’s Senior Features Writer. When not covering music, video games, films and the community at large, he’s in the kitchen baking like Anita. Follow him on Twitter @Uralg.
I guess 50 stopped cutting checks for hiphopdx, so now they trying to make him look as bad as possible
Every Game’s album shits on post-GRoDT pipty cent
Tgis is a troll article. Cant nevwr compare Game to a successful businessman like 50. Game is too stupid to hang out with smart people and make smart investments, start new companies like SK, cheetah production, tv shows, headphones, etc. And how did you not mention that 50 wrote his biggest hits on the documentary?
Dr Dre had Game signed for 2 years and he didnt know wgar to do with him! Until 50 came and signed him to Gunit, and he blew up. Thats a FACT! The Game can also thank 50 for giving him the songs he wrote for his own album to Game, thats right. The hits that were on his frst album that jumpstarted his whole sorry career, were written by 50.
Game wrote his own lyrics. Dipshit
Yeah cuz fifty was on some West coast gangsta shit for his next album……IDIOT!!!
This argument only works if all the rest of Game’s albums were trash. They aren’t. Doctor’s Advocate is even better than the Documentary. One Blood is amazing, Wouldn’t Get Far, My Life, The City, Celebration, All That, 100, Game’s been making hits without 50 for a decade. And the Documentary 2 is the best album this year.
50 cents gets royalty money off of all Game album sales,FACT, he is/ was signed to him. I.think they had a 5 album deal. The winner is still 50 cents.
This article is about that you dumb piece of shit
Yeah when he was on interscope not anymore moron Game is independent now. The Documentary 2 is on Eone
That royalty money will help 50 a lot in bankruptcy court.
This fucker is really hating on 50 are you kidding me man… can’t compare a diamond album to a alright one not gonna hate on game he did well really well then I thought but comparing is really our of line…
GAME is doper more creative and just a better rapper than 50…….And GAME love HipHop as a whole more than 50….and the work shows dat..!
OneLove. OG
#CrosstownWhitely
#RIPBLAST
Music wise, The Game murders 50. The Massacre was basically just 50 tryna capitalize off the hype of his first album, but Game’s had steam this entire time. like, if 50 came out with a Get Rich or Die Tryin’ 2 it’d be a shit-show. 50’s tried to keep the same same style for the last 15 years, meanwhile Game’s versatility is the stuff of legends. the main difference between Game & 50 this point is that 50 is a much better businessman; with Vitamin Water, SMS Audio, Effen, and not to mention Power. as long as 50 keeps doing great stuff outside of music and Game keeps spitting hot 16’s, they can both coexist in peace. I’d love to see a reunion though if they could ever resolve their differences.
Games best 5 songs on The Documentary were originally slated to be ON The Massacre
DX called both of them an MC, thats the biggest fail ever. You dont know the difference between a rapper and an MC, but you wanna run a Hip Hop web site? FAIL
What is the difference since emcees and rappers both rap? Answer that
@uhhhhh if you don’t know the difference then you are the problem. Please get out of Hip Hop. There was a time that you actually had to be qualified to speak & if you didn’t know today’s mathematics you would have caught a universal beat down. This is one of those times the Internet just saved you from bodily harm.
What’s the difference between a rapper & emcee? Today’s definition is that A rapper is a marketable recording artist that doesn’t require having witty worldly & slick metaphors over beats & production. As long as the words rhyme & he has a look that can potentially sell records. An emcee by today’s definition is a microphone controller, he/she controls the microphone with double meanings, punchlines, metaphors, and making words rhyme that a listener couldn’t have imagined went together in meaning or structure. Yesterday’s definition meant a rapper was someone your heard over a drumbeat rhyming words in song format & an emcee was the microphone controller that got kept the party hot while the Dj spins on the 1s & 2s.
Now take your soccer practice ass off the internet & YouTube “My Melody” & imagine yourself in a time where you couldn’t survive punk.
@hollywood if u cant explain it in a couple sentences then u fulla shit. U so called hiphop purists are just the worst.
Game vs. 50 Cent: Which Emcee Has The Better Post-Beef Discography?
ASKED NO ONE, EVER.
Game *que Mortal Kombat voice*
Also “Year Of The Wolf” plays like a greatest hits album, fuck what anyone says.
Sorry but I’m just going to come out and say it. I’m surprised Andre and Ural were able to complete this article cause it seems like they had their mouths full *slurp slurp*
How could you give The Game 8-4 when 50 put him on, wrote his best lyrics and just dismiss 50. Curtis and BISD were great bodies of work by 50 while The Game was putting out duds. He’s only relevant cause he piggy backs off of big names (Dre, Weezy, Drake, etc). The Massacre was a classic while The Games album was an epic fail. 50’s body of work post-beef is significantly better than The Games.
Duds haha like Curtis and before I Self destruct sack albums don’t come close to LAX and RED 3 tracks on his first album wow what happen since 50 fell off and game still hear
The Massacre is a great album, and trumps all of games albums besides his first 2. Documentary 2 is fuckin nice though, his best effort since advocate. That’s a tough call, but if you’re deciding Game than it should be closer.
50 ez
When 50 says he wrote the first album, he is talking about concepts. He helped with writing concepts not the actual lyrics for the verses. He wrote a few hooks. 50 doesnt spit on the level of Game so its obvious that it wasnt the lyrics.
I agree with u 100% that 50 cent doesn’t rap on Games level. I mean, how does one get away with name dropping every other verse? Game is so lyrical, he just needs to name 20 other rappers in a song for it to be hot.
WTF is this? Errybody knows that 50 is more succesful than game. 50 is international known. Game is just known in America. Just wait for Street King Immortal! It’ll bring real Hip Hop back.
The Game is literally not just known in America… I Myself am from South Africa lol and everyone here knows who the game is lol….. You people don’t understand how stupid you sound… This is not about money or business or that bullshit…. It’s about Hip Hip and the art…. And in my opinion Game has been the better artist since their beef….
The Game is big in Australia
50 wayyyy better all game do is name drop on all his tracks and half of his tracks feature people
Comments section sums up the idiocy of rap fans. But but 50 is more known!!!111…50 has more money111!!!!….50 has businesses 1111!!!!!!.
Game albums since the beef shit on 50 albums since the beef.
And wait when Street Kings comes out it won’t even be half as good as the games new album the documentary 2 all you 50 stans talk about money haha 50 broke and its about the music and game clearly has a more acclaimed catalog then fiddy… Fiddy shot himself in the foot beefing with the one artist who brought the west back in years at the time look at 50 now haha 10 years ago no one would of never thought that… But I did
LAX files was fire!!!
50s wak as hell his last good cd was the massacre. The only albums game can compete with 50 on is documentary 1 and 2. Game also is a better lyricist. I dont know about song for song though probably 50 or maybe tie right now because 50 got garbage
LAX ends so well that I’ve never understood why “critics called it average.”
Curtis is ALOT better than most ppl give it credit for.. i think its better than the Massacre, and a slight edge over before i self destruct. i actually hated it at first too.
Doc advocate and LAX i feel were games best albums.. LAX was doctors/documentary put in one as far as beats and lyrics….
but what 50 did for banks bucks album.. GRODT the soundtrack and beg for mercy.. Game FAILED to do for BWS, MOB, RolexBoyz. blood money, La famila., The Firm, or w.e they go by now
That was easy tho.
why am i so obsessed with 50 cent can someone tell me my doctor needs to know
GAME still hasn’t made a better album then get rich or The Massacre, nor curtis stop the bullshit. Fuck Banks kills them all
learn englsih frist u stupid sucker ”then” lol
Game was a good mc grodt is better than any game album but 50 doesnt have another solid album when game has a great disco on his blt gg
Lol at the Turkish guy getting mad while we kill his people. Stop funding ISIS you fools
Game entire music catalog is 5% him and 95% other artists. Outside his first album game really doesn’t a strong body of solo work all his albums even doctors advocate has had over 10 features. I cant listen to album with that’s overkill with features. yall crazy to think Game was the winner
exactly
50 might be richer but yo Game is more successful music wise. Over 10million album sold. Game is a beast yo and he knows it he won the beef against a whole crew and became friends with people 50 had bbeef wit. I bet they will re unite and make music together. Cos love of music is bigger than hate..
And this isn’t counting The Documentary 2 or 2.5! 50 needs back to back classics just to not fall further behind.
GRODT has more hits than Game’s entire catalogue, nuff said
I remember when get rich or die trying came out I thought the album cover was so gay 50 wit his top off! Never brought it lol. Game wins every time for me his freestyles are sic and can change his voice. 50 songs all sound same usually only talks bout cars money or bling. But game is underdog for sure!!
Game has his shirt off on more album covers lol
Game always made better Songs and Albums then Fifty
Drake shits on these 2 easily.
50 fans so delusional lol, games discography shits on 50s post beef its not even a debate..
Eh. Let’s be honest. The most interesting thing that could happen to 50 or Game would be for them to join up on a G-Unit reunion type album. Yall can ride Game’s dick and think that Doctor’s Advocate was better than The Documentary because he said so. We all know that ain’t true. Westside Story, Hate it or Love it, and How We Do got that classic never get old appeal.
The dumbest shit these niggas could have ever done was beef with each other. They were ridin the GRODT, The Massacre, Beg For Mercy, The Documentary wave. Throw in a Game/50 album w Dre on the boards; a few Em and GUnit appearances and you would have a modern classic. Instead you got this dumb nigga Game who is snitching on himself and bankrupt 50. Damn shame.
Success is how much records they sell???? Oh yeah I’ll leave my argument here nuff said!!!! 50 beasted all over games songs and records sold
Yet another biased article against 50…. Yawn, time to go to hiphopearly Zzzzz
Are you serious? This site gives 50 publicity every time he urinates. I wouldn’t even know he existed if it wasn’t for DX. And you can’t argue with the truth.
Who ever did them votes sayin game won lol is nuts game is trash period fif is a boss game well hes still a dam fool fighting over everything whens this guy gon grow up naybe after his kids grow up then he mite dam fool
this has nothing to do with the MUSIC…which is what the writers were comparing dumbass.
They both dropped classic debuts and damn good follow ups. Everything else by both of them has been garbage truck juice.
The Massacre and the GRODT soundtrack are the last piece of work he was fully committed to and put alotttt of effort into then burnt out a few little moments then burnnnnnn
This is a one horse race. Game’s discog shits on 50s and has aged a lot better than 50s music as well. Curtis over LAX? Come on son…
ok whats up with the obsession of 50 cent……hiphopdx starting to get desprate
Lol these kids today saying Get Rich and the Documentary are classics? Probably never heard: illmatic, ready to die, reasonable doubt, paid in full etc. You want classics go back to the 80’s and 90’s! 50 Cent and Game are cheap imitations of 80 and 90’s rappers.
Fuck off back to the 80s and 90s then. And get the fuck away from 2015. we dont even want you here
KIDS? fuck head a classic is classic no matter what generation THE DOCUMENTARY shits on a lot of 90s shit if you never listened 50 lyrically even on get rich is no comp for Game !!!! Game shit is Classic DOCUMENTARY DOCTORS ADVOCATE!!!!! DOCUMENTARY 2 on the way to that status!!!!
Lol kids are mad i dissed there wack heros. Game and 50 would never ever had a recorddeal in the 80 or 90’s because of lacking real skillz. Probably you like lil wayne and drake to. lol
Then they compare Game’s compilation album to 1 G-Unit EP but not Get Rich or Die Trying soundtrack (which was a G-Unit compilation album technically) LOL
Can we get other opinions other than you two? I feel like you guys tickle each others balls while convincing each other that you argument is good…sometimes you hit the mark but that sometimes is rare. We get they are opinion Pieces but shit act like you have some objectivity this shit is ridonkulous.
If you wanna play this game you need more than 50 cent…
Real SHIT NOTHIN TO SEE HERE GAME SHITS on 50 and any of ur other favorite rappers!!!!!!
this is why there are 3 Game albums on my phone and 0 50 cent. Game is just plain more interesting
50 didnt write shit he sang hooks like a bitch on Games first album
I’ve said this since day one That The Game has had a better career in the long run than 50. The second Game and 50 had their beef I chose Game right away and I’ve sided with him since. Glad I did I always knew that he was better.
LAX Files was hard, Games Pain was hard, the whole LAX album was quality, the only one I wasn’t really feeling the single Dope Boys but every other song on there is top notch. I bump it more than Doctors Advocate and the Red Album. LAX > Doctors Advocate.
Also I’m not sure where or when this consensus suddenly came from that the Doctors Advocate is a classic, that’s brand new to 2015, never heard that ever, it was a strong second effort, but please, the first half of the album is plagued by more than a handful of weak songs, track10-15 flawless though .
I meant 10-16, typo
And besides the whole discography being better overall, the Documentary was better than GRODT.
I’m surprised that there is no mention of the single “I Get Money” in either the article itself or the comments sections? That was a powerful single off of the mediocre at best album Curtis. Not a 50 stan by no means at all but curious to see there’s no mention of it.
This should not be even up for debate… The Game wins easily..
The conclusion:………………………………..GAME STR8 BEASTIN ON THESE NICCAS
This ain’t even close. Game makes wayyyy better music, picks better beats, has features from dope artists (to a fault), and is a true student of hip-hop. Also c’mon Doctor’s Advocate SHITS on The Massacre SMH
Also Curtis is a piece of shit. Shouldn’t even be debatable between LAX & that weed plate Curtis. LAX had State of Emergency, Letter to The King, My Life, Never Can Say Goodbye, Let Us Live.. Smh
Hiphopdx turning into complex online with these corny articles.
Fif earned them stripes. A real G.. Game was on change of heart, he was a stripper. He bites whoevers popping, ive heard him sound like kendrick and drake recently and nearly threw up.. You can side with whoever you like but i want the real not the fakes. No rick ross no lil wayne no game no drake. FOH
Na 50 cent had better commercial hits than the Game. Ppl that don’t even listen to that kind of music knows 50 cents songs and can sing a long with his lyrics. It depends on how you look at it. 50 cents songs are more popular to the ear. 50 cents lyrics are basic but they are catchy. he had catchy hooks, better than the Game. 50 cent also helped build other artists career. Lloyd Banks has some great hits, look him up. He also helped the Game in the beginning. The Game dissed 50 cent, but does the same things. Unless your listening to that kind of music than you may thing the game is better but most people know 50 cent. 50 cent’s “in the club” is by far played more than Games tracks combined. 20 years from now, nobody will be playing Game music at events or clubs, but they’d still be playing 50 cent tracks.