September 22, 2008

Kanye West Responds -- Briefly -- To 50 Cent's Mocking, Blogs About 808s and Heartbreak

By MTV News staff (MTV.com)

On Friday (September 19), Kanye West posted a brief response on his blog to 50 Cent's mocking of him at a concert last weekend.

At a show in Albany, New York, 50 jokingly performed a bit of West's recent single, "Love Lockdown," while G-Unit member Tony Yayo pretended to smash a camera, referring to West's arrest after a dustup with paparazzi in Los Angeles last week.

In a post where he enthused about the performance of "Love Lockdown" on an unspecified singles chart (apparently iTunes, where it just took the #1 spot), West blogged about the progress on his forthcoming fourth LP, 808s and Heartbreak, and also made a brief jab at 50.

"I just woke up from a quick studio nap," he wrote. "I've been workin' on 808s and Heartbreak about 16 hrs a day and Superman passed out for a little bit ... I'm in Hawaii but I'm still on NY time so I wake up mad early, do some business, blog, jog for an hour, play ball, eat and then hit the stu by noon. While approving the final cut for the 'Love Lockdown' vid, I marvel at the fact that it was written less than 3 weeks ago. I'm very excited about the everything ... I guarantee this will be 50's favorite album of mine. This will be gangster's album of the year."

Many are speculating that there will be another SoundScan battle between 50 and Kanye, similar to the one that took place last year when the two released albums on the same day, September 11. West solidly won that battle, and another could be in the offing, as 50 has December 9 slated for his Before I Self-Destruct LP, and Kanye is reported to be releasing his album on the 16th - although those release dates could easily be shifted to the same day.

Yayo talked briefly with MTV News about the possibility of another battle earlier this week. "That'll be fun," he said. "In my eyes, I don't think Kanye will never be bigger than Fif, no matter what his numbers do."