The New York Times has a report this morning about an emerging scandal within the hip-hop sector as Timbaland, 50 Cent and Wyclef Jean are implicated in a steroids investigation. The article explains of the unlikely (yet not shocking) news:
“The spectacle of hip-hop now is so much greater than it’s ever been,” said Jeff Chang, the author of the hip-hop history “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop.” “There’s always the battle aesthetic at work, this idea that you’re going to go up there and show that you’re badder than everybody else. It’s part of the swagger that hip-hop carries.”
While obviously used for gratuitous aesthetic purposes, I do wonder what 50 would sound like without performance enhancing drugs. It certainly didn’t help him outsell Kanye last fall.