So, after many delays on the former, it seems that the new albums from 50 Cent and Kanye West will both be released on the same day - 11 Sep - which seems like an odd day to pick for frivolous hip hop rivalries, given that America still does quite a lot of mourning that day, but whatever.
One thing is for certain, West has no intention of moving his release date to avoid a face off. He told MTV this week: "The date, 'Graduation', September 11, we ain't moving. I'd rather come out on a day like that, up against 50 where people are excited about going to the stores and it's an event and people talk about it and be number two on that day rather than come out and be #1 on a day nobody cares about. It's about things going down in history. There's not that much exciting stuff in hip hop right now. I think people are going to make it more than what I'm making it myself. At the end of the day, I'm making music and I'm trying to sell it". I think if you want the day you release your album to go down in history, 11 Sep isn't the best day to do it, I don't think you're ever going to 'own' that date.
Elsewhere in hip hop rivalries involving Fiddy, rapper Chamillionaire has refused to rise to disparaging remarks made against him by 50 Cent, saying that the G-unit star is just trying to engineer a war of words as a "gimmick". Fiddy dissed Chamillionaire in an interview with Spin when he criticised his rival's decision to bow to public pressure to censor rap music. Fiddy: "Let him go sell gospel records, if he's so fuckin' righteous. I can write around the curses if I want to, but you can't tell me to write around the curses". Responding, Chamillionaire told AllHipHop.com: "There are way more interesting things to talk about, besides beef and dissing people".