50 Cent's retirement? Not so fast

Sure, the trash-talking MC may have uttered what seemed like famous last words, vowing to hang up his mike if Kanye West's "Graduation" outsells 50's third album, "Curtis," in their first week of release. Now, just two days after both CDs went on sale -- and a month after his challenge began generating an inescapable din of promotional hype -- Nielsen SoundScan has tallied the albums' early returns, putting West on pace to best 50 by about 125,000 copies by Tuesday.

But a closer reading of 50's original invitation to throw down, taken with comments the Queens, N.Y.-born rapper made to The Times just before "Curtis" was released, makes it clear that even if the sum of all of 50 Cent's fears were to materialize, rap fans -- and haters -- haven't likely heard the last from hip-hop's most diss-prone MC.

Since August, media scrutiny has focused on only one part of the commitment 50 made on the hip-hop website SOHH.com: "If Kanye West sells more records than 50 Cent on Sept. 11, I'll no longer write music. I'll write music and work with my other artists, but I won't put out any more solo albums."

But even with his future solo output seeming to hang in the balance, little attention has been paid to 50's opt-out clause -- his promise to quit only if certain terms and conditions are met.

"And I bet this, when Kanye West's sales come in, he's gonna have a 70% decrease [the second week] 'cause Def Jam is gonna buy records to keep him closer to 50 Cent," he continued. "So watch the first week and then watch the second week. Watch his [expletive] drop off the planet. We keep our angles covered before we make a decent bet."

In a conversation with The Times, the rapper confirmed that a steep second-week sales drop for "Graduation" is a central part of his challenge. That would be evidence, 50 said, that West's record company Island Def Jam had been using some kind of market manipulation to artificially boost West's first-week numbers.

"I think the perception on some levels would be that Kanye West is generating more interest than 50 Cent regardless of actual record sales," 50 said. "He's never had a fraction of the sales 50 Cent has. So when you see him come out and it's like they were close? They could have one scan and have it count four times."