50 Cent and His “Amusement Park”

Click here for the Spanish original published in El Diario/La Prensa on June 6, 2007.



50 Cent and His “Amusement Park”

A few weeks ago, Fifty Cent’s video “Amusement Park” premiered. (No sense in providing a description of the video like I did in the Spanish print version, since I can post the video below.)



If you’re in no mood to watch the whole video, here’s the summary: Gorgeous video models writhe and shake as Fifty promises sweet pleasures to you, the listener (if you’re a woman), and all your (girl)friends.

The day the video premiered on BET’s 106 & Park, Fifty was the show’s special guest. Host Rocsi asked if he worried about being accused of disrespecting women, considering the recent and feverish national debates regarding sexism and hip-hop.

Fifty looked at Rocsi, innocence and surprise engraved on his face, and explained that the video was not an insult to women. On the contrary!, he said. It was a compliment: women are just more beautiful than men.

Ugh! Why do so many only see the world through the narrow tunnel of their own desires (and social indoctrination)? Fifty, in that regard, is certainly no exception.

The irony is that, in the video, Fifty’s naked chest is pre-packaged as eye candy just as much as the models are. Fifty is neither more nor less beautiful than them. The only difference is that they are many, interchangeable, individually expendable; while Fifty, though just as luscious, is the single, virile epicenter: irreplaceable.