Rap feuds are always cartoonish, but Rick Ross’s beef with 50 Cent might be the first to involve actual cartoons. Yesterday saw the latest (and lamest) of the broadsides drop on Rick Ross’s MySpace page, in the form of an animated short called “Gay Unit Workouts,” whose too-hot-for-YouTube (and too-stupid-for-nymag.com) Flash-animated moments include lots of shots of 50 Cent and his G-Unit posse in flagrante delicto at the gym, exercising in time to a cut from Ross’s new album, Deeper Than Rap (dropping March 24!).
Homophobia aside, the track isn’t very funny. It’s a direct rebuttal — even using the same animation style — to two clips 50 dropped last week: “Locked Up” and “How Officer Ricky Got Signed,” both of which take aim at Ross’s gangster credentials. (The Smoking Gun, you may remember, found evidence that Ross used to work as a Florida corrections officer.) Fitty’s toons, while almost as homophobic as Ross’s, are at least marginally humorous.
Both sides have dropped a few actual rhymes as well, starting with Ross’s “Mafia Music,” in which he spat “Love to pay your bills, can’t wait to pay your rent, Curtis Jackson baby mama, I ain’t asking for a cent.” Mr. Jackson responded with “Try Me (Officer Ricky)” at the end of January, and then “I’ll Be the Shooter” this past weekend, which stepped up the violence (“I’ll put a razor through your face”). The very best of all this inane back-and-forth puts it all into perspective: Urged on by 50 Cent, the mother of Rick Ross’s son presents the most persuasive argument for Ross being a wanksta — without the aid of animation or hip-hop.