Same goes for “Irregular Heartbeat,” with 50 whisper-rapping bullying lines at some platonic pussy or loser or chump or whatever. He’s trying to remind you that he’s still tough, though these lines mostly just conjure images of Travis Bickle in the mirror: a guy alone and clueless, snarling at imagined enemies that can’t talk back.
Instead, between the track’s compelling seen-it-all verses, 50 barks threats like, “Boy, you better be easy, I ain’t playing with you boy.” It has a bored, count-up-in-a-castle quality to it (“Open my eyes, no surprise I’m with a different bitch/ Different day, different ass, different tits”), which might actually work if it were explored more, or even extended as a concept.
Opener “Hold On,” a blaxploitation soundtrack-sounding shuffler, is an anthem for the exceedingly comfortable. What the hell kind of name is Animal Ambition? Are animals really ambitious? Don’t they just kind of do what they gotta do and leave it at that? Maybe the undercooked title of 50 Cent’s fifth album is more accurate than this crumbling Queens rap institution realizes.
