The Massacre by 50 Cent

The Massacre is the second studio album by American rapper 50 Cent. It was released on March 3, 2005, by Shady Records, G-Unit Records, Aftermath Entertainment, and Interscope Records. The album debuted and peaked at #1 on the US Billboard 200, selling 1.15 million copies in its first week. Upon its release, The Massacre received generally positive reviews from music critics. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album, but lost to Kanye West's album Late Registration at the 48th Grammy Awards. The Massacre has a music video for every track (with the exception of "Gunz Come Out") on the special edition version of the album. The original title for the album was revealed as St. Valentine's Day Massacre and was arranged to be released on February 14, 2005. However it was postponed, and the album title was shortened to simply The Massacre. The censored version of the album censors out most profanity, violence, and all drug content. The track "Gunz Come Out" has inconsistency in the editing, and contains some profanity. The opening track "Intro" removes the shooting sequence, and is cut down to 20 seconds. In comparison, the album is not as heavily censored as his previous album Get Rich or Die Tryin', but it is still a very highly censored album ranking in severity with albums such as Jadakiss' Kiss tha Game Goodbye (2001), along with Tony Yayo's Thoughts of a Predicate Felon (2005) and Nas' Stillmatic (2001). The Massacre sold 1.15 million copies in its first four days of release, becoming the 6th-largest opening week for an album at the time since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991. This is the second best opening week for a hip hop album, behind Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP (2000), which sold 1.76 million copies in its 1st week. As of 2015, the album has sold 5.36 million copies in the United States and over 10 million worldwide. In 2005, The Massacre was ranked as the number one album of the year on the Billboard 200. ℗ 2004 Shady Records/Aftermath Records/Interscope Records