50 Cent’s Creative Truth: Constraints create new languages for artists.
50 Cent once explained why rap lyrics can seem crude to outsiders.
“Because the song is three minutes before you reach an overkill point, you only have enough time to create a description. There’s no time to develop cause and effect. There’s no time to establish social standards or moral standards.”
This is what critics miss: the audience speaks the language.
He continued:
“When you make reference to a whore, do you know what I’m talking about? The average woman that’s out in the nightclub that hears that is not offended by it. Because morally she knows that’s not me he’s talking about.”
The audience understands the context, the exaggeration, the truth being captured. While the outsider judges a language they don’t speak.
(Source: BBC Interviewed by Evan Davis | 2009)