50 cent in talks with Apple over low-cost computers - Page 2

None is so blind as he will not see.

I could care less about the underlying hypocrisy of what 50¢ says about money, music, and what he's in it for. The bottom line is if it helps educate, which in turn creates potential for social development I'm all for it. Inner city children need to get out of the inner city, and go off to a good college where things are far different from where they are so they can see the world from more perspectives than that of their parents, and what their opinions have to teach them, Most inner city parents are usually children them self's, and children have no business raising children.

No, I guess not, but I do see that you are trying to cause trouble. If you are going to stick to one strained interpretation and reject any alternativess, then that's not my problem. It's even possible that the journalists messed up their quotes, that's pretty common too. But I think it's telling that a person that effectively says he's a fan of the guy and his music has reservations about his stated motivations.

How many letters are in the ebonics alphabet? Maybe Apple will sell an iPhone with an ebonics keypad.

Originally posted by xUKHCx
Proof apple reads these forums ... a couple of weeks ago sunilraman mocked up a 50 cent mac. Now if only sunrilraman could mock up an a4 sized mac tablet with pixel sensors (for scanning documents) with good handwriting recognition, i am sure we well here about it within a couple of weeks... scary


YEAHHHHHHHH SpamSandwich and I totally P*OWNED YOUR ASSES ON THIS ONE.

A few weeks ago:

Sunilraman:
"You know with kids nowadays and their bling bling and getting jiggy wit it and get rich or die tryin and stuff."
[pimped mac mockup shown, without 50cent in it]

SpamSandwich:
Hilarious. You don't suppose they'll create a signature "50 Cent" edition... for $599.50?

To which Sunilraman replied: (image again)

Gates foundation has over $39 Billion. Where are the donations to the inner cities from the soon-to-be retired Chief `Architect?'

Bill Gates Donates more money than he makes on a yearly basis.

Originally posted by mdriftmeyer
Gates foundation has over $39 Billion. Where are the donations to the inner cities from the soon-to-be retired Chief `Architect?'


They're waiting on Windows Vista: Inner City Edition.

Soon after, ie. five years later, they'll release
Windows Vista: Starving African Edition.

probably, you have to stand a few thousands miles outside the US, to come to the core of this article:

* "incidently", we read, the riches man in the world wants to switch to charity... as said: fairwell, Bill! very good!
* we do read for years (!) about Negroponte's afford, to create the 100$ computer for the socalled Third World....
* we (Apple ) switched to a mass-produced (=cheap) CPU manufacturer
* we are all convinced, that OsX is the easiest to understand System - as an alien/foreigner, I'm impressed about the literate abilities of some posters at support.apple.com - less knowledge of grammar then me, but establishing an iNet connection... "done with a Mac"

let's forget for a sec the reputation or public image of a person - German teachers learn to "pick up the kids where they are"- to guide them to knowledge, communications, to the world ("world"championship of baseball is US exclusive... harharhar) is a very good idea.-

a low-tech Mac? a mail/iNet machine? eMate II ??

why not!

I don't like websites either, pointing me a gun in my face but I do applause, if someone dares to switch swords to plaughs, we call it here; a gun into a (pun!) iBook, or something simliar.

If it is just a PR stunt - no good; if Apple wants to support the less-supported - good. that easy. nuff said (<< you say so?)

my 50 cent

note to myself: stop making jokes in a foreign language

sunilraman just wouldn't stop until it became true.....

it's time to learn shit or die trying.

Word. Me and mah homeboy Fiddy thought this shit up, yo...!

Sorry to interrupt, but who will explain to us non-americans what's anyway this 50 Cent and why so much fuss about it?

To my eyes this name looks something like '50 cents' or '50% of something'. I just don't understand.

You, sir are a special kind of stupid!

Originally posted by PB
Sorry to interrupt, but who will explain to us non-americans what's anyway this 50 Cent and why so much fuss about it?... To my eyes this name looks something like '50 cents' or '50% of something'. I just don't understand.


If you allow me, dear Sir/Madam, to explain in International English. Part One

Firstly we have the phenomenon of African Americans living in America. It is always a volatile issue (as you can already see from some controversy on this thread) regarding the state of African Americans generally being poorer and forming the lower section of the socio-economic ladder.

African Americans are a minority and some consider themselves to be the underclass oppressed by the majority richer, white population.
<skip long story and history, other discussions etc.>

So we come to Rap music. Or Hip-Hop as it is also known. Most rappers give themselves various names which to those outside the genre of Hip Hope, makes no real sense.

For example, Jay-Z: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_z
"Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), popularly known as Jay-Z or by a variety of nicknames (Jigga, Jay-Hova, Hova, Hov, Young Hov..."

Then there is Ice-T and Ice-Cube. Famous rappers, but out of context Ice-T sounds like ice lemon tea in the summer, and Ice-Cube sounds like, well, something out of a tray in your freezer.

But lets come to Ice-T (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_T) who is considered the pioneer of Gangsta Rap.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangsta_Rap
"Gangsta rap is a subgenre of hip hop music which involves a lyrical focus on the lifestyles of inner-city criminals & gangmembers. Although crime and violence in the inner city have always been part of hip hop's lyrical canon, before the rise of gangsta rap the subject was not embraced or addressed so blatantly. Gangsta rap also signalled an end to the mainstream popularity of socially conscious lyrics put forward by golden age artists"

Meaning, here were rappers talking about getting shot (and the popularity and honour arising from the incident) and openly endorsing violence and drugs as a way of life, and in some cases as a way to survive in the shadow of the oppressive white majority.

From Ice-Cube: http://www.lyricsstyle.com/i/icecube/itwasagoodday.html
Key lines from "It Was A Good Day"

Today I didn't even have to use my A.K.
I got to say it was a good day (shit!)

While this song is not a major Gangsta Rap song the reference to the AK-47 would be alarming to some people who might take it literally -- that here was a African American rapper driving around Los Angeles with an AK-47 rifle he used often.

The rise of 50cent or pronounced "Fiddy" instead of "Fif-tee" is described in the wiki again: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangsta_Rap

"However, the biggest success for post-Bad Boy East Coast gangsta was 50 Cent, who achieved worldwide superstardom after jointly signing with Eminem's Shady Records and Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment and releasing the album Get Rich or Die Tryin', before launching numerous similarly styled affiliate artists... 50 Cent's music was harder-edged than most artists who had achieved similar levels of success, though he made occasional concessions to a more mainstream sound, particularly in his single releases."

I put forward that it could be said that 50Cent is a name made up to refer to his rise from poverty and his early years in crime. By representing the underclass and advocating violence and unlawfulness 50Cent developed a reputation and as mentioned above selled many a record, with "Get Rich Or Die Trying" a kind of anthem for those who perceive African Americans as the desperate underclass.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangsta_Rap
"Whereas much gangsta rap of the past had portrayed the rapper as being a victim of urban squalor, the persona of late-nineties mainstream gangsta rappers was far more weighted towards hedonism and showing off the best jewelry, clothes, liquor, and women"

This is where the 50Cent phenomenon becomes really interesting. He becomes very popular in the past several years through the right connections and his call for getting rich by any means necessary is also a sign of being macho.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_cent
"50 Cent achieved multi-platinum success with [two] albums, selling around 26 million albums worldwide. [50Cent] is known for his gangsta image, and prides himself on having been shot nine times and stabbed twice, and for surviving the ordeal."

Gangsta rap becomes "cool" by "showing off" that you're not afraid, you're gonna blow someone's brains off, or that you actually got shot, stabbed, or you were involved with the police in some "badass" way. Twisted, many would say. As referenced above, this showing off intertwines with the phenomenon of "bling" and "pimp" which can be translated to International English as "to make extravagantly impressive just for the sake of it".

So someone that has a known criminal history, has been involved in gunfights, releases albums called "The Massacre" and "Get Rich Or Die Tryin'" sells 26 million albums worldwide. A search on the Music Store reveals easy accessibility to 50Cent's songs and music videos.

What is interesting and what most AppleInsider readers, and perhaps mainstream America, is finding interesting is how Gangsta Rap has now become really cool, in the mainstream, and has a big following among the younger people.

In the movie "The Inside Man" (2006) http://imdb.com/title/tt0454848/ one of the bank robbers speaks to a young African American kid playing on his Playstation Portable. He asks the kid if he's scared or something and the kid replies something to the effect of "Nah, what y'all doing is cool, like my man Fiddy said, get rich or die tryin'". The movie also shows in simulated 3D graphics the kid playing a gangsta character putting a grenade in another gangsta's mouth and then his head blowing up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_cent
"On a taping of The O'Reilly Factor, conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly has urged boycotts against rap music. O'Reilly named 50 Cent as a target of his crusade to prevent rappers who promote bad behavior from endorsing mainstream merchandise. He criticized shoe maker Reebok for partnering up with 50 Cent to endorse his G-Unit Sneakers. O'Reilly has rallied another boycott, this time against the shoe maker. Despite the boycott, sales remain excellent, and Reebok still continues to endorse 50 Cent's products. However, a television advertisement for Reebok which featured 50 Cent was taken off air in the United Kingdom. The advertisement contained lyrics from one of the rapper's tracks, which resulted in complaints against their violent imagery..."

This is not a mockup, this is a real Reebok (RBK) product shot for 50Cent endorsed shoes: (image below)



To be continued...

While I may not be a 50 Cent fan, as an educated African-American working in the inner city and watching school districts all around me buy Dells, I find the discussion on this board very offensive. First, I will not pretend that most my students own computers, because they do not.

However, a large percentage of them own clothes that cost more than mine, have a big screen TV and have a better cable subscription than I. There are cell phones on more hips than I care to count and an iPod in the ear of about 60-65% of the high school students I see. What I am getting at is that there is cash in the inner city. The sooner Apple wises up to that and introduces a REAL affordable computer (BYOK&M ain’t cuttin’ it) the better.

I think 50 Cent, like me, is a frustrated Mac user who would like to see Macs in the hands of more people and sees this as an opportunity for market share growth. H e could give the Mac the street cred it would need to break into this market and now that Apple is using Intel chips, now is the time for that $399 (monitor and keyboard inc.) internet, email, word processing computer.

Please, lay off the stereotypical labels of inner-city life and do some research before posting some of the generalizations that were posted here.

No, you are! You can't recognize a joke when you see it. I sure hope you don't watch The Colbert Report, because I am certain that an idiot like you wouldn't "get it."

Originally posted by PB
Sorry to interrupt, but who will explain to us non-americans what's anyway this 50 Cent and why so much fuss about it?... To my eyes this name looks something like '50 cents' or '50% of something'. I just don't understand.


Part Two......................

So okay, the other day there was a thread about apple redesigning its eMac line for the education market, more specifically targeting I suppose the 6 years old to 16 years old age range.

Hence I suggested, with "bling" and "pimp" hip-hop culture being so popular among the youth of today (especially including many white young Americans) the following Mac-E: (image)



It was user SpamSandwich that said, "Well, maybe there should be a 50Cent edition", since 50Cent now, could actually be an idol, a spokesperson that young people look up to. How twisted, some would say, that this is the current generation's hero. A Gangsta Rapper.

So I did a bit of changes, and voila (image which you all are sick of by now)



The humour in all this is that how ridiculous that Apple, with it's squeaky clean image, could be involved in such an outrageously "blinged and pimped" Mac for the education market. And to top it off, endorsed by a famous Gangsta Rapper.

And then we come to the title of this thread itself, and hence the humour is multiplied many times, that this is in fact happening! 50Cent and Apple may actually work together!!

And that, Sir/Madam, is the explanation for those confused by 50Cent and Apple.

As a side note, there was an extremely hilarious commercial featuring a midget in a white suit and "blinged out" gold chains, called, 5Cent.

Originally posted by PB
Sorry to interrupt, but who will explain to us non-americans what's anyway this 50 Cent and why so much fuss about it?... To my eyes this name looks something like '50 cents' or '50% of something'. I just don't understand.


Part Three

This is an alternative view below, and my explanation earlier could be considered offensive.


Originally posted by xsmi
"However, a large percentage of [inner city students] own clothes that cost more than mine, have a big screen TV and have a better cable subscription than I. There are cell phones on more hips than I care to count and an iPod in the ear of about 60-65% of the high school students I see. What I am getting at is that there is cash in the inner city....."

"I think 50 Cent, like me, is a frustrated Mac user who would like to see Macs in the hands of more people and sees this as an opportunity for market share growth. H e could give the Mac the street cred it would need to break into this market and now that Apple is using Intel chips, now is the time for that $399 (monitor and keyboard inc.) internet, email, word processing computer..."

We can't make an inner-city teen spend less on "dubs" and Sean John clothing and more on Macs. So where's the real problem here? Is it low income or bad priorities? It's an honest question.

Or do we HAVE to make designer computers to make them cool enough for these kids to buy?

Originally posted by xsmi
I think 50 Cent, like me, is a frustrated Mac user who would like to see Macs in the hands of more people and sees this as an opportunity for market share growth. H e could give the Mac the street cred it would need to break into this market and now that Apple is using Intel chips, now is the time for that $399 (monitor and keyboard inc.) internet, email, word processing computer....Please, lay off the stereotypical labels of inner-city life and do some research before posting some of the generalizations that were posted here.


I suppose I am among those non-African Americans who were kidding around initially with the whole Fiddy thing.

But do you think for Apple's corporate image and it's educational market it would be wise to partner with 50 Cent?

It is interesting though that the iPod and iTunes music store is so wildly popular that the iPod and iTunes has it's own brand image that, well, is different than the Mac. 50 Cent is sold and featured as are a lot of other rappers, and as are a lot of other genres of music. iPod and iTunes music store has almost like the widest target market: everyone.

Whereas the Mac division, let alone the eMac or post-eMac group, have much more specific target markets, and a different image I guess... It's still weird, this divergence between the iPod and the Mac.

Sorry, but generalizations and statistics are how business and financial decisions are made.

Awesome sunilraman, thanks a lot! Guess I will have some interesting reading tonight (too much workload for now).

I think we just got promoted... 8)

Actually, if 50Cent is actually such a big Apple fan, I wouldn't put it past him that he reads AppleInsider (and he's probably a large shareholder as well).

The Foundation doesn't have anything close to that. He spends most of his money overseas. The only real charity he does here is to ensure that libraries and schools get Windows machines and software. So, I suppose he's doing this already.

Apple should be as well. They don't need rappers to do it for them.

I think that the "oppressed" is a bit overdone these days. It was so before, but things have moved forward from there. Prejudice will never disappear, but that's true everywhere.

Incidentally, the greatest rise in computer purchasing and internet usage is among Afro Americans. There was a report on that recently. All is not lost.

And I wouldn't raise the rappers to iconic status. Many of them are just what they say they are: gangsters. Many of the others are just talking the talk. I had a fair number of them as clients of my company. Their wars with society seem to be with each other, not with the "oppressive" white majority. That's a convenience.

By the way, you forgot Snoop Doggy Dog, and other wonderful names.

sunilraman, would it not have taken less time and indeed less bandwidth to explain that the cent character is infact just a twat?

yours to the bone, the great unwashed.

Just how inexpensive does Mr. Cent believe Apple can produce a viable and useful computer? Technology, design and production costs $$$'s.

Fiddy is just doing what he has always done... creating the impression of an "ordinary man for the ordinary folk" while racking up quite a substantial bank balance. Smacks of another so called celebrity AKA "J-lo". Remember "...just Jenny from the block" anyone? Now that's hypocrisy.

Interesting to note that he has a "new album" out soon. <PR>

i seriously hope that's some sarcastic shit right there!

maybe they will use a 50 cent song as the setup music in 10.5

What makes you think that Apple wants to enter this market?

I don't want to answer for xsmi, but here's what I posted at notebookforum.com:

Well the point is that millions of teenagers across the United States, especially inner-city kids, like the 'whole nothing but murder, gangs, and crime' thing. And to be honest, many of them consider 50-cent as a role model, sadly. Though you can make the point that most low-income/innercity kids have experience murder, gangs, and crime at one point or another so it probably isn't knew to them anywho.

Apple + 50 Cent could be a great marketing strategy for Apple, providing low-cost computers with a great operating system to teenagers who either can't afford a $500 Mac Mini + KMD or teenagers who are simply sucked into the whole 'Rap/MTV America' culture and simply want to follow their rap icon. I know many many kids who bought iPod's just because they saw Kanye West wearing one on SNL or girls who wanted iPod Mini's because they saw Paris Hilton wearing one in a playboy photoshoot.

As a 14 year-old teenager and a proud owner of a 15.4" Macbook Pro, I can tell you that if you stick a Rap icon or any other pop-culture figure on a product, kids will buy them. It's simply youth-america today, or in any sense, human nature to have or do what people think is 'cool' at the time. (And no my parents didn't buy the laptop for me, I purchased it with my own hard-worked money which I recieved from managing my own online Website Design Studio so no, I'm not spoiled lol.)

Hey, if you were an inner-city teenager who had a PentiumII computer that rarely even booted up and then saw your favorite rap icon along with hundreds of other kids endorsing/purchasing a cheap Mac computer, wouldn't you want one too?

No, I'm not trying to endorse or encourage rap, violence, drugs, or crime, I'm simply trying to outline Apple's marketing strategy if or when they choose to create a 50-cent consumer product. lol and no, I'm not a hardcore hip-hop/rap listener, because its all about COLDPLAY haha

Eh, Completely unattached from the discussion, well, at the end of the day, the rappers are the ones with million dollar houses, yachts, and boeing jets LOL... this is outlined in Jay-Z's song 'Numb/Encore'

"Back to take over the globe, now break bread
I'm in, Boeing jets, Global Express
Out the country but the blueberry still connect
On the low but the yacht got a triple deck"

Welcome to MTV America kids, face it, the rappers/music icons control your children hehe just kidding

as I wrote before:

an 100$ mail/iNet machine from Apple - why not

but
this


and that



????
VERY hard to get that under one line

lol actually:



An iPod covered completely in diamonds.. yepp they do mix... bling bling haha

But hey, I'm sure he has more than enough money to buy millions of diamonds... or perhaps a 2nd private jet covered in diamonds? lol

to be honest:
being very far away from the rap scene (geographically, age, music taste, cultural), all that "bling bling" stuff is so unbelievable ugly! taste-free! beyond limits! sorry, European education makes it impossible to accept "such" me prefer "less is more".

but, ok, if you want it and can afford it
happyness fits in a small shell

and:
I do know "bling bling" is the "official term" for such nonsense (<< sorry, english words missing), comes close to other baby-speak stuff

Originally posted by mnm2004bft
"Back to take over the globe, now break bread
I'm in, Boeing jets, Global Express
Out the country but the blueberry still connect
On the low but the yacht got a triple deck"


Love those lines from JayZ. They use that part in the trailer for the Miami Vice (2006) movie.

Is that "but the BlackBerry still connect"?

Good post, anyhow.

I think that Apple should try to break into this market because they should not be in the business of turning away customers. Also, I don't know what the demographics are where you live, but around here, the largest school systems are urban low income schools. If Apple could make a splash with a real alternative to the cheap-o Dell, Gateway and custom boxes, they may be able to sale some boxes to the schools they lost several years ago. Listen, back in 1998 I saw the invoice for the Dells, my Jr. high purchases to replace the Macs and Apples we had. The total bill was over $212,000. This was for one building. Apple has been losing the hearts and minds of people in these areas for a long time and with it potential profit, and market share. They just can't afford to keep ignoring this.

Yep, Jay-Z has a gold-plated Blackberry which he seems to showoff everywhere he goes.

The Miami Vice trailer is great, I like how they order the music to fit with the animation

Bling bling is for those who grew up so poor that they simply can't believe that they have money at all. So they show it off to prove to everyone (as well as themselves) that they really have made it.

Bling bling is for those who life in a country were showing of your wealth and bad taste is as important as carrying a gun and cultivating angst.
It's culture, look at Paris Hilton, Her Blingability is unbeaten and she knows how to spell it.