Will it be the bear in the funny glasses or the brooding Curtis James Jackson III?
It's being billed as rap's Blur v Oasis moment: two commercial titans of hip-hop, squaring up to release third albums on the same day. But there is both a lot more, and some deal less, than meets the eye about the fact that both Kanye West and 50 Cent are putting their new LPs out on September 11.
For starters, neither artist is releasing their records when originally planned. Kanye's Graduation had been slated for release much later in the year, then brought forward. 50's album, Curtis, was ready to release in early summer, then abruptly delayed to mid-September.
Of course, the pair of them have had words over the years, Fiddy offering backhanded compliments while Kanye sang his contemporary's praises. But both men were really only doing what their audience expects - bravado from one countered with humility from the other. It's no surprise to see which one of them is currently stoking the fires, but this should not be seen as evidence of real animosity (notwithstanding 50's one substantive dig at Kanye). While 50's chest-beating is typical, he has much to prove: his commercial star has dipped since his last LP, and it seems clear that doubts over how successfully Curtis was being promoted played a significant part in the decision to delay the release. Kanye may be more confident, but his new record marks a major sonic departure and may not be as enthusiastically received as his previous LPs.
These, though, are not the only reasons why viewing hip-hop in this reductive "battle of the bands" way is a futile exercise. Rap is fiercely competitive as part of its nature - many artists earned their stripes in the rite of the rap battle, a one-on-one onstage contest where the rapper with the cutest insults and the better quips wins. People steeped in such pugilistic tradition hardly need to demonstrate their prowess against their peers in the aisles of record shops: this really only shows which of them has the more effective marketing campaign, not who has the sharper rhymes or the better beats.
The clearest commentary on this manufactured spat has come, not unsurprisingly, from Jay-Z. The rapper and Def Jam records boss will have been intimately involved in decisions over scheduling Kanye's LP, and his view - that the publicity can only help both artists - is typically shrewd. Rap has suffered from illegal downloading and bootlegging much more than many other genres: if a few hackneyed PR strategies and a whiff of controversy get some extra customers out to buy either or both albums in September, then the industry will be able to congratulate itself on another myth manufactured, another profit margin maintained. There will be no losers in this "battle".
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