50 Cent Album Delayed Again

Mon., Jul. 16, 2007 12:04 PM PDT by Josh Grossberg

50 Cent's latest is staying in da vault a little longer.

The multiplatinum-selling rapper''s label, Interscope, announced it was pushing back the release of his forthcoming album, Curtis, by another week, from Sept. 4 to Sept. 11.

Curtis has had a tortured trip to store shelves. It was originally supposed to drop on June 26, but the street date was moved to Sept. 4, ostensibly so the label would have more time to prepare for a simultaneous worldwide release.

However, the label apparently didn't look at the calendar too closely—Sept. 4 is the day after Labor Day and Interscope now says it wants to avoid the holiday. Instead, the powers that be opted to release Fiddy's first CD since 2005's mega-selling The Massacre on the sixth anniversary of the 9-11 terror attacks, not exactly the most auspicious day.

Whenever it drops, the label marketers will have some extra time to drum up hype for the buzz-starved album.

Curtis' first two singles, "Straight to the Bank" and "Amusement Park," debuted in the spring, but failed to generate the kind of radio response 50 Cent's accustomed to.

"Straight to the Bank" peaked at number 30 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and has since fallen off, while "Amusement Park topped out at 36 and is currently at 57 after two months in rotation.

A new single, "I Get Money," has fared even worse, debuting on the charts earlier this month at 75, a far cry from the hip-hopster's previous party tracks like "In Da Club" and "P.I.M.P.," which came in at numbers one and two, respectively.

But Fiddy and his label insist the scheduling switcheroos having nothing to do with his recent chart performance. In May, when the first delay was announced, the rapper chalked it up to logistics, stating the new date would allow the label to marshal its international marketing forces and have Curtis hit simultaneously around the globe.

"I'm an international artist. My fans worldwide deserve to receive my album at the same time as my fans here in the U.S.," the emcee said.

By contrast, The Massacre, hit store shelves five days ahead of schedule after copies were leaked to the Web.

Originally titled Before I Self Destruct until Fiddy decided to save that title for his retirement album and instead use his real first name (Curtis Jackson is his full moniker)—Curtis is the third solo effort from the artist. The album features an all-star roster of guest producers and vocalists, including Eminem, Dr. Dre, Akon, Kanye West, Justin Timberlake, Mary J. Blige, the Black Eyed Peas' Will.I.Am, Timbaland, Pharrell Williams and Nicole Scherzinger from the Pussycat Dolls.

In the interim, 50 Cent continues working on his movie skills, teaming up with Robert De Niro in the post-Katrina cop thriller New Orleans.

He'll then go head-to-head with Nicolas Cage in a boxing flick called The Dance before reuniting with De Niro to play a drug dealer in Righteous Kill, which also stars Al Pacino.