Supported by the singles "Disco Inferno" and "Candy Shop" before release, the album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, selling 1.15 million copies in its first four days and staying atop the chart for six weeks after its release. The Massacre received generally positive reviews from music critics.
Background
The original title for the album was revealed as The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, named after the 1929 Chicago gang murder spree known as Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. 50 Cent intended the album to be released on February 15, 2005, but Interscope was not interested. He leaked "Disco Inferno" in order to force their hand, and Interscope released it on March 7.[2]
Originally, songs intended for the album included "Hate It or Love It", "How We Do", "Higher", "Church for Thugs" and "Special" but the songs were eventually given to the Game's The Documentary, causing a majority of The Massacre to be reworked.[3]
After 50 Cent released the Game from his G-Unit Records imprint on live radio February 21, 2005, a shootout occurred.[4]Paul Rosenberg of Shady Records and Jimmy Iovine of Interscope worried that the album would underperform due to the negativity of the Hot 97 shooting. 50 and the Game later entered into a truce six days after The Massacre was released,[5][6] but their animosity rose up again after Game made fun of G-Unit at Hot 97's annual Summer Jam, where he first used the "G-Unot" insult, later turning to a boycott.[7]
Censorship
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 intro removes the shooting sequence, and is cut down to 20 seconds. The album cover also removes guns in the background behind the rapper, being replaced by motifs and a gradient background.[8] In comparison, the album is not as heavily censored as his previous album Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2003).[9]
Commercial performance
With a release in the middle of the sales week, The Massacre sold 1.15 million copies in its first four days of release, becoming the sixth-largest opening week for an album at the time since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991.[10] This is the second largest opening week for a hip hop album, behind Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP (2000), which sold 1.76 million copies in its first week.[11]Mariah Carey's The Emancipation of Mimi replaced it as number one in late April 2005, as The Massacre reached 3 million units sold.[12] In February 2020, The Massacre was certified six times platinum for combined sales and album-equivalent units of at least six million copies in the United States.[13] It has sold over eleven million copies worldwide.[14][15]
In 2005, The Massacre was ranked as the number one album of the year on the Billboard 200.[16]
The Massacre received generally positive reviews from music critics; it holds a score of 66 out of 100 at Metacritic.[17]Vibe magazine found it "full of finger-pointing panache" and wrote that "50 delivers a taut, albeit less explosive, album aimed at both silencing his detractors and keeping the ladies satisfied".[28]NME observed "a new depth to the murderous lyricism" from 50 Cent on the album.[23]Greg Tate, writing in The Village Voice, said that, like Tupac, 50 Cent is "a ruffian who knows the value of a good pop hook", and called The Massacre "the most diabolically sensous collection of baby-making gangsta music since Pac's All Eyez."[29]Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times found the album to be "nearly as addictive as its predecessor" and called 50 Cent "a crafty songwriter, specializing in obvious but nearly irresistible tracks that sound better the more you hear them."[30] In his review for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau said that 50 Cent's "ugly gangsta lies" are "incidental to the mood of the piece, which is friendly, relaxed, good-humored, and in the groove."[27]
In a mixed review, Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club said that, although its strengths lie in 50 Cent's "dark charisma" and "fluid delivery", the album is marred by flaws typical of "big rap releases: At nearly 78 minutes, it's far too long, wildly uneven, and not particularly cohesive sonically or thematically."[31]Uncut magazine wrote that, despite 50 Cent's "cool menace", "not even tight productions from Eminem and Dre can stop things from flagging midway."[32] Lynne D. Johnson of Spin felt that it lacks "originality" and makes artistic concessions: "He's tryin' too hard to be everything to everybody."[26] In a negative review for The Guardian, Alexis Petridis panned him as a lyricist and felt that the album lacks "any of the factors that make the best gangsta rap disturbingly compelling ... There's nothing except a string of cliches so limited that repetition is unavoidable".[21]
According to 50 Cent, the album received more mixed reviews than its predecessor Get Rich Or Die Tryin' because he was focused more on the hooks and song structure: "People fought love for the things they see are significant. Jimmy Iovine was a producer … he loves the significance of production. He loves Dre. I don’t give a fuck what I made … look, I made my whole second album as a 10-record. I knew they wasn’t my best verses but my choruses were right so I focused on my song structure."[36]
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
The album was re-released on September 6, 2005 as the Specialedition. It included a remix of "Outta Control" featuring Mobb Deep, which replaces the original version of the song as track eight. This edition included a bonus DVD with music videos for a majority of the album's tracks (with the exclusion of "Disco Inferno", "Gunz Come Out" and the intro), and the trailer for the film Get Rich or Die Tryin', which released two months later. Due to the ongoing feud between 50 Cent and The Game, this version omits the G-Unitremix to "Hate It or Love It" as the twenty-second track. Once the special edition was released, The Massacre re-entered the top three of the Billboard 200 at number two, being blocked from number one by Kanye West's Late Registration.[98] The original version was also re-issued using the special edition track listing leaving out the parts for the DVD.
