If you can make it through the curious introduction, Kelefah Sanneh's examination of 50 Cent's The Massacre makes for decent reading.

No, it's not an album review. It's more like ethnography dissertation than an assessment of the album. Reviews actually say if the album is any good or not. (An adjective would help. Good? Bad? Better? Worse?) Well, it's an album review in one sense: He used the word disparate. "Like the best politicians, 50 Cent has a knack for uniting disparate, even seemingly incompatible, notions into an appealing package," he wrote. Can't be an album review without the word disparate, can it? (Check Coolfer's post on critical cliches.)

Anyway, I thought it was a nice take on an album that hasn't been getting much praise. Some of the more enlightening reviews of the album can be found at the always frank Amazon.com customer review section. The 34 reviews average out right now to three out of five stars. (It was at two-and-a-half stars yesterday, I believe.) Quite a few picked up a bootleg copy of the CD and had reviews on the site before street date.

Here are some of my favorite comments:

• "This entire week you can go to MTV.com and preview the ENTIRE cd on 'the Leak'. I implore you to do so. This cd is weak AT BEST!"
• "Its not worth buying. this is exactly why people bootleg cds."
• "I am a 63 year old white man. I'll say that right off the bat ... This CD is fantastic."
• "Wow.......if you actually think 50 cent is a good rapper, then I feel sorry for you. His lyrics sucks, his voice is annoying, and the beats are WAY overproduced."
• "I'm sure this will sell millions of CDs but that still doesn't make it good. I'm sure radio will play it into the ground while other, more talented artists are ignored. What a shame."
• "Luckily this album was bootleg because I woulda been pretty upset if I had spent $15 on this."
• "im glad i didnt pay for this, cuz this is by far the weakest cd from 50 cent."