It oughta be easy to get rich when you've got Eminem and Dr. Dre producing, mixing and/or rapping on your debut CD. Yet somehow Curtis (50 Cent) Jackson manages to come up short on Get Rich or Die Tryin'.

It's not that he has a bad voice or can't flow -- his rough rasp reminds you of DMX, and his delivery is mellow enough to make Snoop Dogg seem hyper. It's not his tracks -- the 18 songs on this 69-minute disc reconstruct the dark, hostile streets of the inner city with spartan arrangements, horror movie synths and tense, deliberately paced thump-and-bump grooves.

The trouble with 50 Cent, sadly, is he's a dollar short and a day late. His thug persona and death-wish rhymes about cribs and drugs and partyin' and peelin' caps back isn't just old-school, it's old hat.

Granted, unlike a lot of rappers, he's truly keeping it real -- 50 Cent has dealt crack, done time, been stabbed and even got plugged nine times by a gunman in 2000.

Even so, the predictability of Get Rich or Die Tryin' leaves us feeling shortchanged. (More on 50 Cent)

Track Listing
1. Intro
2. What Up Gangsta
3. Patiently Waiting (feat. Eminem)
4. Many Men (Wish Death)
5. In Da Club
6. High All the Time
7. Heat
8. If I Can't
9. Blood Hound (feat. Young Buck of G Unit)
10. Back Down
11. P.I.M.P.
12. Like My Style (feat. Tony Yayo of G Unit)
13. Poor Lil Rich
14. 21 Questions (feat. Nate Dogg)
15. Don't Push Me (feat. Lloyd Banks of G Unit & Eminem)
16. Gotta Make It to Heaven