The Celebrity Truth

A sales battle between 50 Cent and Kanye West is looming again, with both rappers set to release albums around the same time sparking a small war of words.

50 Cent struck first during a concert last week (September 13) in Albany, New York, telling the crowd “What I want everybody to do right now is take your cell phones out… I’m gonna give y’all an exclusive. I’mma perform my first single off my new album, ‘Before I Self Destruct.’”

The rapper then launched into a rendition of ‘Love Lockdown,’ mocking West’s new song that hit number 1 on the iTunes chart Friday on it’s second day of release.

The pair did battle last year when their albums were released on the same day, with West’s ‘Graduation’ outselling 50 Cent’s ‘Curtis’ by 300,000 copies in the U.S., however, ‘Curtis’ sold more worldwide.

West responded to the jibes, posting a message on his website writing:

“I just woke up from a quick studio nap… I’ve been workin’ on 808s and Heartbreak about 16 hrs a day and Superman passed out for a little bit… I’m in hawaii but I’m still on NY time so I wake up mad early, do some business, blog, jog for an hour, play ball, eat and then hit the stu by noon. While approving the final cut for the Love Lockdown vid, I marvel at the fact that it was written less than 3 weeks ago.  I’m very excited about the everything…  I guarantee this will be 50′s favorite album of mine.  This will be gangster’s album of the year.”

West is set to release his new album ’808′s & Heartbreak’ on December 16, a week after 50′s new album ‘Before I Self Destruct’ is released.

Photo courtesy of BET.