50 Cent: Songwriter of the Year

That’s right. He was named by Songwriter of the Year by the American Society of Composers, Author and Publishers (ASCAP) a few days ago. (One of my favorites, Annie Lennox, received the Founder’s Award for her solo work and work with the Eurythmics. Her voice is amazing!)

What does it say about The State Of . . . the music industry when this guy wins songwriter of the year? Put aside, if you can, his glorification of violence and mistreatmeant of women for the sake of this discussion. How can he win when his material this year wasn’t even his best? His first album, which I (rich) confess to owning) was way better than the latest one even thought the latest one was second only to Mariah in sells last year. Weren’t there better rap songs out in the past year? Better non-rap songs, even? Perhaps this is a lobbying thing like the Academy awards and 50 had his thugs rough some people up. I don’t know. I think there are more deserving artists out there for this year’s award. Heck, even Mariah had better songs. (Insert gratuitous Mariah photo below.)