Sure, after Get Rich his big albums took a dive and he started to become what he preached against (at least in his singles), but the crowd loved it.

But right when the cracks started to show he dropped Curtis and Before I Self Destruct, some of the strongest records of his career. He saw what was happening and effectively righted the ship. And at this time he was till huge (remember the Kanye vs 50 who will sell the most bet?)

His problem was that as solid as he was, he just refuses to stray frrom or update that G-Unit sound. All his recent mixtapes are dope, but they could have been dropped ten years earlier and nobody would have known the difference.

Meanwhile trap music, which he totally ignored and would have excelled at, has become so ubiquitous its a huge draw at dance festivals.

Yeezus, love it or hate it, hits harder then what he was doing in a much more easy to swallow package.

And the thing is, people fall off like this because they get stuck in their own bubble. But I don't think its the case here: lets not forget arguably G-Unit was the first to give Danny Brown (in weird mode no less) a big push with him teaming up with the Tony Yayo mixtape. They recognized trends, they just chose to ignore them.

It's a shame, id argue between G-Unit and Dipset they were the bastions of NYC's stranglehold as the center of hip-hop before that crown became Atlanta's.

Finally people can only root for the bad guy so long before they cheer for his downfall. Towards the end of his career him lording over his kingdom came off more like bullying then anything else.