Hip Hop Showdown: 50 Cent's Set to retire

50 Cent has now vowed to retire his solo music career if Kanye West sells more records than him on September 11th. Both artists drop Curtis and Graduation respectfully.

Recently in an interview with SOHH.com 50 Cent said, "Let's raise the stakes," he says.

"If Kanye West sells more records than 50 Cent on September 11, I'll no longer write music," he said. "I'll write music and work with my other artists, but I won't put out anymore solo albums."

Is this just another one of 50 Cent's publicity stunts? 50, legally known as Curtis Jackson, has always been a big gambler. He bet one million dollars on Floyd Mayweather during his fight with Oscar de la Hoya. Now, 50 will put his entire career on the line for one fight with Kanye West.

Over the past few months 50 Cent has had his album pushed back a few times and released a couple of singles for the album already. 50 has also attempted to get Kanye involved by taking shots at him and attempting to create a competition between the two releases.

The usually blunt Kanye West has not said much about the "competition" with Curtis Jackson, but declined an offer to debate 50 on television on BET.

"What am I going to debate about?" West asked at the MTV Award nominations. "I thought [the debate] was the stupidest thing. When my album drops and Fifty's album drops, you're going to get a lot of good music at the same time."

50 went as far as going after Kanye West's label saying,"I bet this: When Kanye West's sales come in, he's gonna have a 70% decrease cause Def Jam is gonna buy records [the first week] to keep him closer to 50 Cent. So watch the first week and then watch the second week. Watch his ass drop off the planet."

So how will it play out?

If iTune pre-orders are any indication on the so-called battle, it looks like 50 might have to look into retirement.

Despite the fact that they are both getting comparable promotion in a prime spot of the iTunes store, Kanye's pre-order sales are outselling 50 drastically. Kanye's new album, Graduation, shows as #3 on the iTunes Top Albums chart without even being released. His 1st single, Stronger, is #2 on the iTunes Top Songs chart.

Meanwhile, 50's Curtis is behind, but still in the top ten, at #9 with his single featuring Justin Timberlake, Ayo Technology.