This tidbit has been making its way around the blog circut: Both 50 Cent and Kanye West are releasing new albums on September 11, and if Kanye outsells 50, Mr. Cent promises to stop releasing solo material.

Via SOHH:

“Put it like this,” 50 told SOHH. “Let’s raise the stakes. If Kanye West sells more records than 50 Cent on September 11, I’ll no longer write music. I’ll write music and work with my other artists, but I won’t put out any more solo albums.

“And I bet this, when Kanye West’s sales come in, he’s gonna have a 70% decrease [the second week] ‘cause Def Jam is gonna buy records to keep him closer to 50 Cent,” the Queens rapper added. “So watch the first week and then watch the second week. Watch his @#* drop off the planet. We keep our angles covered before we make a decent bet.”

Remember that time in 1999 when Oprah said she’d quit TV in two years because she had it with rival Jerry Springer and his “vulgarity circus” that got higher ratings than her? And now it’s 2007, and she’s still going? And remember the time I said I’d get drunk if George W. won the 2004 election (I’ve never been drunk in my life), and then he won (ugh), and I didn’t drink a drop of alcohol?

All I’m saying is people lie change their minds all the time. This isn’t a threat, it’s a marketing plan. And a pretty smart one too. Even though both artists are already all over the fucking place, now everyone is finding yet one more reason to talk about them and anticipate the records.

Apparently getting shot something like eight times and/or saying on live television that the president doesn’t care about black people doesn’t cause enough of a gossip frenzy.

I think both 50 and Kanye are in on it (they have worked together in the past, after all), and even though there’s a bunch of other records being released that day, they’ll probably debut at one and two partly because of this little challenge, and neither of them give a shit who gets what standing just so long as they reach the top together.

Sneaky little fuckers.