The Massacre is the second studio album

Studio album

A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 by American rapper 50 Cent

50 Cent

Curtis James Jackson III , better known by his stage name 50 Cent, is an American rapper, entrepreneur, investor, record producer, and actor. He rose to fame with the release of his albums Get Rich or Die Tryin and The Massacre . Get Rich or Die Tryin has been certified eight times platinum by...

, released March 3, 2005 on Aftermath Entertainment

Aftermath Entertainment

Aftermath Entertainment is an American record label founded by Dr. Dre. It operates as a subsidiary of, and is distributed through, Universal Music Group's Interscope Records. Current acts include Dr. Dre, Eminem, 50 Cent and Slim da Mobster, with former acts including Busta Rhymes, Game, Raekwon,...

 and Interscope Records

Interscope Records

Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that currently operates as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-History:...

 in the United States. Its initially planned release was pushed five days ahead to avoid Internet leak

Internet leak

An Internet leak occurs when a party's confidential information is released to the public on the Internet. Various types of information and data can be, and have been, "leaked" to the Internet, the most common being personal information, computer software and source code, and artistic works such...

age. The album debuted at number 1 on the U.S. Billboard 200

Billboard 200

The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

 chart, selling over 1.14 million copies in its first week. Upon its release, The Massacre received generally positive reviews from most music critics. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album

Grammy Award for Best Rap Album

The Grammy Award for Best Rap Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums with rapping at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...

, losing to Kanye West

Kanye West

Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...

's Late Registration

Late Registration

Late Registration is the second studio album by American hip hop artist Kanye West, released August 30, 2005, on Roc-A-Fella Records. Recording sessions for the album took place over the course of a year at various recording studios located in New York City and Hollywood...

at the 48th Grammy Awards.

Background

The Massacre has a music video for every track on the special edition version of the album. The original title for the album was St. Valentine's Day Massacre and was arranged to be released on February 14, 2005, but was postponed and the album's title was shortened to The Massacre. It was re-released on September 6, 2005 with a remix

Remix

A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....

 of "Outta Control" featuring Mobb Deep

Mobb Deep

Mobb Deep is an American hip hop duo from Queensbridge, Queens, New York, U.S., that consists of Havoc and Prodigy. The duo is "one of the most critically acclaimed hardcore East Coast hip-hop groups." The group is best known for its dark, hardcore delivery, as exemplified by the single "Shook Ones...

. The re-release included a bonus DVD (with music video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

s for all of the songs, and the trailer

Trailer (film)

A trailer or preview is an advertisement or a commercial for a feature film that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a feature film screening. That practice did not last long, because patrons tended to leave the...

 for the movie Get Rich or Die Tryin'

Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005 film)

Get Rich or Die Tryin' is a 2005 crime drama film starring 50 Cent. It was released on November 9, 2005, and was known as Locked and Loaded during production. Similar to the 2002 Eminem film 8 Mile, which it used as a template, the film is a loosely-based semi-autobiographical film account of 50...

) and excluded the G-Unit

G-Unit

G-Unit is an American hip hop group originating from New York City formed by 50 Cents. G-Unit emerged on the New York scene by independently releasing several mix tapes...

 remix of "Hate It or Love It

Hate It or Love It

"Hate It or Love It" is a song by American rapper and West Coast hip hop artist The Game, featuring vocals from fellow G-Unit member at the time rapper 50 Cent. It was released as the third official single from The Game's debut studio album The Documentary , from record labels Aftermath...

", clearly due to the ongoing feud between 50 Cent and The Game

The Game (rapper)

Jayceon Terrell Taylor , better known by his stage name Game, formerly The Game, is an American rapper and actor. As a member of G-Unit, he rose to fame in 2005 with the success of his debut album, The Documentary, which earned him two Grammy Award nominations...

. The re-release helped it re-climb to number two in the United States. The album was also released in a "censored

Censorship

thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...

" version that censors out most profanity, violence, and all drug content. "Gunz Come Out" has inconsistency in the editing, and contains some profanity. This album wasn't as heavily censored as Get Rich or Die Tryin'

Get Rich or Die Tryin' (album)

Get Rich or Die Tryin is the debut studio album of American rapper 50 Cent, released February 4, 2003, on Aftermath Entertainment under a joint venture with Shady Records and distribution by Interscope Records. Its initially planned release was pushed seven days ahead due to heavy bootlegging and...

, but it is still a very highly censored album ranking in severity with albums such as Tony Yayo

Tony Yayo

Marvin Bernard , better known by his stage name Tony Yayo, is a Haitian American rapper and member of the hip hop group G-Unit...

's Thoughts of a Predicate Felon

Thoughts of a Predicate Felon

Thoughts of a Predicate Felon is the debut album by G-Unit rapper Tony Yayo. The albums sold 214,000 copies in its first week.-Background:The album features the hit single "So Seductive" featuring 50 Cent....

and Nas

Nas

Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, who performs under the name Nas , formerly Nasty Nas, is an American rapper and actor. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in hip hop and one of the most skilled and influential rappers of all-time...

' Stillmatic

Stillmatic

Stillmatic received generally positive reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 69, based on 12 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews"...

.

Commercial performance

The album sold 1.14 million copies in its first week of release, making it the sixth highest-selling album since SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991. It is the third best opening week for any hip hop album in history, behind Eminem

Eminem

Marshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...

's The Marshall Mathers LP

The Marshall Mathers LP

The Marshall Mathers LP is the third studio album by American rapper Eminem. Released May 23, 2000, the album sold more than 1.76 million copies in its first week just in the US. In 2001, the album won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album and was nominated for Album of the Year...

which sold over 1.79 million copies in its first week and The Eminem Show

The Eminem Show

The Eminem Show is the fourth studio album by the American rapper Eminem, released in 2002. It was the best-selling album of 2002 in the United States, with sales of 7.6 million copies. At the Grammy Awards of 2003 it was nominated for Album of the Year and became Eminem's third LP in four years to...

which sold 1.32 million copies for its first week.

Critical response

Upon its release, the album received generally positive reviews from most music critics, based on an aggregate score of 66/100 from Metacritic

Metacritic

Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

. Vibe gave The Massacre a 3½ out of 5 disc rating and wrote "Full of finger-pointing panache, 50 delivers a taut, albeit less explosive, album aimed at both silencing his detractors and keeping the ladies satisfied". The Massacre was nominated at the 2006 Grammy Awards for Best Rap Album, but lost to Kanye West

Kanye West

Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...

's Late Registration

Late Registration

Late Registration is the second studio album by American hip hop artist Kanye West, released August 30, 2005, on Roc-A-Fella Records. Recording sessions for the album took place over the course of a year at various recording studios located in New York City and Hollywood...

. It was ranked the tenth best album of the year by Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

.

Track listing

• All songs were co-written by 50 Cent.

Additional notes

• The DVD includes the video for every song, the 50 Cent: Bulletproof
  50 Cent: Bulletproof
  50 Cent: Bulletproof is a video game for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox platforms. It was developed in response to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas after 50 Cent was asked to voice the game's protagonist Carl "CJ" Johnson with 50 Cent stating that he will only voice himself in video games...
  
  video game trailer and the Get Rich or Die Tryin' movie trailer.
• "Outta Control" is replaced by a remix featuring Mobb Deep
  Mobb Deep
  Mobb Deep is an American hip hop duo from Queensbridge, Queens, New York, U.S., that consists of Havoc and Prodigy. The duo is "one of the most critically acclaimed hardcore East Coast hip-hop groups." The group is best known for its dark, hardcore delivery, as exemplified by the single "Shook Ones...
  
  , which serves as the fourth single, in the re-released edition.
• The remix of "Hate It or Love It
  Hate It or Love It
  "Hate It or Love It" is a song by American rapper and West Coast hip hop artist The Game, featuring vocals from fellow G-Unit member at the time rapper 50 Cent. It was released as the third official single from The Game's debut studio album The Documentary , from record labels Aftermath...
  
  " is removed from the re-release edition, due to the feud
  Hip-hop feud
  A hip hop feud, also known as a beef or a rivalry, is a controversy in which two or more rappers create a rivalry that is manifested by each slandering and confronting the other in a number of ways.- Background :...
  
   between The Game and G-Unit
  G-Unit vs. The Game feud
  The feud between G-Unit and Game is a rap rivalry that began in early 2005.-Origins:Game signed onto Aftermath Entertainment, it was later arranged that he would work with 50 Cent and his hip hop group G-Unit. The sudden feud between the pair, who had been marketed as having a mentor/protégé...
  
  .

Personnel

Credits for The Massacre adapted from Allmusic.

• 50 Cent – executive producer, author
• Bang Out – producer
• Jeff Bass – keyboards, producer
• Mark Bass – producer
• Steve Baughman – engineer, mixing
• Akane Behrens – engineer
• Black Jeruz – producer
• Buck Wild – producer
• Jeff Burns – mixing assistant, assistant
• Dave Cabrera – keyboards
• Tony Campana – engineer
• Larry Chatman – project coordinator
• Lindsay Collins – voices, speech/speaker/speaking part
• Cool – producer
• Ruben Cruz – vocals (bckgr)
• Cue Beats – producer
• Dion – vocals (bckgr)
• Disco D – producer
• Dr. Dre – producer, executive producer, mixing
• Mike Elizondo – bass, guitar, keyboards, sitar, producer
• Eminem – producer, executive producer, mixing
• Nicole Frantz – creative assistance
• Brian "Big Bass" Gardener – mastering
• Yvette Gayle – publicity
• Zach Gold – photography
• Scott Gutierrez – assistant engineer, assistant
• Tiffany Hasbourne – stylist
• Adam Hawkins – engineer
• Marcus Heisser – A&R
• Hi-Tek – producer
• Lionel Holoman – keyboards
• Kameron Houff – engineer
• Eric Hudson – bass
• Mauricio "Veto" Irragorri – engineer, mixing
• Tyrue "Slang" Jonas – artwork
• Rouble Kapoor – assistant engineer, mixing assistant, assistant

• Steven King – bass, guitar, mixing
• Marc Labelle – A&R
• Chris Lighty – management
• Steve Lininger – assistant engineer, assistant
• Jared Lopez – engineer
• Mike Lynn – A&R
• Andrew Mains – editing
• Tracy McNew – A&R
• Kyla Miller – engineer
• Riggs Morales – A&R
• Needlz – producer
• Traci Nelson – vocals (bckgr)
• Alex Ortiz – engineer
• James Oruz – management
• Conesha Owens – vocals (bckgr)
• Kirdis Postelle – project coordinator
• Chuck Reed – engineer
• Luis Resto – horn, keyboards, producer
• Robert "Roomio" Reyes – assistant engineer, assistant
• Roberto Reyes – assistant
• J.R. Rotem – producer
• David Saslow – video
• Kelly Sato – marketing coordinator
• Ed Scratch – engineer
• Les Scurry – production coordination
• Sha Money XL – producer, engineer, executive producer, mixing
• Randy Sosin – video
• Nancie Stern – sample clearance
• Scott Storch – producer
• Chris Styles – producer
• Rob Tewlow – producer
• Patrick Viala – mixing
• Che Vicious – programming
• Barbara Wilson – vocals (bckgr)
• Brandon Winslow – assistant
• Ravid Yosef – editing

Chart positions

Chart (2005)	Peak Position
Australian Albums Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...	2
Austrian Albums Chart	2
Belgian Flanders Albums Chart Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts...	3
Belgian Wallonia Albums Chart Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts...	9
Canadian Albums Chart Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS...	1
Dutch Albums Chart MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top...	2
Danish Albums Chart Tracklisten Tracklisten is a Danish top 40 record chart that is presented every Thursday midnight at .The weekly Danish Singles Chart also known as Track Top-40 combines the 40 best selling tracks from legal music downloads and the sales of music singles on either CD or vinyl...	8
European Albums Chart European Top 100 Albums The European Top 100 Albums chart is the European adaptation of the Billboard 200 albums chart. It was created in March 1984.The European Top 100 Albums, commonly referred to as Eurochart Top 100 Albums shows the sales of an act in 19 European countries based on IFPI data.The European Top 100...	1
Finnish Albums Chart Finland Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...	7
French Albums Chart	3
Hungarian Albums Chart Mahasz Mahasz is the Hungarian music industry association, founded in 1992. Mahasz hands out the Hungarian Music Awards and maintains the music charts for Hungary....	11
Italian Albums Chart Federation of the Italian Music Industry The Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy....	13
New Zealand Albums Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand...	1
Norwegian Albums Chart VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by...	3
Portuguese Albums Chart IFPI The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. It is a not-for-profit members' organisation registered in Switzerland...	5
Spanish Albums Chart	32
Swedish Albums Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association ....	10
Swiss Albums Chart Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75...	2
UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...	1
U.S. Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...	1
U.S. Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999...	1

Certifications

Country	Certification	Sales/shipments
Germany	Platinum	200,000
Japan	Gold	100,000

Chart procession and succession

External links

• The Massacre at Discogs
  Discogs
  Discogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...
  
  
• The Massacre at Metacritic
  Metacritic
  Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...