September 11 In Hip-Hop History: 50 Cent & Ye Drop Albums On The Same Day

It's been well over a decade since we saw 50 Cent and Kanye West go head-to-head with their dueling albums.

On September 11, 2007, the New York native and the Chi-Town artist released their respective third studio albums. At the time, 50 Cent was already feeling the pressure to follow-up on the success of his past two releases, Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2003) and The Massacre (2005), with his Curtis LP. With an all-star production team consisting of Dr. Dre, Timbaland and Eminem, Fif had several popular singles like "I Get Money" and "Ayo Technology" that set the album on the course to No. 1 -- until Kanye West came along.

"Let's raise the stakes," Fif claimed at the time. "If Kanye West sells more records than 50 Cent on September 11th, I'll no longer write music. I'll write music and work with my artists but I won't put out any more solo albums."

The experienced producer and rapper, who was signed to Roc-A-Fella Records/Def Jam, also had plans to release his third studio album Graduation at the beginning of Fall 2007. Ye had only released two singles ahead of his album in the months leading up to his album's release date, "Can't Tell Me Nothin'" and "Stronger", versus Fif's four bangers. After switching up the release date several times, Ye and his label felt confident enough in his unique project to schedule it to drop on the same day as 50 cent's Curtis album.

"I pulled the trigger on that date," Ye told MTV News at the time. "I got on the phone with Def Jam like, 'Yo, I want to do this.' ... There were people that weren't ready for that fight. And I was like, 'Man, this is what I do!'"

After all the hype surrounding their match-up, Kanye West's Graduation album ended up on the top of the Billboard 200 chart with 957,000 copies sold while 50 Cent's Curtis hit No. 2 with 691,000 copies sold in their first week. Ye's "Stronger" also topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart over "Ayo Technology," which landed at No. 5.

Revisit both albums below.

WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT