After years of delays, 50 Cent's new album, Before I Self Destruct is finally set to see the light of day on Nov. 23 - the same day as new releases from Justin Timberlake and Rihanna hit stores, and just a day before drop dates from Britney Spears, Lady Gaga and Adam Lambert.

But the New York rapper isn't worried - mostly because he says he does not consider those pop stars his competition.

"I guess I should be devastated that I'm up against Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga and Britney Spears?" 50 Cent told The Canadian Press in a telephone interview from Los Angeles.

"This is a great competition: you mean to tell me I get the chance to go into a battle against pop singers? ... I don't see myself in competition with artists that aren't even in the same genre.

"Could you find a rapper for me to compete with please? Now I gotta fight Justin? I'm gonna fight him and kick his ass!"

The last time the rapper released a full-length of new material - 2007's Curtis - he did so with a wave of fanfare tied to a public bet he made with Kanye West, who was releasing his third album, Graduation, on the same day.

The rappers good-naturedly sparred in the media and 50 Cent promised to retire if he sold fewer first-week copies (ultimately, West sold 957,000 units to 50's 691,000. He did not retire).

But 50 said there would be no such rivalries this time around.

"That was a cool thing to do because we apples and oranges," he said. "You don't say you like 50 Cent and you like Kanye West - you could like both of them, but at the end of the day, obviously one is completely non-confrontational, and the other embodies the aggression necessary to survive in the inner cities and the environments that I actually grew up in.

"It's just what do you like? What do you want? You like the non-confrontational, safe guy, you buy the Kanye West record. You like 50 Cent you like 50 Cent."

If it sounds like 50 is directing veiled criticism - or even a potshot - at West, it's not exactly uncharacteristic. A few weeks ago, 50 referred to Lady Gaga and West's since-cancelled joint tour as "the gay tour" in a radio interview and questioned West's sexuality. He issued an apology soon afterward, saying his comments had been taken out of context.

But while the hard-boiled rapper - he of the kevlar-vest, nine-times-shot mythology - made his name on taking on other rappers, he notes that he didn't intentionally instigate his recent spats with West and Jay-Z.

"Well, I don't say lemme talk about these other guys for no reason," he said. "If they come up in conversation based on something they've said about me, then we'll discuss it. But I have no interest in talking about them, like they're not friends of mine. They involved in the same business and are part of the same culture, I'm aware of them, but I can care less about 'em.

"Your friends are people you call for no reason. ... I don't call these people. You know, 'cause we write music and we do some of the same things for a living, people make comparisons and they act like we actually have relationships when we don't know each other.

"All I know is their work."