50 Cent has often criticized the rap game for being a little too soft lately. He's openly asked, where's the aggressive content? He's also pointed out how few hit hip-hop songs from the past couple of years don't have an R&B singer on the hook.

Through mixtapes such as the War Angel LP, he's served up lethal doses of hardcore rap, so it was a little surprising to see him team with R&B singer Ne-Yo on his new single "Baby by Me," for which the two shot a video last weekend.

50 said that just because he's got a song with a crooning chorus doesn't mean he's abandoned a street edge for his upcoming Before I Self Destruct LP.

"Not particularly this song, but the entire project ... I meant for it to be a little harder and what I fell in love with about hip-hop and within hip-hop," Fif said on the song's video set Saturday. "I accomplished it. Before I Self Destruct is absolutely harder than Get Rich or Die Tryin' or other projects in between. The Massacre had some real aggressive content on it, but there were other things I wanted to do, like 'Ryder Music,' 'Baltimore Love Thing,' 'Build You Up,' featuring Jamie Foxx. This project [Before I Self Destruct], I kept all of those things out of it. I just made it what I wanted it to be. This album is my album right now. It's like the preque l to Get Rich — the things I missed on that project."

Before I Self Destruct is slated for a November 23 release.