Faces to watch 2003

50 Cent

“Get Rich or Die Trying” might be the most brutally honest debut-album title since Notorious B.I.G.’s “Ready to Die,” but rising rap star 50 Cent hopes it won’t turn out to be as prescient. Dropped by Columbia after his 1999 single “How to Rob,” which advocated stealing from big rap stars, earned him nine bullets from an unknown assailant, 50 Cent grabbed a spot on the “8 Mile” soundtrack with his single “Wanksta.” The too-brash gangsta from Queens has made his name by upping the ante on insult and outrage, and now he’s been singled out by kingmaker Eminem and his chief counsel, Dr. Dre, who will produce the debut collection for Interscope/Aftermath/ Shady, a label alliance that did OK in 2002 with “The Eminem Show.”

Dean Kuipers

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The Distillers

The Return of the Raw couldn’t have come at a better time for the Distillers. The L.A. band, fronted by Australian Brody Armstrong, made a mighty noise in 2002 with its second album, “Sing Sing Death House,” and is now poised to sock it to a public that’s been softened up by more polite punk-

rockers and garage-rock revivalists. The trio penetrated the KROQ playlists with “City of Angels,” bringing an uncommon personality and ferocity -- not to mention an arresting female rock voice. Warner Bros. Records head Tom Whalley was impressed enough to bring the band into the fold from indie Hellcat/Epitaph. The next Distillers album will come out in the fall on Hellcat/Epitaph/Warner Bros., after a high-visibility platform on the summer’s Warped Tour.

-- Richard Cromelin

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The Music

It’s always risky placing your bet on a new sensation from England, but in contrast to most of its Brit brethren, the Leeds quartet known as the Music at least has the stated desire and ambition to conquer America. The band also has a grand sound that mixes Zeppelin, Queen and U2 into an electronics-spiked sonic storm, a reportedly charismatic frontman in Robert Harvey, and a U.S. label, Capitol, that put another newcomer, the Vines, on the map in 2002. The debut album “The Music” comes out Feb. 25, just as the group embarks on a U.S. tour opening for Coldplay.

-- Richard Cromelin