Animal Ambition (released with the subtitle Animal Ambition: An Untamed Desire to Win) is the fifth studio album by American rapper 50 Cent, who also served as executive producer.
The album was released on June 3, 2014, by G-Unit Records and Caroline Records. All 11 tracks on the standard edition were issued as singles prior to the album’s release; in order, they are “Don’t Worry ‘Bout It”, “Hold On”, “Pilot”, “Smoke”, “Hustler”, “Chase the Paper”, “Everytime I Come Around”, “Irregular Heartbeat”, “Winners Circle”, “Twisted”, and “Animal Ambition”. The album features guest appearances from Yo Gotti, Trey Songz, Kidd Kidd, Jadakiss, Mr Probz, Guordan Banks, Prodigy, Schoolboy Q and Styles P.
On December 4, 2013, while doing a press run for the launch of his SMS Audio line of headphones and speakers he announced that a “full body of work”, titled Animal Ambition would be released in January 2014. In a December 2013, interview with DJ Whoo Kid, he reiterated plans for the album, saying: “I’m going to drop it in January, it’s a full body of work, I wouldn’t call it a mixtape because it’s a higher grade than the material that I put out on mixtapes. I recorded so many album quality songs that I’m going to put the Animal project out as my viral marketing plan and then it will come out after, Street King Immortal.
“In January 2014, while visiting the Consumer Electronics Show, he explained his motivation to release new music in early 2014, saying: “I’m so anxious to put out material. It took me so long to get the business portion of music straight, because I had went through an auditing process because it was the last record required for Interscope Records. And now, I got Animal Ambition, I was inspired to write this. It really has to be current. If it’s not like right now, what I feel is like the hottest thing, I know it’s done right, but it’s not necessarily what I should be doing right now.”
In a January 2014 interview with Sonic Electronix, he said that he was recording heavily in preparation for both of the albums, saying, “I want to put Animal Ambition out in the first quarter. And then it’ll lead up to Street King Immortal. So it’ll be twelve weeks. That’s why I’m working so hard, when I leave here I go straight back to record again.” He also said that Animal Ambition has a shared sound and theme throughout, saying, “With Animal Ambition, the project is about prosperity.
I got an interesting way of writing it, ‘cause I wrote it from a distorted vision or viewpoint. When Biggie was doing ‘Damn, niggas wanna stick me for my paper, damn,’ that’s about when you get something, the effects of others responding to you doing better. The jealousies connected to it, there’s so many different ways to write it, that the album has those facets to it. The overall theme is ambition and prosperity.”