It’s (still) 50 Cent’s world

How 50 Cent became the most versatile man in rap. vox.com/culture CULTURE   My introduction to 50 Cent came in 2003 when, like many people, I became transfixed with the rapper’s breakout hit “In da Club.” Admittedly, many of the lyrics were lost on me as a 10-year-old listener, but every subsequent birthday in the aughts hit a little different thanks to the endlessly quoted opening lines. My best friend at the time had 50 Cent’s debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin', from which “In da Club” originates, and we’d spend every afternoon after school listening to it in its entirety on the six-CD stereo in my room. (Also on heavy rotation were Blink-182’s self-titled, Lloyd Banks’ The Hunger for More, Usher’s Confessions, and Fall Out Boy’s Take This to Your Grave.) Few moments are as personally formative; 50 Cent will forever be a nostalgic part of my musical upbringing. In the decades since Get Rich or Die Tryin’, my tastes morphed, and so did 50’s aspirations. Senior correspondent Marin Cogan [outlines 50’s career]( in incredible detail and with the clarity only time can offer. He became a business mogul, dipping his toes in the fashion, film, television, and, yes, specialty water industries. The piece is full of incredible nuggets I never knew, like how, in 2009, 50 founded a production company called Cheetah Vision. Maybe it’s time to binge Power, the show he executive produced. —[Allie Volpe](, senior reporter How 50 Cent became the most versatile man in entertainment [a photo of rapper 50 Cent holding a microphone]( Sergione Infuso/Corbis via Getty Images There are a few constants in the 50 Cent origin story: He’s the guy who raps one of the most recognizable opening hooks ever. He got shot nine times and lived to tell about it. For a time, he had every adolescent boy in America doing the G-Unit call-out, and he made a ton of money by investing in Vitaminwater (only to declare bankruptcy by 2015). It’s a wildly incomplete account of the rapper’s life and career. 50 Cent, also known as Curtis Jackson, [was everywhere in the last year](, if you knew where to look. On television, season three of Power Book II: Ghost — one of three spinoffs of Power, a series that has established the rapper as a sought-after television producer with a small empire of shows either in production or development — broke viewership records for Starz’s streaming platform. His Final Lap Tour, a celebration of the 20th anniversary of his megahit debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin’, took him to 28 countries and sold more than a million tickets. He performed a guest verse on a single from Nas’s new record and did another verse for Nicki Minaj on Pink Friday 2 (Gag City Deluxe), which dropped at the end of the year. If there’s [one true constant in the story of 50 Cent](, it’s his hustle. “The guy’s a machine; he always been like that, from the block to now,” fellow G-Unit member Tony Yayo told Billboard last year. In the beginning, 50 Cent’s brand was rooted in his image as a former boxer and drug dealer who improbably survived being shot multiple times. The rapper was an early expert in self-mythology, building a darkly seductive narrative around his rise from street hustler to rap superstar. He cultivated an image of hip-hop supervillain, ready to go to war with anyone who crossed him, from Ja Rule to Jay-Z to Kanye West to Rick Ross and former fellow G-Unit member The Game. He’s been called a misogynist for his public comments and lyrics about women, faced backlash for anti-gay social media posts, and criticism for making supportive comments about Donald Trump and George W. Bush, when many Democrats detested the latter for the Iraq War and his socially conservative policies. The rapper still never misses a chance to antagonize his perceived enemies: When singer Cassie recently came forward with sexual assault and abuse allegations against Sean “Diddy” Combs, 50 Cent spent days trolling the Bad Boy Records founder on social media, seeming to relish in a rival’s downfall. Still, for someone with so many enemies, the rapper [has shown a surprising ability to keep reinventing himself]( and thriving, even now, 20 years after he took over the rap game. Why is 50 Cent still here? [Read the full story »](  [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( Taraji P. Henson’s salary issues point to a larger problem in Hollywood The pay gap for Black women continues to persist. [Read the full story »]( How plagiarism became the latest weapon in the culture wars The fight over plagiarism is the harbinger of a messy new era. [Read the full story »](   Support our work We aim to explain what we buy, why we buy it, and why it matters. Support our mission by making a gift today. 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