50 Cent: Get Rich or Die Tryin’

Curtis Jackson, better known as 50 Cent, was one of the most popular and appreciated rappers of the early to mid 2000’s era. 50 is a New York native, growing up in a neighborhood called South Jamaica in Queens. The same neighborhood is home to artists such as LL Cool J and all members of Salt N’ Pepa.

This area was filled with drugs and violence. Curtis’ mother, Sabrina Jackson, gave birth to him at only 15 years old. She sold drugs to support her family and was one of the more successful dealers in the area of Queens. She was murdered when Curtis was just 8 years old. Jackson was raised by his grandmother after his mother's passing, along with 9 other children.

Due to financial issues in his family, 50 started selling hard drugs by the age of 12 years old on the streets of Queens. By the age of 15 he possessed his first firearm and by 19 years old he was pulling in roughly $150,000 a month from straight drug money. 

50 was a genuine kingpin in South Jamaica, Queens. He dropped out of high school and spent his fair share of time in jail. However, he stopped selling when his first son, Marquise, was born and he put his money and effort towards music. Throughout his beginnings in rap he would still sell occasionally in order to make ends meet. 

In ‘96 Curtis met Jam Master Jay, one of the members from the rap group Run-DMC. They were both from the same neighbor and Jam Master Jay mentored 50 as he saw potential in him. He eventually signed 50 to a production deal and helped him promote his music. 

Despite his production deal, he was not signed to an actual record label, making him an independent artist. 50 picked up most of his traction as an underground artist, releasing music that picked up some momentum under the radar. His growing popularity led towards his first major record deal with Columbia Records.

Unfortunately his manager and lawyers took most of the advance and Curtis had to start selling again in order to maintain an income. To make matters worse, the record deal with Columbia didn’t really pan out for either side. He only released one song titled, “How to Rob,” which made its way on the movie soundtrack for In Too Deep. Besides that, Columbia never took advantage of 50’s up and coming career. 

Things took a dark turn in May of 2000. 50 was in his car outside of his grandmother's house when a gunman pulled up in a drive-by shooting. The man putting the hit on Curtis shot him nine times while he was in the passenger seat. He was shot once through the cheek, once in the hip, and seven times in his lower body and legs. He suffered 9 bullets wounds in total and somehow survived. Despite his recovery, Columbia dropped 50 from their label following the murder attempt. 50 went back to releasing underground music and mixtapes. 

During this period of underground releases, 50 formed a rap posse called G-Unit. The group was made up of Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo. They continued to release music in 2002 and 2003, creating another big splash in the underground world of rap. In the same time period, 50’s beef with rapper Ja Rule was escalating.

The beef all started when Ja Rule got his chain snatched by one of 50’s boys. Ja thought that 50 had orchestrated the robbery because he was kicked off his labels team during the shoot for a music video. In the year 2000, the tension grew so heavily that Ja and one of his partners, Black Child, pulled up to a studio that 50 was recording at. An altercation broke out and 50 ended up suffering a stab wound. The two men were arrested but Black Child took the fall and admitted to stabbing 50 in an act of self defense.

After 50 got some mainstream attention and radio play, one particular rapper reached out to him in an effort to serve as a mentor and sign him to his label. That man was Marshall Mathers, or you may know him by Eminem. 50 sent out “Wanksta” as well as a few other singles to different music managers in the industry. This includes Paul Rosenberg, Eminem’s manager. Eminem immediately reached out to 50 and flew him out to L.A. to talk business.

Curtis Jackson signed a contract with Shady/Aftermath Records for roughly 1 million dollars in the summer of 2002. Eminem took him under his wing and his career took flight. Em threw him on 3 different tracks, including “Wanksta” for the soundtrack to his movie “8 Mile.”

Curtis, Eminem, and Dr. Dre wasted no time getting 50 in the recording studio. 50 Cent’s debut album, “Get Rich or Die Tryin’” was released in the Winter of 2003 and was a record breaking success. The album sold 872,000 copies in its first week and then an additional 822,000 copies the following week. It was the best selling album of 2003, pulling in a total of 12 millions units sold in just 9 months. Those are numbers for a genuine superstar in music, and 50 was well on his way.

From this point forward 50’s career completed skyrocketed. He was selling countless records throughout the 2000’s, finding himself being played on every radio station in every city. He pursued and maintained an acting career with major roles in movies, including his own dramatized biopic, “Get Rich or Die Tryin’.” Additionally, he had two major video games created after him, “50 Cent: Bulletproof” and “50 Cent: Blood on the Sand.”

Despite all his trials and tribulations, 50 became a global hip-hop icon and should be perceived as a rap legend by hip-hop enthusiasts. His music and impact on rap culture truly created a monumental landslide in gangster music.

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This entry serves as my last for the course that I am enrolled in. This experience has been one of the most fun and informative projects I've had the opportunity to work on. For those of you reading this, thank you for your support and interest in my topic. I wanted to create content of something that I was truly passionate about and hip-hop music has played a large role in my life. I wanted to learn about the life stories from some of my favorite artists and I figured that my followers would have a similar interest.

Because I have enjoyed this project so much I have decided that I will continue creating content for this page. It may not come out quite as frequently, but continue to look out for future entries. Until next time, thank you for reading the Come Up. - AS