Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, television producer, record executive, and businessman. Born in Queens, a borough of New York City, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 1996. In 1999–2000, he recorded his debut album, Power of the Dollar, for Columbia Records. During a shooting in May 2000, he was struck by nine bullets, causing its release to be canceled and Jackson to be dropped from the label.
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Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, television producer, record executive, and businessman. Born in Queens, a borough of New York City, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 1996. In 1999–2000, he recorded his debut album, Power of the Dollar, for Columbia Records. During a shooting in May 2000, he was struck by nine bullets, causing its release to be canceled and Jackson to be dropped from the label. His 2002 mixtape Guess Who's Back? was discovered by Detroit rapper Eminem, who signed Jackson to his label Shady Records (an imprint of Interscope Records) that year.
Jackson's debut studio album, Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2003), was released to critical acclaim and commercial success. Peaking atop the Billboard 200, it spawned the Billboard Hot 100-number one singles "In da Club" and "21 Questions" (featuring Nate Dogg), and received Multiple Platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Also in 2003, he launched the record label G-Unit Records, namesake of a hip-hop group he formed two years earlier; the label's initial signees were its members, fellow East Coast rappers Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo. His second album, The Massacre (2005), met with continued success, yielding his third number-one single, "Candy Shop" (featuring Olivia). He took a lighter, more commercially oriented approach with his third and fourth albums, Curtis (2007) and Before I Self Destruct (2009)—both of which witnessed critical and commercial declines—and aimed for a return to his roots with his fifth album, Animal Ambition (2014), which received mixed reviews. He has since focused on television and media, having executive-produced and starred in the television series Power (2014–2020), as well as its numerous spin-offs under his company G-Unit Films and Television Inc.
Jackson has sold over 30 million albums worldwide and earned several accolades, including a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, 13 Billboard Music Awards, 6 World Music Awards, 3 American Music Awards, and 4 BET Awards. He starred in the semi-autobiographical film Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005), which was critically panned. He also appeared in the war film Home of the Brave (2006) and the crime thriller Righteous Kill (2008). Billboard ranked Jackson 17th on its "50 Greatest Rappers" list in 2023, and named him the sixth top artist of the 2000s decade. Rolling Stone ranked Get Rich or Die Tryin' and "In da Club" in its lists of the "100 Best Albums of the 2000s" and "100 Best Songs of the 2000s" at numbers 37 and 13, respectively.
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Jackson was born in Queens, New York City, and raised in the South Jamaica neighborhood by his mother, Sabrina. A drug dealer, Sabrina raised Jackson until she died in a fire when Jackson was eight years old. Jackson said in an interview that she was a lesbian. After his mother's death and his father's departure, Jackson was raised by his grandparents.
Jackson began boxing at about age 11, and when he was 14, a neighbor opened a boxing gym for local youth. "When I wasn't killing time in school, I was sparring in the gym or selling crack on the strip", he has said. He sold crack during primary school. "I was competitive in the ring and hip-hop is competitive too ... I think rappers condition themselves like boxers, so they all kind of feel like they're the champ."
At age 12, Jackson began dealing narcotics when his grandparents thought he was in after-school programs, and brought guns and drug money to school. In tenth grade, he was caught by metal detectors at Andrew Jackson High School: "I was embarrassed that I got arrested like that ... After I got arrested I stopped hiding it. I was telling my grandmother [openly], 'I sell drugs.'"
On June 29, 1994, Jackson was arrested for selling four vials of cocaine to an undercover police officer. He was arrested again three weeks later when police searched his home and found heroin, ten ounces of crack cocaine, and a starting pistol. Jackson was sentenced to three to nine years in prison, but served six months in a boot camp and earned his GED. He has said that he did not use cocaine himself. Jackson adopted the nickname "50 Cent" as a metaphor for change. The name was inspired by Kelvin Martin, a 1980s Brooklyn robber known as "50 Cent"; Jackson chose it "because it says everything I want it to say. I'm the same kind of person 50 Cent was. I provide for myself by any means."
Jackson began rapping in a friend's basement, using turntables to record over instrumentals. In 1996, a friend introduced him to Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC, who was establishing Jam Master Jay Records. Jay taught him to count bars, write choruses, structure songs, and make records. In 1997, A&R of Def Jam Irv Gotti turned down demo tapes by Jackson that Jay showed him for a potential record deal on the grounds that they were too similar to Jay-Z. Jackson's first appearance was on "React" with Onyx, from its 1998 album Shut 'Em Down, which Gotti was the A&R for. He credited Jam Master Jay for improving his ability to write hooks, and Jay produced Jackson's first (unreleased) album. In 1999, after Jackson left Jam Master Jay, the platinum-selling producers Trackmasters signed him to Columbia Records. They sent him to an upstate New York studio, where he produced 36 songs in two weeks; 18 were included on his 2000 album Power of the Dollar. Jackson founded Hollow Point Entertainment with former G-Unit member Bang 'Em Smurf.
Jackson's popularity began to grow after the successful, controversial underground single "How to Rob", which he wrote in a half-hour car ride to a studio. The track comically describes how he would rob famous artists. Jackson explained the song's rationale: "There's a hundred artists on that label, you gotta separate yourself from that group and make yourself relevant." Rappers Jay-Z, Kurupt, Sticky Fingaz, Big Pun, Wyclef Jean, and the Wu-Tang Clan responded to the track, and Nas invited Jackson to join him on his Nastradamus tour. Although "How to Rob" was intended to be released with "Thug Love" (with Destiny's Child), two days before he was scheduled to film the "Thug Love" video, Jackson was shot and hospitalized.
On May 24, 2000, Jackson was attacked by a gunman outside his grandmother's former home in South Jamaica. After getting into a friend's car, he was asked to return to the house to get some jewelry; his son was in the house, and his grandmother was in the front yard.[citation needed] Jackson returned to the car, and another car pulled up nearby; an assailant walked up and fired nine shots at close range with a 9mm handgun. Jackson was shot in the hand, arm, hip, both legs, chest, and left cheek. His facial wound resulted in a swollen tongue, the loss of a wisdom tooth and a slightly slurred voice; his friend was wounded in the hand. They were driven to a hospital, where Jackson spent 13 days. The alleged attacker, Darryl "Homicide" Baum, Mike Tyson's close friend and bodyguard, was killed three weeks later.
Jackson recalled the shooting: "It happens so fast that you don't even get a chance to shoot back .... I was scared the whole time ... I was looking in the rear-view mirror like, 'Oh shit, somebody shot me in the face! It burns, burns, burns.'" In his autobiography, From Pieces to Weight: Once upon a Time in Southside Queens, he wrote: "After I got shot nine times at close range and didn't die, I started to think that I must have a purpose in life ... How much more damage could that shell have done? Give me an inch in this direction or that one, and I'm gone." Jackson used a walker for six weeks and fully recovered after five months. When he left the hospital, he stayed in the Poconos with his girlfriend and son, and his workout regime helped him develop a muscular physique.
In the hospital, Jackson signed a publishing deal with Columbia Records before he was dropped from the label and blacklisted by the recording industry because of his song "Ghetto Qu'ran". Unable to work in a U.S. studio, he went to Canada. With business partner Sha Money XL, Jackson recorded over 30 songs for mixtapes to build a reputation. In a HitQuarters interview, Marc Labelle of Shady Records A&R said Jackson used the mixtape circuit to his advantage: "He took all the hottest beats from every artist and flipped them with better hooks. They then got into all the markets on the mixtapes and all the mixtape DJs were messing with them." Jackson's popularity increased, and in 2002 he released the mixtape Guess Who's Back?. He then released 50 Cent Is the Future backed by G-Unit, a mixtape revisiting material by Jay-Z and Raphael Saadiq.
"One of the things that excited me about Tupac was even if he was rhymin' the simplest words in the world, you felt like he meant it and it came from his heart. That's the thing with 50. That same aura. That's been missing since we lost Pac and Biggie. The authenticity, the realness behind it."
— Eminem about signing 50 Cent
In 2002, Eminem received Guess Who's Back? from Jackson's attorney, who was working with Eminem's manager, Paul Rosenberg. Impressed, Eminem invited Jackson to Los Angeles and introduced him to Dr. Dre. After signing a $1 million record deal, Jackson released the mixtape No Mercy, No Fear. It featured one new track, "Wanksta", which appeared on Eminem's 8 Mile soundtrack. Jackson was also signed by Violator Management and Sha Money XL's Money Management Group.[citation needed] Jackson released his debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin' (described by AllMusic as "probably the most hyped debut album by a rap artist in about a decade"), in February 2003. Rolling Stone noted its "dark synth grooves, buzzy keyboards and a persistently funky bounce", with Jackson complementing the production in "an unflappable, laid-back flow". It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 872,000 copies in its first four days. The lead single, "In da Club" (noted by The Source for its "blaring horns, funky organs, guitar riffs and sparse hand claps"), set a Billboard record as the most listened-to song in radio history within a week.
Interscope began funding and distributing for Jackson's label, G-Unit Records, in 2003. He signed Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo, and Young Buck as members of G-Unit, and The Game was later signed in a joint venture with Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment. G-Unit Records replaced Jackson's previous imprint, Rotten Apple Entertainment. 50 Cent executive produced Lloyd Banks's 2004 debut studio album, The Hunger for More, which achieved platinum status in the U.S. Jackson also contributed vocals to Banks's hit single "On Fire". In March 2005, Jackson's second commercial album, The Massacre, sold 1.14 million copies in its first four days (the highest in an abbreviated sales cycle) and was number one on the Billboard 200 for six weeks. He was the first solo artist with three singles in the Billboard top five in the same week with "Candy Shop", "Disco Inferno" and "How We Do". According to Rolling Stone, "50's secret weapon is his singing voice—the deceptively amateur-sounding tenor croon that he deploys on almost every chorus". Jackson's video game, 50 Cent: Bulletproof was released in November 2005. He portrays himself and provides his likeness and voice in the game, which features music from his first two studio albums.
After The Game's departure, Jackson signed Olivia and rap veterans Mobb Deep to G-Unit Records, and later Spider Loc, M.O.P., 40 Glocc, and Young Hot Rod. All eventually left the label. Jackson expressed interest in working with rappers other than G-Unit, such as Lil' Scrappy of BME, LL Cool J of Def Jam, Mase of Bad Boy, and Freeway of Roc-A-Fella, and recorded with several.
In September 2007, Jackson released his third album, Curtis, inspired by his life before Get Rich or Die Tryin'. It debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 691,000 copies during its first week. It sold behind Kanye West's Graduation, released the same day; the outcome of this highly publicized sales battle between Jackson and West has been accredited to the commercial decline of the gangsta rap and "bling era" style that previously dominated mainstream hip-hop.
In 2008, 50 Cent co-signed the underground rap group Bang Bang Boogie, which consisted of Mysonne, Cuban Link, Lord Tariq, Hocus 45th and S-One, giving them his stamp of approval. The group released the mixtapes The Machine, Vol. 1 and X-Files: No Mercy For The Weak in that same year before disbanding shortly due to Hocus and S-One being falsely incarcerated for gang-related crimes. The group was known for representing The Bronx and for their beef with Fat Joe as they dissed him on songs such as "High Blood Pressure" and "Bang Out".
On September 10, 2008, episode of Total Request Live, Jackson said his fourth studio album, Before I Self Destruct, would be "done and released in November". He released "Ok, You're Right", produced by Dr. Dre for Before I Self Destruct, on May 18, 2009, and was scheduled to appear in a fall 2009 episode of VH1's Behind the Music. On September 3, 2009, Jackson posted a video for the Soundkillers' Phoenix- produced track, "Flight 187", introducing his mixtape and book (The 50th Law). The song, with lyrics inspiring speculation about tension between Jackson and Jay-Z, was a bonus track on the iTunes version of Before I Self Destruct. Before I Self Destruct was released on November 9, 2009, and debuted at number 5 on the Billboard 200, giving 50 Cent his fourth consecutive top 5 album in the U.S.
In a Contactmusic.com interview, Jackson said he was working on a Eurodance album, Black Magic, inspired by European nightclubs: "First they played hip-hop which suddenly changed to uptempo songs, known as Eurodance". He later said he had changed his next album to The Return of the Heartless Monster after writing different material when he returned home from the Invitation Tour in 2010, shelving Black Magic. On September 3, Jackson supported Eminem on his and Jay-Z's The Home & Home Tour, performing "Crack A Bottle" with Eminem and Dr. Dre amid rumors of tension between Jackson and Dre.
He "recorded 20 songs to a whole different album concept" before putting them aside, wanting his new album to have the "aggression" of Get Rich or Die Tryin'. Jackson tweeted that the album was "80 percent done" and fans could expect it in the summer of 2011. It was ultimately delayed a year due to disagreements with Interscope Records, with Jackson saying that he would release it in November 2011 with a different title than Black Magic. Eminem would appear on the album, and Jackson said he was working with new producers such as Boi-1da and Alex da Kid. Cardiak, who produced Lloyd Banks's "Start It Up", confirmed that he produced a song for the album.
Jackson released a song, "Outlaw", from his fifth album online on June 16, 2011. The single, produced by Cardiak, was released on iTunes on July 19 (although Jackson tweeted that it was not the album's first single). Jackson planned to write a semi-autobiographical young-adult novel about bullying, different from his previous books, which focused on his life and the rules of power. According to the book's publisher, the first-person novel (about a 13-year-old schoolyard bully "who finds redemption as he faces what he's done") was scheduled for publication in January 2012.
In a series of tweets, Jackson said that the delay of his fifth album was due to disagreements with Interscope Records, later suggesting that it would be released in November 2011 with his headphone line (SMS by 50). He speculated to MTV News about not renewing his five-album contract with Interscope: "I don't know ... It will all be clear in the negotiations following me turning this actual album in. And, of course, the performance and how they actually treat the work will determine whether you still want to stay in that position or not."
On June 20, 2011, Jackson announced the release of Before I Self Destruct II after his fifth album. Although he planned to shoot a video for the album's lead single, "I'm On It", on June 26, it was never filmed. Jackson told Shade45, "I did four songs in Detroit with Eminem. I did two with Just Blaze, a Boi-1da joint, and I did something with Alex da Kid. We made two that are definite singles and the other two are the kinds of records that we been making, more aimed at my core audience, more aggressive, more of a different kind of energy to it." He released "Street King Energy Track #7" in September 2011 to promote Street King, his charity-based energy drink. An announcement that Jackson was shooting a video for "Girls Go Wild", the fifth-album lead single featuring Jeremih, was made on September 28, 2011.
Jackson's fifth album, Street King Immortal, was first scheduled for a summer 2012 release but postponed to November 13. Disagreements with Interscope Records about its release and promotion led to its temporary cancellation. Its first promo single, "New Day" with Dr. Dre and Alicia Keys, was released on July 27. The song was produced by Dr. Dre, mixed by Eminem, and written by 50 Cent, Alicia Keys, Royce da 5'9" and Dr. Dre. A solo version by Keys was leaked by her husband, Swizz Beatz. "My Life", the album's second promo single (with Eminem and Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine), was released on November 26, 2012.
In January 2014, Jackson said he planned to release Animal Ambition in the first quarter of the year, followed by Street King Immortal. On February 20, he left Shady Records, Aftermath Entertainment, and Interscope, signing with Caroline and Capitol Music Group. According to Jackson, although he owed Interscope another album, he was released from his contract because of his friendship with Eminem and Dr. Dre: "I'm a special case and situation. It's also because of the leverage of having the strong relationships with Eminem and Dr. Dre. They don't want me to be uncomfortable. They value our friendship to the point that they would never want [to jeopardize] it over that little bit of money."
That day, he announced that Animal Ambition would be released on June 3 and released its first track. The song, "Funeral", was released with a video on Forbes.com. Produced by Jake One, it is a continuation of "50 Bars" from a previous album; two more tracks were scheduled for release on March 18. At South by Southwest, Jackson performed "Hold On" from the new album. That song and "Don't Worry 'Bout It" were released with accompanying videos on March 18. According to Jackson, prosperity would be a theme of the album: "This project, I had to search for a concept, a really good concept, in my perspective, and that was prosperity. I outlined all the things that would be a part of prosperity, positive and negative [for Animal Ambition]."
Animal Ambition debuted at number four on the U.S. Billboard 200, giving 50 Cent his fifth consecutive top-five album in the country, while also debuting at number one on Billboard's Independent Albums chart.
On May 14, 2015, Jackson said in an interview that the first single from Street King Immortal would be previewed on Memorial Day weekend and likely be released in June. He released "Get Low" on May 20 as the intended first single from his sixth studio album, Street King Immortal. The song, produced by Remo the Hitmaker, features vocals from 2 Chainz, T.I., and Jeremih. He announced bankruptcy on July 13, 2015.
On March 31, 2017, Interscope Records released 50 Cent's final album for the label, the greatest-hits album Best Of.
In 2019, 50 Cent was featured on English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran's fourth studio album, No.6 Collaborations Project with American rapper Eminem, on "Remember the Name".
In 2020, Jackson stepped in as executive producer for late rapper Pop Smoke's debut album, Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon, having been one of Pop Smoke's biggest inspirations. The album was released on July 3, 2020, to nationwide commercial acclaim. Jackson curated the album, desiring to finish it after Pop had died. He contacted many of the artists involved, and also features on one of the album tracks, "The Woo". The Woo also features vocals by Roddy Ricch.
In 2020, it was reported that Jackson was producing two television series for Starz, an anthology about hip-hop and a biographical drama about sports agent Nicole Lynn.
In 2021, he became one of the headliners of the music festival Golden Sand in Riviera Maya.
In a July 2021 interview with The Independent, 50 Cent said he had decided to shelve his Street King Immortal album after it spent a decade in development hell and planned to release a completely new project.
In May 2021, Jackson moved to Houston. This was thought to be for lower taxes, no income tax, the rapper scene, and other ventures such as writing new screenplays. Jackson, Horizon United Group, and Houston Independent School District began a partnership on a project to help high school students learn the business skills. While living in Houston, Jackson worked on screenplays for new crime shows.
In August 2021, he was confirmed to be starring in the film Expend4bles; it was released on September 22, 2023. The film was a critical and commercial failure, grossing $51 million against a $100 million production budget.
In September 2021, Starz began airing BMF, a biographical series based on true events, depicting two brothers in Detroit (Demetrius "Big Meech" and Terry "Southwest T" Flenory, co-founders of the Black Mafia Family) who ran a drug trafficking and money laundering operation from the mid-1980s until 2005. Jackson is the executive producer of the show. He also performed the show's theme song, "Wish Me Luck", alongside Charlie Wilson, Moneybagg Yo, and Snoop Dogg.
On February 13, 2022, 50 Cent was a surprise performer in the Super Bowl LVI halftime show, receiving a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) in September for the performance.
From December 2024 to January 2025, Jackson embarked on his Las Vegas residency, 50 Cent: In da Club, which had been announced in October. He also announced plans to executive-produce Sean Combs: The Reckoning for Netflix, a documentary centered on the sexual misconduct allegations against hip-hop entrepreneur Sean Combs. It was released in December 2025. In January 2025, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera was released as a sequel to the 2018 film. Jackson, who starred in the 2018 film, executive produced the sequel alongside former co-star O'Shea Jackson Jr., who reprised his role.
Jackson cites Boogie Down Productions, Big Daddy Kane, The Juice Crew, EPMD and KRS-One as his rapping influences, while citing LL Cool J as an inspiration behind his writing of "21 Questions". He has also said he was influenced by Nas, Rakim, and The Notorious B.I.G. while working on Animal Ambition.
Source: wikipedia
Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, television producer, record executive, and businessman. Born in Queens, a borough of New York City, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 1996. In 1999–2000, he recorded his debut album, Power of the Dollar, for Columbia Records. During a shooting in May 2000, he was struck by nine bullets, causing its release to be canceled and Jackson to be dropped from the label.
No songs yet.
Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, television producer, record executive, and businessman. Born in Queens, a borough of New York City, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 1996. In 1999–2000, he recorded his debut album, Power of the Dollar, for Columbia Records. During a shooting in May 2000, he was struck by nine bullets, causing its release to be canceled and Jackson to be dropped from the label. His 2002 mixtape Guess Who's Back? was discovered by Detroit rapper Eminem, who signed Jackson to his label Shady Records (an imprint of Interscope Records) that year.
Jackson's debut studio album, Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2003), was released to critical acclaim and commercial success. Peaking atop the Billboard 200, it spawned the Billboard Hot 100-number one singles "In da Club" and "21 Questions" (featuring Nate Dogg), and received Multiple Platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Also in 2003, he launched the record label G-Unit Records, namesake of a hip-hop group he formed two years earlier; the label's initial signees were its members, fellow East Coast rappers Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo. His second album, The Massacre (2005), met with continued success, yielding his third number-one single, "Candy Shop" (featuring Olivia). He took a lighter, more commercially oriented approach with his third and fourth albums, Curtis (2007) and Before I Self Destruct (2009)—both of which witnessed critical and commercial declines—and aimed for a return to his roots with his fifth album, Animal Ambition (2014), which received mixed reviews. He has since focused on television and media, having executive-produced and starred in the television series Power (2014–2020), as well as its numerous spin-offs under his company G-Unit Films and Television Inc.
Jackson has sold over 30 million albums worldwide and earned several accolades, including a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, 13 Billboard Music Awards, 6 World Music Awards, 3 American Music Awards, and 4 BET Awards. He starred in the semi-autobiographical film Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005), which was critically panned. He also appeared in the war film Home of the Brave (2006) and the crime thriller Righteous Kill (2008). Billboard ranked Jackson 17th on its "50 Greatest Rappers" list in 2023, and named him the sixth top artist of the 2000s decade. Rolling Stone ranked Get Rich or Die Tryin' and "In da Club" in its lists of the "100 Best Albums of the 2000s" and "100 Best Songs of the 2000s" at numbers 37 and 13, respectively.
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Jackson was born in Queens, New York City, and raised in the South Jamaica neighborhood by his mother, Sabrina. A drug dealer, Sabrina raised Jackson until she died in a fire when Jackson was eight years old. Jackson said in an interview that she was a lesbian. After his mother's death and his father's departure, Jackson was raised by his grandparents.
Jackson began boxing at about age 11, and when he was 14, a neighbor opened a boxing gym for local youth. "When I wasn't killing time in school, I was sparring in the gym or selling crack on the strip", he has said. He sold crack during primary school. "I was competitive in the ring and hip-hop is competitive too ... I think rappers condition themselves like boxers, so they all kind of feel like they're the champ."
At age 12, Jackson began dealing narcotics when his grandparents thought he was in after-school programs, and brought guns and drug money to school. In tenth grade, he was caught by metal detectors at Andrew Jackson High School: "I was embarrassed that I got arrested like that ... After I got arrested I stopped hiding it. I was telling my grandmother [openly], 'I sell drugs.'"
On June 29, 1994, Jackson was arrested for selling four vials of cocaine to an undercover police officer. He was arrested again three weeks later when police searched his home and found heroin, ten ounces of crack cocaine, and a starting pistol. Jackson was sentenced to three to nine years in prison, but served six months in a boot camp and earned his GED. He has said that he did not use cocaine himself. Jackson adopted the nickname "50 Cent" as a metaphor for change. The name was inspired by Kelvin Martin, a 1980s Brooklyn robber known as "50 Cent"; Jackson chose it "because it says everything I want it to say. I'm the same kind of person 50 Cent was. I provide for myself by any means."
Jackson began rapping in a friend's basement, using turntables to record over instrumentals. In 1996, a friend introduced him to Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC, who was establishing Jam Master Jay Records. Jay taught him to count bars, write choruses, structure songs, and make records. In 1997, A&R of Def Jam Irv Gotti turned down demo tapes by Jackson that Jay showed him for a potential record deal on the grounds that they were too similar to Jay-Z. Jackson's first appearance was on "React" with Onyx, from its 1998 album Shut 'Em Down, which Gotti was the A&R for. He credited Jam Master Jay for improving his ability to write hooks, and Jay produced Jackson's first (unreleased) album. In 1999, after Jackson left Jam Master Jay, the platinum-selling producers Trackmasters signed him to Columbia Records. They sent him to an upstate New York studio, where he produced 36 songs in two weeks; 18 were included on his 2000 album Power of the Dollar. Jackson founded Hollow Point Entertainment with former G-Unit member Bang 'Em Smurf.
Jackson's popularity began to grow after the successful, controversial underground single "How to Rob", which he wrote in a half-hour car ride to a studio. The track comically describes how he would rob famous artists. Jackson explained the song's rationale: "There's a hundred artists on that label, you gotta separate yourself from that group and make yourself relevant." Rappers Jay-Z, Kurupt, Sticky Fingaz, Big Pun, Wyclef Jean, and the Wu-Tang Clan responded to the track, and Nas invited Jackson to join him on his Nastradamus tour. Although "How to Rob" was intended to be released with "Thug Love" (with Destiny's Child), two days before he was scheduled to film the "Thug Love" video, Jackson was shot and hospitalized.
On May 24, 2000, Jackson was attacked by a gunman outside his grandmother's former home in South Jamaica. After getting into a friend's car, he was asked to return to the house to get some jewelry; his son was in the house, and his grandmother was in the front yard.[citation needed] Jackson returned to the car, and another car pulled up nearby; an assailant walked up and fired nine shots at close range with a 9mm handgun. Jackson was shot in the hand, arm, hip, both legs, chest, and left cheek. His facial wound resulted in a swollen tongue, the loss of a wisdom tooth and a slightly slurred voice; his friend was wounded in the hand. They were driven to a hospital, where Jackson spent 13 days. The alleged attacker, Darryl "Homicide" Baum, Mike Tyson's close friend and bodyguard, was killed three weeks later.
Jackson recalled the shooting: "It happens so fast that you don't even get a chance to shoot back .... I was scared the whole time ... I was looking in the rear-view mirror like, 'Oh shit, somebody shot me in the face! It burns, burns, burns.'" In his autobiography, From Pieces to Weight: Once upon a Time in Southside Queens, he wrote: "After I got shot nine times at close range and didn't die, I started to think that I must have a purpose in life ... How much more damage could that shell have done? Give me an inch in this direction or that one, and I'm gone." Jackson used a walker for six weeks and fully recovered after five months. When he left the hospital, he stayed in the Poconos with his girlfriend and son, and his workout regime helped him develop a muscular physique.
In the hospital, Jackson signed a publishing deal with Columbia Records before he was dropped from the label and blacklisted by the recording industry because of his song "Ghetto Qu'ran". Unable to work in a U.S. studio, he went to Canada. With business partner Sha Money XL, Jackson recorded over 30 songs for mixtapes to build a reputation. In a HitQuarters interview, Marc Labelle of Shady Records A&R said Jackson used the mixtape circuit to his advantage: "He took all the hottest beats from every artist and flipped them with better hooks. They then got into all the markets on the mixtapes and all the mixtape DJs were messing with them." Jackson's popularity increased, and in 2002 he released the mixtape Guess Who's Back?. He then released 50 Cent Is the Future backed by G-Unit, a mixtape revisiting material by Jay-Z and Raphael Saadiq.
"One of the things that excited me about Tupac was even if he was rhymin' the simplest words in the world, you felt like he meant it and it came from his heart. That's the thing with 50. That same aura. That's been missing since we lost Pac and Biggie. The authenticity, the realness behind it."
— Eminem about signing 50 Cent
In 2002, Eminem received Guess Who's Back? from Jackson's attorney, who was working with Eminem's manager, Paul Rosenberg. Impressed, Eminem invited Jackson to Los Angeles and introduced him to Dr. Dre. After signing a $1 million record deal, Jackson released the mixtape No Mercy, No Fear. It featured one new track, "Wanksta", which appeared on Eminem's 8 Mile soundtrack. Jackson was also signed by Violator Management and Sha Money XL's Money Management Group.[citation needed] Jackson released his debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin' (described by AllMusic as "probably the most hyped debut album by a rap artist in about a decade"), in February 2003. Rolling Stone noted its "dark synth grooves, buzzy keyboards and a persistently funky bounce", with Jackson complementing the production in "an unflappable, laid-back flow". It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 872,000 copies in its first four days. The lead single, "In da Club" (noted by The Source for its "blaring horns, funky organs, guitar riffs and sparse hand claps"), set a Billboard record as the most listened-to song in radio history within a week.
Interscope began funding and distributing for Jackson's label, G-Unit Records, in 2003. He signed Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo, and Young Buck as members of G-Unit, and The Game was later signed in a joint venture with Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment. G-Unit Records replaced Jackson's previous imprint, Rotten Apple Entertainment. 50 Cent executive produced Lloyd Banks's 2004 debut studio album, The Hunger for More, which achieved platinum status in the U.S. Jackson also contributed vocals to Banks's hit single "On Fire". In March 2005, Jackson's second commercial album, The Massacre, sold 1.14 million copies in its first four days (the highest in an abbreviated sales cycle) and was number one on the Billboard 200 for six weeks. He was the first solo artist with three singles in the Billboard top five in the same week with "Candy Shop", "Disco Inferno" and "How We Do". According to Rolling Stone, "50's secret weapon is his singing voice—the deceptively amateur-sounding tenor croon that he deploys on almost every chorus". Jackson's video game, 50 Cent: Bulletproof was released in November 2005. He portrays himself and provides his likeness and voice in the game, which features music from his first two studio albums.
After The Game's departure, Jackson signed Olivia and rap veterans Mobb Deep to G-Unit Records, and later Spider Loc, M.O.P., 40 Glocc, and Young Hot Rod. All eventually left the label. Jackson expressed interest in working with rappers other than G-Unit, such as Lil' Scrappy of BME, LL Cool J of Def Jam, Mase of Bad Boy, and Freeway of Roc-A-Fella, and recorded with several.
In September 2007, Jackson released his third album, Curtis, inspired by his life before Get Rich or Die Tryin'. It debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 691,000 copies during its first week. It sold behind Kanye West's Graduation, released the same day; the outcome of this highly publicized sales battle between Jackson and West has been accredited to the commercial decline of the gangsta rap and "bling era" style that previously dominated mainstream hip-hop.
In 2008, 50 Cent co-signed the underground rap group Bang Bang Boogie, which consisted of Mysonne, Cuban Link, Lord Tariq, Hocus 45th and S-One, giving them his stamp of approval. The group released the mixtapes The Machine, Vol. 1 and X-Files: No Mercy For The Weak in that same year before disbanding shortly due to Hocus and S-One being falsely incarcerated for gang-related crimes. The group was known for representing The Bronx and for their beef with Fat Joe as they dissed him on songs such as "High Blood Pressure" and "Bang Out".
On September 10, 2008, episode of Total Request Live, Jackson said his fourth studio album, Before I Self Destruct, would be "done and released in November". He released "Ok, You're Right", produced by Dr. Dre for Before I Self Destruct, on May 18, 2009, and was scheduled to appear in a fall 2009 episode of VH1's Behind the Music. On September 3, 2009, Jackson posted a video for the Soundkillers' Phoenix- produced track, "Flight 187", introducing his mixtape and book (The 50th Law). The song, with lyrics inspiring speculation about tension between Jackson and Jay-Z, was a bonus track on the iTunes version of Before I Self Destruct. Before I Self Destruct was released on November 9, 2009, and debuted at number 5 on the Billboard 200, giving 50 Cent his fourth consecutive top 5 album in the U.S.
In a Contactmusic.com interview, Jackson said he was working on a Eurodance album, Black Magic, inspired by European nightclubs: "First they played hip-hop which suddenly changed to uptempo songs, known as Eurodance". He later said he had changed his next album to The Return of the Heartless Monster after writing different material when he returned home from the Invitation Tour in 2010, shelving Black Magic. On September 3, Jackson supported Eminem on his and Jay-Z's The Home & Home Tour, performing "Crack A Bottle" with Eminem and Dr. Dre amid rumors of tension between Jackson and Dre.
He "recorded 20 songs to a whole different album concept" before putting them aside, wanting his new album to have the "aggression" of Get Rich or Die Tryin'. Jackson tweeted that the album was "80 percent done" and fans could expect it in the summer of 2011. It was ultimately delayed a year due to disagreements with Interscope Records, with Jackson saying that he would release it in November 2011 with a different title than Black Magic. Eminem would appear on the album, and Jackson said he was working with new producers such as Boi-1da and Alex da Kid. Cardiak, who produced Lloyd Banks's "Start It Up", confirmed that he produced a song for the album.
Jackson released a song, "Outlaw", from his fifth album online on June 16, 2011. The single, produced by Cardiak, was released on iTunes on July 19 (although Jackson tweeted that it was not the album's first single). Jackson planned to write a semi-autobiographical young-adult novel about bullying, different from his previous books, which focused on his life and the rules of power. According to the book's publisher, the first-person novel (about a 13-year-old schoolyard bully "who finds redemption as he faces what he's done") was scheduled for publication in January 2012.
In a series of tweets, Jackson said that the delay of his fifth album was due to disagreements with Interscope Records, later suggesting that it would be released in November 2011 with his headphone line (SMS by 50). He speculated to MTV News about not renewing his five-album contract with Interscope: "I don't know ... It will all be clear in the negotiations following me turning this actual album in. And, of course, the performance and how they actually treat the work will determine whether you still want to stay in that position or not."
On June 20, 2011, Jackson announced the release of Before I Self Destruct II after his fifth album. Although he planned to shoot a video for the album's lead single, "I'm On It", on June 26, it was never filmed. Jackson told Shade45, "I did four songs in Detroit with Eminem. I did two with Just Blaze, a Boi-1da joint, and I did something with Alex da Kid. We made two that are definite singles and the other two are the kinds of records that we been making, more aimed at my core audience, more aggressive, more of a different kind of energy to it." He released "Street King Energy Track #7" in September 2011 to promote Street King, his charity-based energy drink. An announcement that Jackson was shooting a video for "Girls Go Wild", the fifth-album lead single featuring Jeremih, was made on September 28, 2011.
Jackson's fifth album, Street King Immortal, was first scheduled for a summer 2012 release but postponed to November 13. Disagreements with Interscope Records about its release and promotion led to its temporary cancellation. Its first promo single, "New Day" with Dr. Dre and Alicia Keys, was released on July 27. The song was produced by Dr. Dre, mixed by Eminem, and written by 50 Cent, Alicia Keys, Royce da 5'9" and Dr. Dre. A solo version by Keys was leaked by her husband, Swizz Beatz. "My Life", the album's second promo single (with Eminem and Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine), was released on November 26, 2012.
In January 2014, Jackson said he planned to release Animal Ambition in the first quarter of the year, followed by Street King Immortal. On February 20, he left Shady Records, Aftermath Entertainment, and Interscope, signing with Caroline and Capitol Music Group. According to Jackson, although he owed Interscope another album, he was released from his contract because of his friendship with Eminem and Dr. Dre: "I'm a special case and situation. It's also because of the leverage of having the strong relationships with Eminem and Dr. Dre. They don't want me to be uncomfortable. They value our friendship to the point that they would never want [to jeopardize] it over that little bit of money."
That day, he announced that Animal Ambition would be released on June 3 and released its first track. The song, "Funeral", was released with a video on Forbes.com. Produced by Jake One, it is a continuation of "50 Bars" from a previous album; two more tracks were scheduled for release on March 18. At South by Southwest, Jackson performed "Hold On" from the new album. That song and "Don't Worry 'Bout It" were released with accompanying videos on March 18. According to Jackson, prosperity would be a theme of the album: "This project, I had to search for a concept, a really good concept, in my perspective, and that was prosperity. I outlined all the things that would be a part of prosperity, positive and negative [for Animal Ambition]."
Animal Ambition debuted at number four on the U.S. Billboard 200, giving 50 Cent his fifth consecutive top-five album in the country, while also debuting at number one on Billboard's Independent Albums chart.
On May 14, 2015, Jackson said in an interview that the first single from Street King Immortal would be previewed on Memorial Day weekend and likely be released in June. He released "Get Low" on May 20 as the intended first single from his sixth studio album, Street King Immortal. The song, produced by Remo the Hitmaker, features vocals from 2 Chainz, T.I., and Jeremih. He announced bankruptcy on July 13, 2015.
On March 31, 2017, Interscope Records released 50 Cent's final album for the label, the greatest-hits album Best Of.
In 2019, 50 Cent was featured on English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran's fourth studio album, No.6 Collaborations Project with American rapper Eminem, on "Remember the Name".
In 2020, Jackson stepped in as executive producer for late rapper Pop Smoke's debut album, Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon, having been one of Pop Smoke's biggest inspirations. The album was released on July 3, 2020, to nationwide commercial acclaim. Jackson curated the album, desiring to finish it after Pop had died. He contacted many of the artists involved, and also features on one of the album tracks, "The Woo". The Woo also features vocals by Roddy Ricch.
In 2020, it was reported that Jackson was producing two television series for Starz, an anthology about hip-hop and a biographical drama about sports agent Nicole Lynn.
In 2021, he became one of the headliners of the music festival Golden Sand in Riviera Maya.
In a July 2021 interview with The Independent, 50 Cent said he had decided to shelve his Street King Immortal album after it spent a decade in development hell and planned to release a completely new project.
In May 2021, Jackson moved to Houston. This was thought to be for lower taxes, no income tax, the rapper scene, and other ventures such as writing new screenplays. Jackson, Horizon United Group, and Houston Independent School District began a partnership on a project to help high school students learn the business skills. While living in Houston, Jackson worked on screenplays for new crime shows.
In August 2021, he was confirmed to be starring in the film Expend4bles; it was released on September 22, 2023. The film was a critical and commercial failure, grossing $51 million against a $100 million production budget.
In September 2021, Starz began airing BMF, a biographical series based on true events, depicting two brothers in Detroit (Demetrius "Big Meech" and Terry "Southwest T" Flenory, co-founders of the Black Mafia Family) who ran a drug trafficking and money laundering operation from the mid-1980s until 2005. Jackson is the executive producer of the show. He also performed the show's theme song, "Wish Me Luck", alongside Charlie Wilson, Moneybagg Yo, and Snoop Dogg.
On February 13, 2022, 50 Cent was a surprise performer in the Super Bowl LVI halftime show, receiving a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) in September for the performance.
From December 2024 to January 2025, Jackson embarked on his Las Vegas residency, 50 Cent: In da Club, which had been announced in October. He also announced plans to executive-produce Sean Combs: The Reckoning for Netflix, a documentary centered on the sexual misconduct allegations against hip-hop entrepreneur Sean Combs. It was released in December 2025. In January 2025, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera was released as a sequel to the 2018 film. Jackson, who starred in the 2018 film, executive produced the sequel alongside former co-star O'Shea Jackson Jr., who reprised his role.
Jackson cites Boogie Down Productions, Big Daddy Kane, The Juice Crew, EPMD and KRS-One as his rapping influences, while citing LL Cool J as an inspiration behind his writing of "21 Questions". He has also said he was influenced by Nas, Rakim, and The Notorious B.I.G. while working on Animal Ambition.
Source: wikipedia