Candy Shop (INFINITY BASS)
. For other uses, see
.
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Rapper
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actor
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television producer
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television director
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businessman
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record executive
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Caroline
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Capitol
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G-Unit
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Shady
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Aftermath
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Interscope
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Universal
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Columbia
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Trackmasters
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Jam Master Jay
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G-Unit
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Dr. Dre
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Eminem
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The Game
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Jeremih
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Mobb Deep
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Pop Smoke
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Rotimi
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Sha Money XL
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Spider Loc
known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor and entrepreneur. Known for his impact in the
, he has been described as a “master of the nuanced art of lyrical brevity”.
neighborhood of
, Jackson began selling drugs at age 12 during the
. He later began pursuing a musical career, and in 2000 he produced
for
; however, days before the planned release, he was shot, and the album was never released. In 2002, after 50 Cent released the mixtape
, he was discovered by
and signed to
, under the aegis of
‘s
and
.
), 50 Cent became one of the world’s best selling rappers and rose to prominence as de facto leader of
group
. In 2003, he founded
, signing his G-Unit associates
,
and
. 50 Cent had similar commercial and critical success with his second album,
, which was released in 2005. He underwent musical changes by his fifth album,
(2014), and is currently working on his sixth studio album. He executive-produced and starred in the television series
(2014–2020) and is slated to produce its spin-offs.
, including a
, thirteen
, six
, three
and four
.
As an actor, Jackson appeared in the semi-autobiographical film
(2005), the war film
(2006), and the crime thriller film
(2008). 50 Cent was ranked the sixth-best artist of the 2000s and the third-best rapper (behind Eminem and
) by
.
ranked Get Rich or Die Tryin’ and “
” 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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1 Early life
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2 Career
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2.1 1996–2002: Rise to fame, shooting, and early mixtapes
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2.2 2002–2007: Mainstream breakthrough, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, and The Massacre
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2.3 2007–2010: Curtis, sales battle with Kanye West, and Before I Self Destruct
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2.4 2010–2015: New musical directions, new business ventures, and Animal Ambition
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2.5 2015–present: Street King Immortal, bankruptcy, and departure from Interscope
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3 Artistry
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4 Business ventures
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4.1 Investments
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4.2 Mining and heavy metals
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4.3 Boxing promotion
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4.3.1 Bankruptcy
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4.4 Corporate positions
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5 Personal life
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5.1 Legal issues, Drugs and assault convictions
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5.2 Lawsuits
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5.2.1 Use of image
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5.2.2 Use of name
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5.2.3 Janitor incident
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5.2.4 Bamba sample
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5.3 Other civil and criminal matters
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6 Feuds
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6.1 Ja Rule
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6.2 The Game
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6.3 Cam’ron
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6.4 Rick Ross
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7 Awards and nominations
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8 Discography
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9 Filmography
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9.1 Film
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9.2 Television
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9.3 Video games
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10 References
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11 External links
, New York City, and raised in its
neighborhood
by his mother Sabrina. A drug dealer, Sabrina raised Jackson until she died in a fire when Jackson was 8.
Jackson revealed in an interview that his mother was a lesbian.
After his mother’s death and his father’s departure, Jackson was raised by his grandmother.
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.”
when his grandparents thought he was in after-school programs
and brought guns and drug money to school. In the tenth grade, he was caught by
at
: “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.'”
. Although Jackson was sentenced to three to nine years in prison, he served six months in a
and earned his
. He has said that he did not use cocaine himself.
Jackson adopted the nickname “50 Cent” as a
for change.
The name was inspired by
, 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.”
to record over instrumentals.
In 1996, a friend introduced him to
of
, who was establishing
. Jay taught him how to count
, write
, structure songs, and make records.
Jackson’s first appearance was on “
” with
, for their 1998 album
. He credited Jam Master Jay for improving his ability to write
,
and Jay produced Jackson’s first (unreleased) album.
In 1999, after Jackson left Jam Master Jay, the platinum-selling producers
signed him to
. They sent him to an
studio, where he produced thirty-six songs in two weeks;
eighteen were included on his 2000 album,
.
Jackson founded Hollow Point Entertainment with former
member Bang ‘Em Smurf.
“, 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
,
,
,
,
,
, and the
responded to the track,
and
invited Jackson to join him on his
tour.
Although “How to Rob” was intended to be released with “
” (with
), two days before he was scheduled to film the “Thug Love” music video, Jackson was shot and hospitalized.
] Jackson returned to the back seat of the car, and another car pulled up nearby; an assailant walked up and fired nine shots at close range with a
. 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 thirteen days. The alleged attacker, Darryl Baum,
‘s close friend and bodyguard,
was killed three weeks later.
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
for six weeks and fully recovered after five months. When he left the hospital he stayed in the
with his girlfriend and son, and his workout regime helped him develop a muscular physique.
“. Unable to work in a U.S. studio, he went to Canada.
With business partner
, Jackson recorded over thirty songs for
to build a reputation. In a
interview, Marc Labelle of
said that 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
. He then released
backed by
, a mixtape revisiting material by
and
.
heard Jackson’s
CD, received from Jackson’s attorney (who was working with Eminem’s manager,
).
Impressed, Eminem invited Jackson to fly to
and introduced him to
.
After signing a $1 million record deal,
Jackson released
. The mixtape featured one new track, “
“, which appeared on Eminem’s
soundtrack.
Jackson was also signed by Chris Lighty’s
and
‘s Money Management Group.[
]
(described by
as “probably the most hyped debut album by a rap artist in about a decade”), in February 2003.
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
, selling 872,000 copies in its first four days.
The lead single, “
” (noted by
for its “blaring horns, funky organs, guitar riffs and sparse hand claps”),
set a
record as the most listened-to song in radio history within a week.
gave Jackson his own label,
, in 2003.
He signed
,
and
as members of
, and
was later signed in a
with Dr. Dre’s
. In March 2005, 50 Cent’s second commercial album,
, 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 “
“, “
” and “
“.
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”.
and rap veterans
to G-Unit Records, with
,
,
and Young Hot Rod later joining the label, who all eventually departed the label.
Jackson expressed an interest in working with rappers other than G-Unit, such as
of
,
of
,
of
and
of
, and recorded with several.
, which was 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
‘s
, 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
and “bling era” style that previously dominated mainstream hip-hop.
, Jackson said his fourth studio album,
, would be “done and released in November”. He released “
“, produced by Dr. Dre for
, on May 18, 2009 and was scheduled to appear in a fall 2009 episode of
‘s
. On September 3, 2009, Jackson posted a video
for the Soundkillers’ Phoenix-
produced track, “Flight 187”, introducing his mixtape and book (
). 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.
was released on November 9, 2009.
interview, Jackson said he was working on a
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
in 2010, shelving Black Magic.
On September 3, Jackson supported Eminem on his and
‘s
, performing “Crack A Bottle” with Eminem and Dr. Dre amid rumors of tension between Jackson and Dre.
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
and
.
, who produced
‘ “Start It Up”, confirmed that he produced a song for the upcoming album.
“, from his fifth album on the Internet on June 16, 2011.
The single, produced by Cardiak, was released on
on July 19
(although Jackson tweeted that it was not the album’s first single).
The rapper 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.
, 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 (
).
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.”
Although he planned to shoot a music video for the fifth album’s lead single, “I’m On It”, on June 26
the video 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 music video for “Girls Go Wild”, the fifth-album lead single featuring
, was made on September 28, 2011.
, was initially scheduled for a summer 2012 release and postponed until November 13.
Disagreements with Interscope Records about its release and promotion led to its temporary cancellation. Its first
, “
” with
and
, was released on July 27. The song was produced by Dr. Dre, mixed by
and written by 50 Cent, Alicia Keys,
and Dr. Dre. A solo version by Keys was
by her husband,
. “
“, the album’s second promo single (with Eminem and
lead singer
), was released on November 26, 2012.
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
and
.
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.”
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
in Austin, Texas, Jackson performed “
” 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].”
Jackson released “Get Low” on May 20, 2015, as the intended first single from his sixth studio album, Street King Immortal. The song,
by Remo the Hitmaker, features vocals from fellow American rappers
and
, as well as American singer
.
He announced bankruptcy on July 13, 2015.
.
.
‘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. 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, “
“, .
, an anthology about hip hop and a biographical drama about sports agent
.
. This was thought to be for lower taxes, no income tax, and for the rapper scene, as well as other ventures such as writing new screenplays. Also, Jackson, Horizon United Group, and Houston Independent School District began a partnership on a project that would help high school students learn the business skills that define successful entrepreneurship.
While living in Houston, Curtis Jackson was in the process of writing screenplays for new crime shows.
, 50 Cent confirmed that he had officially decided to shelve his Street King Immortal album after it spent a decade in
. He even confirmed that he plans to release a completely new project.
