If you weren’t there, it’s very hard to quantify just what a juggernaut 50 Cent was between 2002 and 2007.
From total obscurity to underground buzz to being blackballed by the music industry and then becoming the biggest thing in all of music within a few short years, Curtis Jackson and his brand of street anthems with a pop sensibility was so ubiquitous that he would make even 2024 Taylor Swift blush.
The former Golden Gloves boxer and drug dealer from South Jamaica, Queens put up record numbers, had Billboard hits in abundance in an era where you had to earn them, and possessed the type of crossover appeal that was usually reserved for, well, Eminem.
Even in the early days, 50 was never content to be just another rapper. He leveraged his music success into establishing G-Unit Records — through which he launched the careers of Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo, Young Buck and The Game — starring in a movie loosely based on his life and launching a string of widely successful business ventures and endorsement deals.
A formidable opponent when it came to rap beef, he vanquished Ja Rule into a punchline, exposed The Game for not writing his own hits and even inadvertently cost Fat Joe a $20 million deal with Air Jordan. Going into his storied Curtis vs. Graduation chart battle with Kanye West in 2007, Fif was one of the most successful rappers of all time. Such was his midas touch, even Tony Yayo sold more than 200,000 copies in his first week.
Then, of course, Kanye knocked him off his perch and the whole Hip Hop landscape changed. The hits dried up as quickly as they came and cracks soon appeared in his once-dominant partnership with Interscope. There was a public spat with Jimmy Iovine over 50 launching his own rival to Beats By Dre headphones and, in turn, Interscope practically shelved his planned fifth album, Street King Immortal, causing him to depart the label.
At the time, it looked as if 50 Cent would become just another rapper destined to fade away after a short but explosive career. There were failed businesses including his own boxing promotion company and, of course, his infamous 2015 bankruptcy. And while rich people bankruptcy is different to normal people bankruptcy, it was still a bad look for the one-time superstar as his finances were laid bare for the public to see.
But 50 Cent survived nine shots, so write him off at your peril.
Over the last decade, the G-Unit general has rebuilt himself into a cultural and commercial powerhouse, expanding his portfolio with the guile and ruthlessness of a Wall Street executive and dominating several fields as Hip Hop becomes an ever-increasing young man’s game. His financial troubles are firmly in the rearview as 50 is closing in on becoming only Hip Hop’s third ever billionaire.
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