50 Cent Bio
Check out 50 cent bio, featuring all those personal insights you wana know about your dynamite icon!
• Birth Name: Curtis James Jackson III
• Date of Birth: 6 July 1975
• Birth Place: Queens, New York City, New York, USA
• Nickname: Interscope, Fiddy, Boo Boo
• Height: 6' (1.83 m)
• Zodiac Sign: Cancer
• Profession: Rap artist, actor, entrepreneur, executive producer
50 Cent (aka Curtis Jackson) has been declared the hottest thing in hip hop. Growing up on the streets in Jamaica, Queens, 50 Cent was raised without a father, lost his mom at the age of 8. Raised by his grandparents, 50 Cent became victim of the drugs and violence surrounding him.
Jackson began boxing around the age of eleven. At the age of twelve, he began dealing narcotics when his grandparents thought he was at after-school programs. He also took guns and drug money to school. In the tenth grade, he was caught by metal detectors at Andrew Jackson High School.
In 1994, Jackson was arrested when police searched his home and found heroin, ten ounces of crack cocaine, and a starter gun. He was sentenced to three to nine years in prison, but managed to serve six months in a shock incarceration boot camp where he earned his GED. Jackson said that he did not use cocaine himself, he only sold it. He adopted the nickname "50 Cent" as a metaphor for "change". The name was derived from Kelvin Martin, a 1980s Brooklyn robber known as "50 Cent". Jackson chose the name "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".
1996–2000: Early career
50 Cent started rapping in a friend's basement where he used turntables to record over instrumentals. He amassed a small fortune and a lengthy rap sheet. It was the late Jam Master Jay who took 50 Cent under his wing and taught him the trade. He was introduced to Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC in 1996 through a friend. Jay taught him how to count bars, write choruses, structure songs, and how to make a record. 50 Cent's first official appearance was on a song titled "React" with the group Onyx on their 1998 album “Shut 'em down”. He credited Jam Master Jay as the power who helped him improve his ability to write hooks. Jay produced the first ever album of 50 Cent, unfortunately it was never released.
In 1999, after leaving Jam Master Jay, the platinum-selling producers Trackmasters spotted the great talent hidden in the struggling rapper and signed him for his Columbia Records. He was sent to a studio in New York where he delivered 36 songs in just two weeks. Eighteen of which were included in his unofficially released album, Power of the Dollar in 2000. He also started Hollow Point Entertainment with former G-Unit affiliate Bang 'Em Smurf, which is not in operation anymore.
50’s first underground single:
50 Cent's popularity started to increase after his first underground single, "How to Rob", in which he comically describes robbing celebrity musicians. The landmark of this album was the fact that he wrote it in half an hour while he was on his way to studio in a car.
The track humorously explains how he would rob famous artists. He explained the reasoning behind song's lyrics as, "There are a hundred artists on that label, and you gotta separate yourself from that group and make yourself relevant". Rappers Jay-Z, Big Pun, DMX, and the Wu-Tang Clan criticized the song, whereas Nas took the track positively and invited 50 Cent to travel on a promotional tour for his Nastradamus album. The song was planned to be released with "Thug Love" featuring Destiny's Child, but two days before he was scheduled to film the "Thug Love" music video, 50 Cent was shot and confined to a hospital due to his severe injuries.
2000–2001: Shooting and its impact on 50’s career
On May 24, 2000, 50 Cent was attacked by a gunman outside his grandmother’s previous home in Jamaica, Queens. The suspect was believed to be Darryl Baum (Mike Tyson's close friend and bodyguard). He was walking towards his friend’s car after picking some jewellery from the home when another car pulled up nearby. The attacker then walked up to 50 Cent's left side with a 9mm handgun and fired nine shots at close range. He was shot nine times in the hand, arm, hip, legs, chest, and left cheek. His friend also suffered a gunshot injury to the hand. 50 Cent spent thirteen days in the hospital, and fully recovered after 5 months. The suspected attacker, Darryl Baum, was killed three weeks later.
While in the hospital, 50 Cent signed a publishing deal with Columbia Records. However, he was dropped from the label and was "blacklisted" in the industry after it was discovered he was shot. Striving to build the reputation again, he travelled to Canada accompanied by his business partner Sha Money XL. There he recorded over thirty songs for mixtapes. 50 Cent's got back the lost popularity in 2002, after his independent release “Guess who’s back?”
Rise of 50’s fame:
2002-2004
In 2002, Eminem listened to a copy of 50 Cent's Guess Who's Back? CD. Impressed with the album, Eminem invited 50 Cent to fly to Los Angeles, where he was introduced to Dr. Dre. After signing a one million dollar record deal, 50 Cent released the mixtape “No Mercy, No Fear”. It featured one new track, "Wanksta", which was put on Eminem's 8 Mile soundtracks.
In February 2003, 50 Cent released his commercial debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin'. Allmusic described it as "probably the most hyped debut album by a rap artist in about a decade". It debuted at number one on the Billboard 2003, selling 872,000 copies in the first four days. The lead single, "In da Club", which The Source noted for its "blaring horns, funky organs, guitar riffs and sparse hand claps", broke a Billboard record as the most listened-to song in radio history within a week.
Interscope granted 50 Cent his own label, G-Unit Records in 2003. He signed Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo, and Young Buck as the established members of G-Unit. The Game was later signed under a joint venture with Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment.
2005-2006
In March 2005, 50 Cent's second commercial album, The Massacre, sold 1.14 million copies in the first four days—the highest in an abbreviated sales cycle— and peaked at number one on the Billboard 2005 for six weeks. He became the first solo artist to have three singles on the Billboard top five in the same week with "Candy Shop", "Disco Inferno", and "How We Do". Rolling Stone noted that "50's secret weapon is his singing voice — the deceptively amateur-sounding tenor croon that he deploys on almost every chorus".
He was also signed to Chris Lighty's Violator Management and Sha Money XL's Money Management Group in Bangkok, Thailand, February 26, 2006. After The Game's departure, 50 Cent signed singer Olivia and rap veterans Mobb Deep to G-Unit Records.
2007-2009
In September 2007, he released his third album Curtis, which was inspired by his life before Get Rich or Die Tryin'. It debuted at number two on the Billboard 2007, selling 691,000 units in the first week, behind Kanye West's Graduation, whom he had a sales competition with, as both albums were released on the same day.
Rap star’s fourth coming studio album, Before I Self Destruct, was expected to be released by the end of 2008 but he has been forced to delay the album release because super producer DR. DRE is too busy with EMINEM's record to finish, and until the project is wrapped, 50 Cent has been made to wait. But 50 insist he's not annoyed as he understands how important Eminem's work with his mentor, Dre, is.
He says, "Right now I'm on the train and the Em choo choo car goes first…....”
• Birth Name: Curtis James Jackson III
• Date of Birth: 6 July 1975
• Birth Place: Queens, New York City, New York, USA
• Nickname: Interscope, Fiddy, Boo Boo
• Height: 6' (1.83 m)
• Zodiac Sign: Cancer
• Profession: Rap artist, actor, entrepreneur, executive producer
50 Cent (aka Curtis Jackson) has been declared the hottest thing in hip hop. Growing up on the streets in Jamaica, Queens, 50 Cent was raised without a father, lost his mom at the age of 8. Raised by his grandparents, 50 Cent became victim of the drugs and violence surrounding him.
Jackson began boxing around the age of eleven. At the age of twelve, he began dealing narcotics when his grandparents thought he was at after-school programs. He also took guns and drug money to school. In the tenth grade, he was caught by metal detectors at Andrew Jackson High School.
In 1994, Jackson was arrested when police searched his home and found heroin, ten ounces of crack cocaine, and a starter gun. He was sentenced to three to nine years in prison, but managed to serve six months in a shock incarceration boot camp where he earned his GED. Jackson said that he did not use cocaine himself, he only sold it. He adopted the nickname "50 Cent" as a metaphor for "change". The name was derived from Kelvin Martin, a 1980s Brooklyn robber known as "50 Cent". Jackson chose the name "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".
1996–2000: Early career
50 Cent started rapping in a friend's basement where he used turntables to record over instrumentals. He amassed a small fortune and a lengthy rap sheet. It was the late Jam Master Jay who took 50 Cent under his wing and taught him the trade. He was introduced to Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC in 1996 through a friend. Jay taught him how to count bars, write choruses, structure songs, and how to make a record. 50 Cent's first official appearance was on a song titled "React" with the group Onyx on their 1998 album “Shut 'em down”. He credited Jam Master Jay as the power who helped him improve his ability to write hooks. Jay produced the first ever album of 50 Cent, unfortunately it was never released.
In 1999, after leaving Jam Master Jay, the platinum-selling producers Trackmasters spotted the great talent hidden in the struggling rapper and signed him for his Columbia Records. He was sent to a studio in New York where he delivered 36 songs in just two weeks. Eighteen of which were included in his unofficially released album, Power of the Dollar in 2000. He also started Hollow Point Entertainment with former G-Unit affiliate Bang 'Em Smurf, which is not in operation anymore.
50’s first underground single:
50 Cent's popularity started to increase after his first underground single, "How to Rob", in which he comically describes robbing celebrity musicians. The landmark of this album was the fact that he wrote it in half an hour while he was on his way to studio in a car.
The track humorously explains how he would rob famous artists. He explained the reasoning behind song's lyrics as, "There are a hundred artists on that label, and you gotta separate yourself from that group and make yourself relevant". Rappers Jay-Z, Big Pun, DMX, and the Wu-Tang Clan criticized the song, whereas Nas took the track positively and invited 50 Cent to travel on a promotional tour for his Nastradamus album. The song was planned to be released with "Thug Love" featuring Destiny's Child, but two days before he was scheduled to film the "Thug Love" music video, 50 Cent was shot and confined to a hospital due to his severe injuries.
2000–2001: Shooting and its impact on 50’s career
On May 24, 2000, 50 Cent was attacked by a gunman outside his grandmother’s previous home in Jamaica, Queens. The suspect was believed to be Darryl Baum (Mike Tyson's close friend and bodyguard). He was walking towards his friend’s car after picking some jewellery from the home when another car pulled up nearby. The attacker then walked up to 50 Cent's left side with a 9mm handgun and fired nine shots at close range. He was shot nine times in the hand, arm, hip, legs, chest, and left cheek. His friend also suffered a gunshot injury to the hand. 50 Cent spent thirteen days in the hospital, and fully recovered after 5 months. The suspected attacker, Darryl Baum, was killed three weeks later.
While in the hospital, 50 Cent signed a publishing deal with Columbia Records. However, he was dropped from the label and was "blacklisted" in the industry after it was discovered he was shot. Striving to build the reputation again, he travelled to Canada accompanied by his business partner Sha Money XL. There he recorded over thirty songs for mixtapes. 50 Cent's got back the lost popularity in 2002, after his independent release “Guess who’s back?”
Rise of 50’s fame:
2002-2004
In 2002, Eminem listened to a copy of 50 Cent's Guess Who's Back? CD. Impressed with the album, Eminem invited 50 Cent to fly to Los Angeles, where he was introduced to Dr. Dre. After signing a one million dollar record deal, 50 Cent released the mixtape “No Mercy, No Fear”. It featured one new track, "Wanksta", which was put on Eminem's 8 Mile soundtracks.
In February 2003, 50 Cent released his commercial debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin'. Allmusic described it as "probably the most hyped debut album by a rap artist in about a decade". It debuted at number one on the Billboard 2003, selling 872,000 copies in the first four days. The lead single, "In da Club", which The Source noted for its "blaring horns, funky organs, guitar riffs and sparse hand claps", broke a Billboard record as the most listened-to song in radio history within a week.
Interscope granted 50 Cent his own label, G-Unit Records in 2003. He signed Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo, and Young Buck as the established members of G-Unit. The Game was later signed under a joint venture with Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment.
2005-2006
In March 2005, 50 Cent's second commercial album, The Massacre, sold 1.14 million copies in the first four days—the highest in an abbreviated sales cycle— and peaked at number one on the Billboard 2005 for six weeks. He became the first solo artist to have three singles on the Billboard top five in the same week with "Candy Shop", "Disco Inferno", and "How We Do". Rolling Stone noted that "50's secret weapon is his singing voice — the deceptively amateur-sounding tenor croon that he deploys on almost every chorus".
He was also signed to Chris Lighty's Violator Management and Sha Money XL's Money Management Group in Bangkok, Thailand, February 26, 2006. After The Game's departure, 50 Cent signed singer Olivia and rap veterans Mobb Deep to G-Unit Records.
2007-2009
In September 2007, he released his third album Curtis, which was inspired by his life before Get Rich or Die Tryin'. It debuted at number two on the Billboard 2007, selling 691,000 units in the first week, behind Kanye West's Graduation, whom he had a sales competition with, as both albums were released on the same day.
Rap star’s fourth coming studio album, Before I Self Destruct, was expected to be released by the end of 2008 but he has been forced to delay the album release because super producer DR. DRE is too busy with EMINEM's record to finish, and until the project is wrapped, 50 Cent has been made to wait. But 50 insist he's not annoyed as he understands how important Eminem's work with his mentor, Dre, is.
He says, "Right now I'm on the train and the Em choo choo car goes first…....”