Biography

Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6 , 1975 ) is an American rapper commonly known by his stage name 50 Cent . He rose to fame following the success of his albums Get Rich or Die Tryin' and The Massacre . 50 Cent achieved multi- platinum success with both albums, selling over 21 million records worldwide.

Born in South Jamaica, Queens in New York , 50 Cent began drug dealing at an early age during the 1980s' crack epidemic . After leaving drug dealing in favor of pursuing a career as a rap artist, 50 Cent was shot several times in 2000. After the release of 50 Cent's mixtape compilation Guess Who's Back? in 2002, 50 Cent was discovered by rapper Eminem and signed to Interscope Records . With the help of Eminem and Dr. Dre —who produced his first major commercial successes—he became one of the most successful rap artists in the world. He is also the founder of the highly successful record label G-Unit Records . He currently resides in Farmington, Connecticut , in the former mansion of boxer Mike Tyson . 50 Cent is planning to release two solo albums by February 2008.

Early Life

50 Cent, born Curtis James Jackson III, grew up in the South Jamaica neighborhood of Queens in New York City . He grew up without a father and was raised by his mother Sabrina Jackson, who gave birth to him at the age of fifteen. Sabrina, who was a cocaine dealer, raised Jackson until the age of eight, when she was murdered. At the age of twenty-three, she became unconscious after someone drugged her drink . She was then left for dead after the gas in her apartment was turned on and the windows shut closed. After her death, Jackson moved into his grandparents house with his eight aunts and uncles. He recalls, "My grandmother told me, 'Your mother's not coming home. She's not gonna come back to pick you up. You're gonna stay with us now.' That's when I started adjusting to the streets a little bit." Jackson grew up with his younger cousin, Michael Francis, who earned the nickname "25 Cent" in reference to his being Jackson's younger counterpart. Francis currently raps under the stage name "Two Five".

Jackson began boxing around the age of eleven. In the early 1980s, he competed in the Junior Olympics as an amateur boxer . He aspired to fight in the Golden Gloves boxing tournament but was too young to compete. Jackson recounts, "I was competitive in the ring and hip-hop is competitive too. In so many ways they're similar. I think rappers condition themselves like boxers, so they all kind of feel like they're the champ."

When Jackson was twelve years old, he was dealing narcotics . He commented that selling drugs was "easy" since much of people he knew when he was young did so. Jackson regularly hid cocaine from his grandmother and took guns and drug money to school. In the tenth grade, he was eventually caught by metal detectors at Andrew Jackson High School. He later stated, "I was embarrassed that I got arrested like that. That's the worst way to get arrested. 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 helping to sell 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 starter gun. He was sentenced to three to nine years in prison but managed to serve seven months in a Shock Incarceration boot camp , where he earned his GED . Jackson said that he didn't use cocaine himself and only sold it.

Jackson adapted the nickname "50 Cent" as a metaphor for "change". The name was derived from Kelvin Martin , a Brooklyn criminal in the 1980s who was known as "50 Cent". Jackson said: "I took the name 50 Cent 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."

Early Career

In 1996, a friend introduced 50 Cent to Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC who was organizing his label. It was the first time 50 Cent had entered a studio. Jay taught him how to count bars, write choruses, structure songs, and make a record. In 1997, 50 Cent's girlfriend Shaniqua Tompkins gave birth to a son, Marquise Jackson. He said: "Me being an artist on the music front came from my son actually. He was motivation to go in a different direction." 50 Cent's first official appearance on a song was "React" with the group Onyx on their 1998 album Shut 'Em Down. He credited Jam Master Jay as an influence who helped him improve his ability to write hooks. Jay produced 50 Cent's first album, however it was never released. In 1999, after leaving Jam Master Jay, the platinum selling producers Trackmasters took notice of 50 Cent and signed him to Columbia Records. They sent him to a studio in Upstate New York, where he produced thirty-six songs in two and a half weeks. Eighteen were included on his unofficially released album, Power of the Dollar in 2000. 50 Cent's popularity started to increase after the successful but controversial underground single "How to Rob", which he wrote in half an hour while in a car on the way to a studio. The track comically describes how he would rob many famous artists. He explains the reasoning behind song's content as, "There’s a hundred artists on that label, you gotta separate yourself from that group and make yourself relevant." Offended by the record, Jay-Z, Big Pun, DMX, and the Wu-Tang Clan later replied to the song. Following the release of the single, Nas invited 50 Cent to travel on a promotional tour for his Nastradamus album. The track was intended to be released with "Thug Love" featuring Destiny's Child but two days before he was scheduled to film the "Thug Love" video, 50 Cent was shot and had to be confined to a hospital due to his injuries. The next single, "Ghetto Qu'ran" dealt with the history of the drug trade in Queens, mentioning the names of many who were in the business during the 1980s.

Shooting

On May 24, 2000, 50 Cent was attacked by a gunman outside his grandmother's house. He went into a friend's car but was asked to return to the house to get jewelry. His son was in the house while his grandmother was in the front yard. Upon returning to the back seat of the car, a car pulled up nearby. An assailant then walked up to 50 Cent's left side with a 9 mm handgun and fired nine shots at close range. He was shot nine times—in the hand (a round hit his right thumb and came out of his pinky), arm, hip, legs, chest, and left cheek. The latter wound shaved a chunk off his gums, left a hole between the top and bottom rows of his teeth, and resulted in a small but a permanent slur in his voice. His friend also sustained a gunshot wound to the hand. They were driven to hospital where he spent thirteen days in recovery. The alleged shooter was killed three weeks later. 50 Cent recalled the incident saying, "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 memoir, 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." The recovery process took five months, and he used a walker for the first six weeks. His physical workout regimen helped attain his muscular physique. Following the shooting, 50 Cent was "blacklisted" in the recording industry and dropped from Columbia Records. Unable to find a studio to work with in the U.S, he traveled to Canada. Along with his business partner Sha Money XL, he recorded over thirty songs for mixtapes, with the purpose of building a reputation. 50 Cent's popularity rose and in early 2001, he released material independently on the mixtape, Guess Who's Back?. Beginning to attract interest, and now backed by G-Unit, 50 Cent continued to make songs. They released the mixtape 50 Cent Is the Future, revisiting material by Jay-Z and Raphael Saadiq.

Rise to fame

In 2002, Eminem listened to a copy of 50 Cent's Guess Who's Back? CD. He received the CD through 50 Cent's attorney, who was working with Eminem's manager Paul Rosenberg. Impressed with the album, Eminem invited 50 Cent to fly to Los Angeles, where the two of them and Dr. Dre met. After being signed to a one million dollar record deal, 50 Cent released another bootleg of borrowed beats, No Mercy, No Fear. The CD featured one new track "Wanksta", which was put on Eminem's 8 Mile soundtrack. On February 6, 2003, 50 Cent's commercial debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin' was released. All Music Guide called it "the most hyped debut album by a rap artist in about a decade." Rolling Stone noted the album for its "dark synth grooves, buzzy keyboards and a persistently funky bounce" with 50 Cent complementing the production in "an unflappable, laid-back flow." 872,000 copies were sold in the first four days. It was certified gold in its first week, platinum the following week, and was eventually certified six times platinum by the RIAA. The debut 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. G-Unit Records Logo G-Unit Records Logo Interscope then granted 50 Cent his own label, G-Unit Records. He appointed his manager Sha Money XL as the president. The label signed Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo, and Young Buck as the established members of G-Unit. Dr. Dre and 50 Cent signed The Game under a joint venture. On March 3, 2005, 50 Cent's second commercial album, The Massacre was released. 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." After the departure of The Game, 50 Cent signed singer Olivia and rap veterans Mobb Deep to G-Unit Records. Spider Loc, M.O.P., and Young Hot Rod joined G-Unit after the signing of Mobb Deep. 50 Cent has expressed interest in working with other rappers outside of G-Unit, such as Lil' Scrappy of BME, LL Cool J from Def Jam, Mase from Bad Boy, and Freeway of Roc-A-Fella Records, some of whom he has now recorded with.

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