50 Cent

By the time he was 25 years old, American rapper, actor, author, producer, and entrepreneur 50 Cent had survived a hardscrabble upbringing, an attempt on his life, and the loss of a big-label record deal. By the time he turned 30, however, he had become a major hip-hop star and one of the most financially successful rappers of all time. Combining the production wizardry of fellow hip-hop artists Eminem and Dr. Dre with gritty lyrics ripped from his own compelling backstory, 50 Cent released the mega-selling album Get Rich or Die Tryin’ in 2003. Soon he branched out to build a business empire, all the while releasing more albums, writing books, and producing films and television series.

50 Cent was born Curtis James Jackson III on July 6, 1975, and was raised in the South Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, New York. His mother, Sabrina Jackson, was a single parent who supported him by working as a drug dealer. She was murdered when Curtis was eight years old (the identity of her killer is unknown). After her death he lived with his maternal grandparents, though he soon began following in his mother’s footsteps; by the age of 12 he was dealing drugs, while telling his grandparents he was at an after-school program.

At age 24 Jackson was shot nine times in an altercation outside his grandmother’s house. By this time he was making music and marketing himself as 50 Cent. (He took the moniker from a deceased Brooklyn gangster; he also thought it was an easy name for people to remember.) The shooting incident spurred Columbia Records to drop him from a record deal and shelve his first album, Power of the Dollar. Two years later 50 Cent was leading an underground hardcore rap collective called G-Unit. He memorialized the shooting in “U Not Like Me,” a track on his mixtape compilation, Guess Who’s Back? (2002): “A shell hit my jaw, I ain’t wait for doc to get it out / Hit my wisdom tooth, I (Huck-too) spit it out.” Guess Who’s Back? sold more than 300,000 copies in the United States. More consequentially, it attracted the attention of Eminem and Dr. Dre.

Superstardom with Get Rich or Die Tryin’

In 2002, 50 Cent signed with Shady Records and Aftermath Entertainment, both subsidiary labels of Interscope Records helmed by Eminem and Dre, respectively. With the two rap stars serving as executive producers, 50 Cent released his first full album, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, which sold 6 million copies within a year and became the best-selling album of 2003. It spawned several hit singles, the biggest of which was “In Da Club,” a dance song that topped the Billboard Hot 100 for nine weeks. Get Rich or Die Tryin’ earned 50 Cent five Grammy Award nominations, including best new artist and best rap album.

Memories of his drug-dealing lifestyle pervaded his lyrics and were a key draw. “In hip-hop, people are looking for the damage,” 50 Cent told The Guardian in 2020. “They can see the experience, the story, why you are where you are.” Another factor in the album’s success was its musical finesse. As Pitchfork noted, “The bounce on ‘In Da Club’ is straight-up irresistible.” In 2005 50 Cent adapted the album—and his life—into a movie of the same name, in which he plays a fictionalized version of himself.

Criticism of lyrics and rap feuds

As his fame grew, 50 Cent drew criticism for the portrayal of women in his lyrics and videos, leading some to argue that songs such as “P.I.M.P.” perpetuate misogynistic themes in hip-hop. Though 50 Cent has acknowledged that his lyrics can be misogynistic, he also has said that they reflect the real world. In 2020 he told The Guardian, “Are you going to tell a painter what to paint? I’m an artist. Why am I limited to what you feel should be said? In film and television, they will show art imitates life. Are you not aware of those situations taking place?”

50 Cent also clashed with fellow rappers. Among those he traded barbs and diss tracks with were Ja Rule, Nas, and Sean (“Diddy”) Combs. In 2005 50 Cent feuded with The Game after the latter was kicked out of the G-Unit. Their beef escalated to a shooting outside of a radio station in New York City where 50 Cent was being interviewed about his issues with The Game. Associates of the rappers were blamed for the incident. The two men then called a truce during a press conference held on the anniversary of The Notorious B.I.G.’s death. (In 1997 The Notorious B.I.G. was killed in a similar rap-rivalry shooting.)

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Other music releases

Meanwhile, 50 Cent released a steady stream of albums through Interscope, including the video album and accompanying documentary The New Breed (2003), The Massacre (2005), and Curtis (2007). The latter album was the first since Get Rich or Die Tryin’ to not go platinum. His next release, Before I Self Destruct (2009), also failed to sell a million copies. Later that year Interview magazine asked him, “Do you know what you’re worth today? I’ve read that it’s somewhere in the area of $400 million.” 50 Cent responded, “I’m not sure, but that sounds great.” (He also seemed unsure of how many copies Curtis had sold, saying, “I’ve never had an album that sold just a million records. I’d be devastated if I sold one million records.”)

During this run of releases, he earned several more Grammy nominations. In 2010 he won the Grammy for best rap performance by a duo or group for “Crack a Bottle,” a collaboration with Eminem and Dr. Dre that reached number one on the charts in 2009.

In 2014 50 Cent parted ways with Interscope. That year he signed a distribution deal with Caroline Records and released his next album, Animal Ambition: An Untamed Desire to Win, through his G-Unit label.

Acting, writing, and producing projects

Between music releases 50 Cent worked to diversify his career, producing and acting in the television series Power (2014–20) and expanding the G-Unit brand to introduce lines of clothing, sneakers, and perfume.

50 Cent’s other acting credits include the films Home of the Brave (2006), 13 (2010), Southpaw (2015), Den of Thieves (2018), The Expendables 4 (2023), and Boneyard (2024). He has served as executive producer of numerous TV series, such as Hip Hop Homicides (2022) and BMF (2021–25).

50 Cent has also published the autobiographical books From Pieces to Weight: Once Upon a Time in Southside Queens (2005; written with Kris Ex), The 50th Law: Overcoming Adversity Through Fearlessness (2009; with Robert Greene), and Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter (2020) as well as several crime novels and thrillers, including Death Before Dishonor (2007; with Nikki Turner), Blow (2007; with K’wan), and The Accomplice (2024; with Aaron Philip Clark).

In 2025 he produced Sean Combs: The Reckoning, a Netflix docuseries about his longtime nemesis, who was sentenced earlier in the year to 50 months in prison for charges involving prostitution. Combs’s sentence came after a high-profile criminal trial in which several women claimed that he had subjected them to years of physical abuse, sexual assault, and sex trafficking. Although Combs called the series “a shameful hit piece,” 50 Cent defended his decision to produce the project, telling ABC News, “If I didn’t say anything, you would interpret it as hip-hop is fine with his behaviors. There’s no one else being vocal.”