50 Cent

Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, television producer, and businessman.

The name was inspired by Kelvin Martin, 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."

Jackson began rapping in a friend's basement, where he used turntables to record over instrumentals.

On June 29, 1994, Jackson was arrested for selling 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 starting pistol.

Although Jackson was sentenced to three to nine years in prison, he served six months in a boot camp and earned his GED.

He has said that he did not use cocaine himself.

Jackson adopted the nickname "50 Cent" as a metaphor for change.

Born in South Jamaica, a neighborhood of Queens, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 1996.

In 1996, a friend introduced him to Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC, who was establishing Jam Master Jay Records.

Jay taught him how to count bars, write choruses, structure songs, and make records.

Jackson's first appearance was on "React" with Onyx, for their 1998 album Shut 'Em Down.

He credited Jam Master Jay for improving his ability to write hooks, and Jay produced Jackson's first (unreleased) album.

In 1999, after Jackson left Jam Master Jay, the platinum-selling producers Trackmasters signed him to Columbia Records.

In early 2000, he recorded his "debut" album Power of the Dollar for Columbia Records, however he was struck by nine bullets during a shooting in May of that year, causing its release to be cancelled and Jackson to be dropped from the label.

Rolling Stone ranked Get Rich or Die Tryin' and "In da Club" in its lists of the "100 Best Albums of the 2000s" and "100 Best Songs of the 2000s" at numbers 37 and 13, respectively.

Jackson was born in the borough of Queens, New York City, and raised in its South Jamaica neighborhood by his mother Sabrina.

Sabrina, a drug dealer, raised Jackson until she died in a fire when Jackson was eight years old.

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 grandparents.

He began boxing at about age 11, and when he was 14, a neighbor opened a boxing gym for local youth.

"When I wasn't killing time in school, I was sparring in the gym or selling crack on the strip," Jackson remembered.

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."

At age 12, Jackson began dealing narcotics 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 metal detectors at Andrew Jackson High School: "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.'"

They sent him to an upstate New York studio, where he produced 36 songs in two weeks; 18 were included on his 2000 album, Power of the Dollar.

Jackson founded Hollow Point Entertainment with former G-Unit member Bang 'Em Smurf.

Jackson's popularity began to grow after the successful, controversial underground single "How to Rob", which he wrote in a half-hour car ride to a studio.

The track comically describes how he would rob famous artists.

In 2002, Jackson released the mixtape Guess Who's Back?, and was thereafter discovered by Eminem and signed to his label Shady Records, an imprint of Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records.

His first major-label album, Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2003) was released to critical acclaim and commercial success, peaking atop the Billboard 200.

The album spawned the Billboard Hot 100-number one singles "In da Club" and "21 Questions" (featuring Nate Dogg), and received nonuple platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

That same year, he launched his own label G-Unit Records, namesake of a hip hop group he formed two years prior; the label's initial signees were its members, fellow East Coast rappers Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo.

His second album, The Massacre (2005) was met with similar success and was supported by his third number-one single, "Candy Shop" (featuring Olivia).

As an actor, Jackson appeared in the semi-autobiographical film Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005), the war film Home of the Brave (2006), and the crime thriller film Righteous Kill (2008).

Billboard ranked 50 Cent as the 17th best rapper of all time on their "50 Greatest Rappers" list (2023); and named him the sixth top artist of the 2000s decade.

He adopted a lighter, further commercially-oriented approach for his third and fourth albums, Curtis (2007) and Before I Self Destruct (2009)—both were met with critical and commercial declines—and aimed for a return to his roots with his fifth album, Animal Ambition (2014).

He has since focused on his career in television and media, having executive-produced and starred in the television series Power (2014–2020), as well as its numerous spin-offs under his company G-Unit Films and Television Inc.

Jackson has sold over 30 million albums worldwide and won several awards, including a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, thirteen Billboard Music Awards, six World Music Awards, three American Music Awards and four BET Awards.