Image via Complex Original
Ask your grandmother what she knows about 50 Cent, and she'll sing you the lyrics to "I Whip Ya Head Boy" tell you he got shot nine times. Ask your mother about him, and she'll tell you that he was a drug dealer. Ask your older brother, and he'll wax poetic about how 50 has less compassion than a puppy euthanizer, and he'll go on and on about how 50 destroyed Ja Rule's career, made a gazillion dollars off of Vitaminwater...and then bring up the fact he got shot nine times.
Few rappers have done a better job selling—and let's be honest, mythologizing—their life story than Curtis Jackson. That narrative certainly helped make his classic debut, Get Rich Or Die Tryin', the commercial smash it was when it topped the charts 10 years ago, today. The G-Unit general is one of the grittiest pop stars ever. One full decade later, a sizable portion of his life story has become hip-hop folklore—something even casual rap fans are well aware of. But there's a lot about 50 people overlook and flat-out don't know.
We did some digging, and came up with these: the 50 Things You Didn't Know About 50 Cent.
This is 50.
Written by Insanul Ahmed (@Incilin)
RELATED: 50 Things You Didn't Know About Nas
Shady Records A&R Riggs Morales got Eminem into 50 Cent's music by getting his driver/security guard to play 50
According to Tony Yayo, Kanye West was in the studio when 50 recorded "Heat" and "P.I.M.P."
[via Youtube]
50 shot someone with a .380 six-shot pistol when he was in junior high school after a group of kids attempted to ro
[Via Jake Brown's No Holds Barred]
He was sued by the orthopedic surgeon who cared for him after his shooting for stiffing him for $32,000 in medical bills.
[via The Smoking Gun]
D12 originally had the beat for "In Da Club" but passed on it because they didn't know what to do with it.
[via MTV]
According to 50, Reebok opted to do a 50 Cent and Jay-Z shoe line after they lost the bid for LeBron James to Nike.
[via Youtube]
He became the first solo artist to have three singles in the Billboard top five in the same week with "Candy Shop," "Disco Inferno," and "How We Do."
[via MTV]
Fat Joe originally had the beat for "Candy Shop" and claims he helped produce it with Scott Storch but he passed on it.
[via ContactMusic]
He ran into Jay-Z backstage at Summer Jam right after "How To Rob" dropped. Jay-Z told him that he'd respond and went on stage and spit his infamous "I'm about a dollar" line.
He used to play a clip of Jay-Z's infamous "I'm about a dollar what the f**k is 50 Cent?" line when opening his shows.
[via Complex]
According to both Sha Money XL and Aftermath A&R Angelo Sanders, 50 laid the hook to Game's "Church For Thugs" (which Game later re-recorded) in the basement of Jimmy Iovine's house. Thus Game's G-Unit relationship was born.
[via Complex]
He admitted to once considered murdering mentor Jam Master Jay instead of paying JMJ the $50,000 he was owed when 50 signed to Columbia. He was quoted saying, "I'm thinking it's cheaper to kill him. I give a ni**a 10 cent, blow his f**kin' head off." He later expressed regret over those thoughts.
[via XXL]
"How To Rob" originally had shots at Nas and Mariah Carey but was removed at Trackmasters' insistence.
[via Complex]
When he met Tech N9ne, he told Tech, "I bought Mike Tyson's mansion off of one song, 'In Da Club.'"
[via Complex]
The original title of "Ayo Technology" was "Ayo Pornography," but Interscope asked to have the title changed.
[via Rolling Stone]
His beef with Ja Rule stems from an Onyx video shoot where Ja Rule's chain was robbed.
His mother was murdered in 1983 after someone drugged her drink, closed the windows, and turned on the gas.
[via NCB1979]
He started boxing at age 11.
He used to sell coke to his own aunts and uncles who didn't know he was a dealer. He told them he'd get the drugs from his friend.
[via XXL]
"Ghetto Qu'ran" was only recorded after 50's then manager Chaz "Slim" Williams gave the approval. 50 and Slim later
[via Complex]
He wrote "How To Rob" in 30 minutes while in a car on the way to his studio.
[via XXL]
After dissing 50 on Supreme Clientele because of "How To Rob," Ghostface called up Hot 97 while 50 and G-Unit were on Angie Martinez's show and they squashed their beef on the air.
He was shot two days before he was supposed to shoot the "Thug Love" video with Destiny's Child.
[via DubCNN]
Prince Markie Dee of the Fat Boys tried to give 50 the fade when he played his music for him and Cory Rooney, Sr. V
[via XXL]
Benzino was at the Hit Factory for an unrelated session the night that 50 was stabbed by Murder Inc. associates and helped the injured rapper escape the melee.
[via Hip Hop Elements]
After he recorded his verse for his first Eminem collaboration, "Love Me," 50 declared, "That white boy just saved
[via Vibe]
50 signed to Shady/Aftermath for $1 million despite other labels offering him larger advances.
[via MTV]
His manager Sha Money XL ended up being his engineer during the mixtape days because they couldn't afford a real en
[via Complex]
He wrote most of Get Rich in the long car rides to Sha Money XL's studio in Westbury.
In November 2009, 50 Cent won in a lawsuit against Taco Bell over the fast food chain using his name to promote the brand without his permission.
[via New York Post]
He was sued for copyright infringement in 2006 for allegedly stealing his opening lines on "In Da Club" from Uncle
[via CBS]
According to Game, Dr. Dre initially made the "Higher" beat for 50, but 50 passed on it.
[via Complex]
Scott Boogie was credited as the producer of "I Get Money" until it was discovered that he actually stole the beat from Apex.
[via HHDX]
When Mobb Deep signed to G-Unit, he gave Prodigy and Havoc each Porsches as signing bonuses.
[via My Infamous Life: The Autobiography of Mobb Deep's Prodigy]
He got into a "shoving match" with Game before the release of Game's Documentary; the fight was the source of their tension.
[via NCB1979]
In December 2008, he admitted to losing millions of dollars in the stock market as an investor because of the finanical downturn.
[via HHDX]
According to Tony Yayo, Busta Rhymes and Rakim both tried and failed to rhyme over the beat for "Heat" before 50 came in and killed it.
[via Youtube]
He recorded "P.I.M.P. Pt. II" for The Massacre but deleted the song because Dr. Dre didn't like it.
[via Vibe]
During the Roc The Mic tour, 50 and Jay were friendly; 50 would kick it with Jay in his dressing room.
[via Complex]
He told Howard Stern that he broke up with Vivica A. Fox because he felt her publicist was interfering too much in
[via Youtube]
Eminem once gave him an original drawing of the Get Rich or Die Tryin' cover for his birthday.
[via Vibe]