50 Fun Facts About 50 Cent

Which rapper heard 50 Cent's 2002 mixtape Guess Who's Back, invited him to Los Angeles and signed him?

Eminem got the mixtape from 50 Cent's attorney and signed him in a deal worth $1 million. It had been recorded in Canada because American studios would not work with him.

What is the birth name of the rapper 50 Cent, whose third studio album bears his first name?

Curtis Jackson was born in 1975 and raised by his grandparents after his mother died in a fire when he was eight years old.

In which New York City borough was 50 Cent born and raised, in the neighborhood of South Jamaica?

Queens left a permanent mark on him: he has the word Southside tattooed across his back, and says it sits there because all of that is behind him.

Which lead single from 50 Cent's debut album topped the Billboard Hot 100 for nine consecutive weeks?

In da Club was first offered to the group D12 for the 8 Mile soundtrack, but they passed on the beat because they did not know how to approach it.

50 Cent reportedly earned about $100 million when Coca-Cola bought the maker of which drink he endorsed?

Vitaminwater's maker gave him a minority stake in exchange for becoming its spokesperson, and he helped create a grape flavor named Formula 50.

Which record label dropped 50 Cent in 2000 after he survived being shot nine times?

Columbia Records shelved his finished debut album, Power of the Dollar, and the full album has never had an official release.

Which rival's 2018 concert did 50 Cent prank by buying 200 front-row tickets and leaving them empty?

Ja Rule had been feuding with him since before 50 Cent signed with Interscope. The discounted tickets for the Texas show cost about $3,000 in total.

Which fast-food chain did 50 Cent sue in 2008 after an ad campaign invited him to rename himself 79 Cent?

Taco Bell had offered $10,000 to a charity of his choice if he took the new name for a day. The case was settled out of court in his favor in 2009.

Which former heavyweight champion once owned the Connecticut mansion that 50 Cent bought in 2003?

Mike Tyson's old estate proved hard to sell on: 50 Cent listed it for $18.5 million in 2007 and finally let it go in 2019 for $2.9 million.

Which character did 50 Cent play in the crime drama Power, a series he also executive-produced?

Kanan Stark later got a prequel of his own: Power Book III: Raising Kanan follows the character's early years in the 1990s.

Which 50 Cent single featuring the singer Olivia became his third number one on the Billboard Hot 100?

Candy Shop sat at number one while Hate It or Love It, a song he also rapped on, was stuck right behind it at number two.

50 Cent's third album lost a much-publicized same-day sales battle in 2007 to which Kanye West album?

Graduation sold 957,000 copies in its first week to his 691,000. 50 Cent had claimed he would stop releasing solo albums if he lost, then took it back.

Which producer executive-produced 50 Cent's album Get Rich or Die Tryin' and co-wrote its lead single?

Dr. Dre built the lead single's beat about six months before its release, as one of five productions grown from the same drum programming.

Which 50 Cent album sold more than a million copies in its first four days in 2005?

The Massacre was first announced under a longer title naming St. Valentine's Day, after the 1929 Chicago gang killings, with a mid-February release planned to match.

Which award did 50 Cent win for his surprise appearance in the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show?

A Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) went to the performance, the first time a Super Bowl halftime show had won that category.

Which premium cable network aired the 50 Cent crime dramas Power and BMF and their spin-offs?

Starz launched Power in 2014 and kept it for six seasons, by which time it was one of the network's highest-rated shows.

The stage name 50 Cent came from Kelvin Martin, a man known in 1980s New York as what?

A robber said to hold up anyone, however little they carried, Martin died in 1987. The rapper says he took the name as a metaphor for change.

Which 50 Cent single with guest vocals from Nate Dogg became his second straight Hot 100 number one?

21 Questions nearly missed the album: his producer argued that a tender love song did not fit a gangsta image, and 50 Cent replied that he had always been two people.

Which 50 Cent single reached number three on the Hot 100 and got a remix featuring Snoop Dogg and G-Unit?

P.I.M.P. was produced by Mr. Porter of D12, who has suggested that 50 Cent picked the steelpan beat believing a more famous producer had made it.

Which Compton rapper's hit Hate It or Love It featured 50 Cent shortly before the two fell out publicly?

The Game was dismissed from G-Unit on the radio station Hot 97, and the pair went on trading diss tracks for more than a decade before making peace in 2016.

Which hip-hop DJ signed an unknown 50 Cent to his own label and taught him to write choruses?

Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC also produced his first album, which never came out. The rapper credits him with sharpening his knack for writing hooks.

Which Nashville rapper left Juvenile's UTP collective to join 50 Cent's group G-Unit in 2003?

Young Buck titled his solo debut Straight Outta Cashville, a nickname for his hometown modeled on the name of an N.W.A classic.

Which debut album did 50 Cent's group G-Unit release nine months after his own Get Rich or Die Tryin'?

Beg for Mercy was made largely without founding member Tony Yayo, who was in prison at the time and appears on only two of its songs.

Which sportswear company signed 50 Cent to a five-year deal to distribute his G-Unit Sneakers line?

Reebok's G-Unit shoes arrived in the same year as a clothing line that he built with Marc Ecko, the founder of Ecko Unltd.

Which controversial 1999 underground single raised 50 Cent's profile and drew replies from Jay-Z and other rappers?

How to Rob was written during a half-hour car ride to the studio, and even the song's own producers, the Trackmasters, are on its list of targets.

Which 50 Cent track has a music video about his 2000 shooting, with two CSI: Miami stars playing detectives?

Many Men was only ever issued as a promotional single, yet later rappers keep returning to it: Metro Boomin and 21 Savage sampled it for a 2020 track of the same name.

Magic Stick, a number-two hit featuring 50 Cent, was meant for his own album before going to which rapper?

Lil' Kim kept the song because she did not send it back before the deadline for his album, so he let her use it on her own record, La Bella Mafia.

Which singer is the featured guest on 50 Cent's 2007 top-five single Ayo Technology, produced by Timbaland?

Justin Timberlake appeared on a song that was renamed three times in 2007, briefly going by She Wants It before an earlier title was restored.

Which product did 50 Cent start selling under the name Street by 50, pledging a share of sales to charity?

Headphones also cost him dearly in court: a former partner accused him of taking the design of his earlier Sleek by 50 line and was awarded more than $17 million.

50 Cent had the best-selling US album of 2003 yet lost the Best New Artist Grammy to which rock band?

Evanescence took the award at the 2004 ceremony, where 50 Cent went home empty-handed despite five nominations across the rap categories and Best New Artist.

50 Cent appears in the 2008 thriller Righteous Kill, whose two leads are Al Pacino and which other actor?

Robert De Niro and Pacino play New York detectives hunting a serial killer. It was only the third film in which both men had starring roles.

50 Cent co-stars in Escape Plan, the 2013 thriller that first paired Arnold Schwarzenegger with which co-lead?

Sylvester Stallone plays a security tester locked inside the world's most secure prison. 50 Cent later joined him again in the cast of Expend4bles.

Which actor plays the sheriff's detective hunting 50 Cent's heist crew in the 2018 thriller Den of Thieves?

Gerard Butler returned for the 2025 sequel, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, on which 50 Cent served as an executive producer.

BMF, the crime drama 50 Cent produced about the Flenory brothers' drug empire, opens in which city?

Detroit is where the real brothers, nicknamed Big Meech and Southwest T, started out in the late 1980s. 50 Cent also performs the show's theme song, Wish Me Luck.

50 Cent executive-produced Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon, the posthumous debut album of which rapper?

Pop Smoke was killed in February 2020, and 50 Cent finished the record for him by calling the featured artists and taking care of the deadlines.

Which author of The 48 Laws of Power co-wrote the bestselling strategy book The 50th Law with 50 Cent?

Robert Greene has said he was struck by the rapper's Zen-like calmness. Their book sets stories from his past beside lessons from figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Sun Tzu.

In which 2009 shooter does 50 Cent fight to recover a stolen diamond-encrusted skull?

Blood on the Sand has the skull handed over as payment for a concert and then stolen. It grew out of a cancelled project that was reworked to be less serious.

Which 2009 chart-topping collaboration earned 50 Cent his first Grammy, in a rap duo or group category?

Crack a Bottle leapt to number one on the strength of 418,000 downloads in a week, a first-week record that was beaten only seven days later.

With which boxing champion did 50 Cent co-found the promotion company The Money Team in 2012?

Floyd Mayweather and the rapper parted company within months, and 50 Cent carried on alone as SMS Promotions with fighters including Yuriorkis Gamboa.

Which English singer-songwriter featured 50 Cent on Remember the Name, from his 2019 collaborations album?

Ed Sheeran's track borrows from the Outkast single So Fresh, So Clean, which is why André 3000 and Big Boi appear among its credited writers.

To which Texas city did 50 Cent move in 2021, reportedly drawn in part by the state's lack of income tax?

Houston also got a classroom project out of the move: he partnered with the city's school district to teach high-school students business skills.

After a 1994 drug conviction, 50 Cent avoided a long prison term by serving six months in what?

A boot camp took the place of prison, and he earned his high-school equivalency diploma while he was there.

Which spirit is sold under 50 Cent's Branson brand, although the rapper himself does not drink alcohol?

Cognac is one of several drinks ventures for a man who stays teetotal, a choice he puts down to one bad experience with alcohol.

50 Cent made his first recorded appearance in 1998 on React, a song from which group's album Shut 'Em Down?

Onyx member Sticky Fingaz was named a year later among the stars 50 Cent joked about holding up on his breakthrough underground single.

Which former writer for The Good Wife created the crime drama Power, with 50 Cent as an executive producer?

Courtney A. Kemp was reading college textbooks at the age of eight and first hoped to become a journalist before she turned to television.

Which Irish director of My Left Foot made Get Rich or Die Tryin', the 2005 film that was 50 Cent's acting debut?

Jim Sheridan shot the film under the working title Locked and Loaded, using the earlier rap drama 8 Mile as a template.

Which 50 Cent single served as the theme song of his 2005 film Get Rich or Die Tryin'?

Window Shopper has a video set in Monaco and Cannes, where he and his friends buy $400 cheeseburgers and a $1.5 million Maserati.

Which 50 Cent album, his first after leaving Interscope, had every standard track released as a single?

Animal Ambition took prosperity as its theme and reached number four on the Billboard 200, his fifth top-five album in a row.

Which R&B singer performs the hook on Baby by Me, the lead single from 50 Cent's fourth album?

Ne-Yo replaced a little-known singer on the chorus, and the hook itself is built from a sample of an earlier 50 Cent single, I Get Money.

Which veteran rap duo, known for the single Shook Ones, did 50 Cent sign to his label G-Unit Records?

Mobb Deep soon appeared on the soundtrack of his 2005 film with the rest of the G-Unit roster, though like his other outside signings they eventually left the label.