News of the

The Man On A Mission For Success

50 Cent aka Curtis Jackson has lived a life that is truly a rags to riches story. He really moved up from one extreme to another. Early in life he was caught up in a world of real life thugs and gangsters which led to his infamous story of being shot many times. However he turned that life story into a recording success. He took the “Gangsta Rap” scene by storm in 2003 with his debut album “Get Rich or Die Tryin.” From there he grew to become the first rapper to have two albums go Diamond (10 million sold) and he branched out into the world of acting and investing and is a true “Self-made” multi-millionaire. 50 Cent, was born Curtis Jackson in 1975. He was born and raised in Queens, NY. His early life was not an easy one. His mother, a drug dealer, died when he was 8 years old and he went on to start selling drugs at the young age of 12. His bad luck continued at age 19 when he was arrested by an undercover police officer. He was initially given a 3-9 year sentence for his crimes, but instead was able to serve 7 months in a “shock” boot camp. He proceeded to get his GED and make a change in his life. But it was not easy. When 50 Cent first rolled out onto the scene his success was not guaranteed, as a matter of fact, he had two record deals fall through. The first was with Jam Master Jay from Run DMC and the next was with Columbia. Both record deals fell apart post production, with the albums ready to release, but instead were shelved. At the time, his tracks were considered a little too extreme even for the “gangsta rap” scene, one of those tracks “How to Rob” was a detailed plan to steal from P.Diddy, Jay-Z , Mase, and Missy Elliot. His real break was given to him by Eminem and Dr. Dre. They produced his debut album “Get Rich or Die Tryin.” This became his first Diamond album many years later. Even though the music was almost as aggressive as his shelved albums, and it was rife with talk of crime, gangster living and sex, it had some great hooks and chorus lines that allowed the songs to become huge hits with the NYC and later the worldwide night club scene. Even if you are not a fan of hip-hop music, I would gander that there are very few people that would not recognize the tag line chorus from “In Da Club.” Continued...on page 10

50 CENT