Here Are 50 Facts About 50 Cent

From the outset of his career, 50 Cent established himself as one of the most compelling figures in all of hip-hop. With an epic survivor's tale at his back from the jump—he survived being shot nine times at point blank range in 2000—Fif always seemed as much man as myth. The mythic status he acquired so early on almost obscures some of the lesser known facts about and surrounding the artist born Curtis Jackson.

People can put together a rough sketch of a street-savvy, drug-pusher-turned-rapper just from listening to his catalog, but they probably don't know anything about the nervous 16-year-old shooting a gun at would-be robbers for the first time. They might know about his deal with Shady Records and Aftermath Entertainment, but a casual fan probably never knew his deal with Trackmasters and Columbia Records even existed.

Of course, through his 17 years in the mainstream, the Get Rich or Die Tryin' rapper has let loose a lot of gems, whether it was through a book (he's a New York Times best-selling author, too) or a rare interview. However, because a lot of his stories came from a time before social media and the news cycle were as extensive as they are today, a lot of that info isn't as widely known, and there are still layers of 50 Cent's identity to explore.

With that in mind, today, XXL takes a look at 50 facts about 50 Cent. Find out some things you didn't know about this rap legend.

 See 50 Facts About 50 Cent

Years before he got into rap seriously, 50 Cent put his focus on boxing. He even won a number of boxing tournaments.

50 Cent signed to Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay's JMJ Records label in 1997, and that year, Fif recorded "The Glow," the earliest known recording he has on the internet.

The Grammy Award-winning MC understands his place in the game now. "What I think my role in hip-hop now is to try and provide the opportunities that were provided to me, you know what I mean?," he said in a 2017 XXL interview. "Also, I think, to get the fuck out of the way. Because the new artists, the young kids, like, some of their musical choices and things, they match, they're right because the audience accepts it, right? That means that the other kids, their peers in their age group, is accepting it and they'll grow. Some of my favorite artists learned how to rap after they got on."

He's very familiar with the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. His first Get Rich or Die Tryin’ single, “In Da Club,” peaked at No. 1 on the chart in February of 2003. The Nate Dogg-assisted single “21 Questions” earned 50 Cent his second solo No. 1 single in May of 2003. Nearly two years later, on March 5, 2005, “Candy Shop,” an Olivia-featured song that served as the debut single from The Massacre album, landed at No. 1 on the chart, too. That’s three solo singles from 50 that landed in the top spot of the Hot 100.

The rapper made his first, official guest appearance on wax all the way back in 1998. That’s when he appeared on Onyx’s single “React.”

Back in March of 2005, 50 Cent’s The Massacre album had the third best first-week sales total of any rapper ever. He sold 1.14 million copies, a mark that was surpassed only by Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show. Em's 2000 album, The Marshall Mathers LP sold 1.76 million copies in its first week, while The Eminem Show, released in 2002, sold 1.3 million copies.

50 Cent was dropped from his original record deal with Columbia Records shortly after being shot nine times in May of 2000.

Squashing beef does happen in his world. 50 Cent ended his feud with Fat Joe after their mutual friend, music executive Chris Lighty died on Aug. 30, 2012. According to Fat Joe, who traded diss songs with 50 after 50 dissed him on his 2005 single “Piggy Bank” (Joe responded with his 50 diss “My Fo Fo”), 50 offered to make peace after Lighty’s death during the taping of the 2012 BET Hip Hop Awards on Sept. 29, 2012.

50 Cent signed to Eminem’s Shady Records and Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment in June of 2002.

In his book From Pieces to Weight: Once Upon a Time in Southside Queens, 50 said that his record deal with Trackmasters was for $65,000. Unfortunately, he was left with only $5,000 after handling lawyer fees and paying Jam Master Jay $50,000 to get out of a contract with JMJ Records.

While 50 Cent might be most known as a rapper and entrepreneur, make no mistake, he's very serious about his acting. In a 2010 interview, Fif revealed that he lost 54 pounds in nine weeks to play the role of Deon, a football player who is battling cancer in the 2011 film All Things Fall Apart. 50 had to run on a treadmill for three hours a day and gave himself a liquid diet so he’d be able to lose the weight.

His debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, had the best-selling first week for a debut project in the Billboard 200 albums chart’s history. The LP sold over 872,000 in its first week of release and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 200.

He learned how to count bars and how to structure songs from Jam Master Jay.

His acting resume runs deep. 50 Cent has acted in 27 movies, including Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (2005), Home of the Brave (2006), Spy (2015), Southpaw (2015), Den of Thieves (2018) and many more.

50 Cent’s lawyer gave the rapper's Guess Who’s Back mixtape to Eminem’s manager Paul Rosenberg, and that’s how Em discovered Fif.

The title of 50 Cent’s sophomore album, The Massacre, was originally supposed to be named after an infamous gang-related slaying allegedly orchestrated by notorious 1920's gangster Al Capone. The LP was originally titled St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, and it was set to be released on Feb. 15, 2005.

Despite selling drugs since he was 12 and having promoted liquor brands in the past, 50 Cent doesn’t drink or smoke. In a 2011 interview, he said he saw the effects drugs had on his nephews and aunts and that helped discourage him from using them. He also says he had a bad experience being drunk once, so he refrains from drinking.

2002's Guess Who's Back was the first mixtape 50 Cent dropped after being shot nine times.

50 Cent’s 1999 single “How to Rob” earned a favorable response from Jay-Z, whom Fif mentioned in the lyrics "What Jigga just sold, like four milli? He got something to live for/Don't wanna nigga putting four through that Bentley coupe door." Hov apparently let Fif know that he’d be striking back. In a 2002 interview with Angie Martinez, Hov recalled telling 50 Cent that he respected "How to Rob," but that he was going to have to respond. They were backstage at Hot 97's 1999 Summer Jam, and that same day, Jay performed his song "It’s Hot (Some Like It Hot)" for the first time, and in it, he spits the lyrics: "Go against Jigga your ass is dense/I'm about a dollar, what the fuck is 50 Cents?"

In his 2005 autobiography, From Pieces to Weight: Once Upon a Time in Southside Queens, 50 Cent claimed that his aunt killed his dog by spraying roach spray into his bowl.

50 Cent bought his first gun, a .380 ACP for $800, after his friend Red was killed. He says he first shot someone after some people tried to rob him after he went to see a girl in Far Rockaway’s Red Fern projects. He was only 16.

The Queens rapper says that his beef with Ja Rule started after 50's friend robbed Ja for his chain. He discusses their back-and-forth in his 2005 book, From Pieces to Weight: Once Upon a Time in Southside Queens.

After being arrested in 1994, 50 Cent was sentenced to six months in a boot camp-esque, New York State program called Shock Incarceration. He earned his GED during this time.

The beat for 50 Cent’s “In Da Club” almost went to Eminem’s group D12. The group was offered the beat, but because they couldn’t find an approach for it, they left it alone, and the Dr. Dre and Mike Elizondo-produced instrumental was eventually given to 50.

In a 2002 interview, 50 Cent said that he was shot just two days before he was supposed to film the video for his Destiny’s Child-assisted single, “Thug Love.”

50 Cent got one of his big breaks by playing his song “The Hit” for a Columbia Records executive just outside of a barbershop. A week after playing the music and seemingly being unimpressed with it, the exec called 50 and offered to connect him with Trackmasters. Trackmasters eventually produced most of his Power of a Dollar album, which has never gotten an official release.

In March of 2005, 50 Cent became the very first solo artist to have three songs in the Billboard Hot 100 chart’s top five in the same week. The songs were his Olivia-featured single “Candy Shop,” “Disco Inferno” and The Game’s “Hate It or Love It,” on which 50 was the featured verse.

The song that helped put 50 Cent on the map for the first time didn’t take him all that long to make. He says “How to Rob” took only 30 minutes to write.

It's no secret that 50 Cent and The Game feuded between 2005 and 2016, but after they squashed their beef at a Los Angeles strip club in 2016, Fif said he didn’t actually know how the feud even started.

Fif's knack for melody and quasi singing influenced plenty of people outside the gangsta rap genre. The 6ix God was one of them. In a December 2019 interview, Drake said that 50 Cent’s “21 Questions” was a song that helped inspired him to start singing on his own songs.

Although “In Da Club” is thought of as 50 Cent’s first single on Aftermath and Shady Records, Fif’s first single for the label was actually “Wanksta.” The song appeared on the soundtrack for Eminem’s semi-autobiographical 2002 movie, 8 Mile.

50 Cent might have spent a lot of time trolling, but that doesn’t mean he won't give game to up-and-comers. In a 2017 interview with Forbes, Kendrick Lamar said that 50 Cent gave him advice that made him realize how much he influenced his own fans.

The rhymer admits that his 1999 single “Life Is on the Line” is about Ja Rule.

The music mogul is really good friends with Robert De Niro and has acted in three films with the acting legend. Those films are 2008’s Righteous Kill, 2012’s Freelancers and 2013’s Last Vegas.

At different points in his career, 50 Cent has driven around in a vehicle that was both bulletproof and bombproof.

50 Cent’s major label debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, has been certified nine-times platinum. He earned that certification on Feb. 24, 2020.

He puts Eminem in a category with his grandparents and would never argue with him because Em signed him and gave him a chance to be a superstar.

His words have come back to haunt him. Fif admitted that a rapper's wife approached him over past words he said. Beyoncé once confronted him over a shot he sent at Jay-Z.

50 Cent has had 13 top 10 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. He’s got 40 Billboard Hot 100 singles all together.

Before it was titled "Ayo Technology," 50 Cent's Justin Timberlake and Timbaland-featured 2007 single was titled "Ayo Pornography." The title change was a request from the label.

Not too much is known about recording sessions for 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin' album, but apparently, a then-upstart Kanye West was there for one of them. In a 2010 interview, Tony Yayo said Yeezy was in the studio with 50 the day Fif recorded "P.I.M.P." and "Heat."

In 2003, 50 Cent signed with Reebok to launch his own G-Unit sneakers. In a 2012 interview, he said that he made $80 million with the brand.

50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin' song "Heat" would have never belonged to him if Busta Rhymes and Rakim had been able to record a song over the beat. In an interview from 2002, Tony Yayo claimed that both Rakim and Busta tried to rap to the beat, but the gun sounds threw them off. Of course, 50 nailed it.

After hearing 50 Cent’s “How to Rob,” Nas invited him and Tony Yayo to go on his Nastradamus album promo tour.

Apparently, the beat for 50 Cent's Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single "Candy Shop" was originally passed on by Fat Joe. Speaking with XXL in 2005, Joe said he actually co-produced the beat.

50 Cent's "In Da Club" is traditionally listed as having been produced by Dr. Dre and Mike Elizondo, but in 2011, DJ Quik said that he actually played percussion on the song, so he played a role in the creation of the song as well.

The famous GIF with 50 Cent driving off while laughing is from a 2009 episode of Entourage.

50 Cent has had 13 top 10 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. He’s got 40 Billboard Hot 100 singles all together.

He thinks no other rapper came close to his dominance for a 10-year time span. "I have a decade," he said in a 2017 XXL interview. "I have 10 years that nobody's better than me."

50 Cent’s journey into Hollywood and the world of TV began when he starred as the character Marcus in Get Rich or Die Tryin’, a semi-autobiographical film based on his own experiences.