Rising to fame in 2003 with his debut album Get Rich or Die Trying, hip-hop artist Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson is still considered one of the leading figures to the ‘gangsta’ rap genre and is notoriously known for his feuds with other rappers as well as his rags to riches story.
Overcoming a tumultuous early life of drugs, violence and crime in New York City, as well as a surviving a severe shooting in 2000, 50 Cent caught the attention of Eminem and Dr Dre in 2002 with his mixtape ‘Guess Who’s Back’. He was signed jointly to Shady Records and Aftermath Entertainment and Get Rich Or Die Trying was released the following year. The album was a huge commercial success, selling 12 million copies in that year alone, thanks to hits like In Da Club, 21 Questions and PIMP, and would later inspire the 2005 biopic of the same name.
Since his first album launched his career, 50 Cent has released five studio albums including The
Massacre, Curtis and Beg for Mercy, as well as ten mixtapes, two video albums and four compilation albums.
He has also branched out into business and acting – co-founding his own label, G-Unit Records, founding the headphones line SMS Audio, and starring in Escape Plan (2013), Spy (2015) and Southpaw (2015).
To mark the 15 year anniversary of Get Rich or Die Trying next year, 50 Cent has announced he will be playing two Australian shows in Sydney and Melbourne, in his first Australian tour since 2011.
On 10 February 2018 50 Cent will play a mass outdoor show at the Melbourne Showgrounds as both a celebration of his origins and to commemorate what the album has meant to fans and to wider hip-hop culture.
Tickets will sell fast, so make sure you get in early to be a part of this celebration.
Written by Ellen Muller
