Curtis James Jackson III aka 50 Cent was born on July 6, 1975 in Queens, New York and he is American rapper, producer, actor and businessman from New York.
50 Cent Biography
His father is away and his mother Sabrina Jackson sells crack to support them. She is murdered at the age of 23 when Curtis is only 8 years old.
Real name Curtis James Jackson III , 50 Cent was born on July 6, 1975, in Queens, New York City . From an early age, his parents separated, which forced him to live with his mother Sabrina.
The latter, after the death of his mother, joined his grandparents where he spent a good part of his childhood.
Indeed, he took to the streets following a symbolic explanation given to him by his grandmother. “ I remember my grandmother telling me: “Your mum won’t come back, she won’t come back to take you back, so you’ll stay with us”. That’s when I started hanging out in the street ”.
Meanwhile, his father has been completely absent throughout Curtis’ life, as he is sentenced to life in prison.
After this dark episode of his childhood , at the age of 12 Jackson began to devote himself to boxing and the sale of crack to which his mother had accustomed him during his lifetime . 
Two years later, he opened a local gymnasium well attended by young people. At the same time, he begins by making the connection between the sporting activity he practices and rap “ I had a competitive spirit in the ring and hip-hop is also a competition. I think rappers prepare almost like boxers, they all want to become champions .
It is from this moment that the future legend lends himself to listening to rap songs, even if he was not sure to do in the matter.
As stated earlier, Curtis started engaging in illicit activities at an early age. Launching into the sale of narcotics at the age of 12, he went to class with weapons. Usually, he hides all his profits at the risk of being discovered in his job.
Eventually, he was apprehended because of a metal detector at Andrew Jackson High School. Although he didn’t admit the facts on the spot, he later confessed, “ I was embarrassed to be arrested like that. It’s the worst way to be arrested. After my arrest, I stopped hiding. I openly told my grandmother that I was selling drugs ”.
Thus, no longer hiding his exercise in drugs, Jackson was arrested for having contributed to the sale of 4 ampoules of cocaine. Three weeks later, he was arrested again in New York, following a search that the police carried out in his apartment. It contains heroin, a starter gun and 280 grams of crack.
Admittedly, he should receive 3 to 9 years of imprisonment, but fortunately the young boxer is condemned to a substitution of 7 months in a recovery camp with military methods and discipline . In this establishment, he obtained his GED (General Education Development) which is a high school exit exam .
Through his extraordinary rise in the world of hip-hop, 50 cent perfectly embodies the American dream. Spotted in 2001 by American rap mainstays Eminem and Dr. Dre , 50 Cent quickly became one of the heavy hitters in the recording industry. Thanks to hits like “ In da club ”, “ Candy shop ”, “ Window shopper ” or even “ Ayo technology”, 50 cent became known to the general public.
Curtis James Jackson III, after a series of arrests linked to his childhood excesses, adopts the nickname “50 cent“. Indeed, he chose this nickname in reference to the one worn by Kelvin Darnell Martin, an excellent criminal from Brooklyn born in 1964 and murdered in 1987 .
For the story, this one had a strong reputation in the 80s, in this case for its ease of killing for the modest sum of 50 cents. This is precisely what earned him his nickname.
This criminal was then one of the true idols of the young Curtis who explains about his loan ““ I took the name 50 cent, because it says everything I want to say. I’m the same kind of person as 50 cent. I find enough to live by all means”. As a reminder, the adoption of this nickname marks the beginning of his artistic career, more precisely rap.
50 Cent Career
Starting from his status as a boxer and crack dealer, 50 cent launched into hip-hop. For his beginnings in this universe, he used a friend’s phonograph to record his voice over instrumental pieces. In 1996, he met Jam Master Jay from the Run-DMC collective, including the JMJ Records label . 
Convinced of the prowess to extract from the talent of the young rapper, Master Jay welcomes him to his studio and teaches him certain subtle details of the field. For example, he shares with him notions on how to hold a rhythm, write choruses, build the framework of a song and record a sound.
This experience helping, he appeared for the first time in the song React of the collective Onyx extracted from the album “Shut’Em Down” , launched in 1998 . After the release of this project, many positive reviews poured out on Fifty’s performance, which led him to be convinced of Jay’s influence on his artistic ability.
However, it is important to remember that the collaboration with the first label did not last . In 1999, 50 Cent obtained a signing with the Trackmasters label . At that time, the rapper was already preparing to release his debut ‘ Power of the dollar ‘ on Columbia Records .
This album will sell rather thanks to the strong contribution of the new record company where the artist signed. Moreover, some of the songs contained in the project appeared on the compilation “Guess Who’s Back?” which appeared in 2002 .
In addition, it should be recalled that the popularity of 50 cent quickly increased following the publication of the song How to Rob . He wrote this song in just 30 minutes while on his way to the recording studio. In particular, he explained what he intends to do to have certain famous artists on one of his titles.
Unfortunately, big names such as Jay-Z, Kurupt, Sticky Finagaz, Big Pun, DMX, Wyclef Jean and Wu-Tang gave negative feedback for the single . On the other hand, convinced of the success of the song in question, Nas invites Jackson for his Nastradamus tour. In the process, the young rapper will be abandoned by the record company Columbia Records.
This is partly due to the fact that he was hit in a shootout, which cost him a break. Basically, the success of 50 Cent’s debut album might exceed expectations if this one hadn’t been hit . It was after recovering from the damage caused by the shooting that he founded the group G-Unit in collaboration with his childhood friends.
50 cent Meet Eminem
In 2002, 50 cent was truly noticed through his talent. Eminem , having been impressed with his various performances, invites him to Los Angeles to introduce him to Dr.Dre .
They signed him to their label and helped him release No Mercy, No Fear . This is a mixtape that also features a new song called Wandsta, which appeared in a soundtrack to Eminem’s 8 Mile movie. After the success of this track, he released his first major project called ” Get Rich or Die Tryin ” in February 2003 . Indeed, this opus was, as reported by AllMusic, the most hyped project released by a rapper over 10 years ago.
Indeed, “ Get Rich or Die Tryin ” quickly climbed to number one on the Billboard Hot 200, with over 850,000 copies sold in just four days . This success is due in particular to a certain number of specific pieces. This is for example the main single entitled In da Club which, in the space of a week, becomes the most listened to song on the radio according to Billboard.
While his first album was well received with incredible success , Jackson obtained his own label G-Unit Records . As he was mentored himself by Eminem and Dr. Dre, he also begins by finding talents to reveal. In this logic, it produced artists among whom we can cite Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo and Young Buck . These automatically became active members of the record box.
During the same year, Fifty teamed up with DJ Whoo Kid to create the hot radio channel 97. The rapper took the opportunity to initiate the show G-Unit Radio . This is a program whose objective is to promote future members of its label. The latter come there to deliver exclusive interviews and freestyles.
Other guest members include The Game, Mobb Deep or Freeway . As a reminder, the show had a mixed start despite the efforts made by the promoter. It is from April 2003 that she will be truly famous after the mixtape “G-Unit Radio: Smoking Day” has been unveiled. It’s a compilation of all the different unreleased tracks that have been released up until now.
The following year, in November 2004, 50 cent invited The Game, one of his proteges, to record the title How we do with Dr. Dre producing . This creation had a commercial success beyond expectations, which allowed The Game to be certified as a member of the G-Unit label.
James Jackson did not limit himself to music. Many times he has already made successful turns in the world of cinema. Besides this field, he is also known as a great businessman. He created his own clothing line called G-Unit Clothing .
The echoes of this company quickly spread throughout the world, which brings him to another scale of popularity and creates other more interesting opportunities for him. For example, it signs contracts with reference brands such as Reebok.
Likewise, Fifty is found to headline the movie ‘ Get Rich or Die Tryin ‘.”. As a reminder, this is a film based on his life which was a real success. The rapper does not intend to stop there, as he continues to work on other projects which will be unveiled shortly.
50 Cent Discography
- 2000 – Power of the Dollar
- 2003 – Get Rich or Die Tryin’
- 2005 – The Massacre
- 2007–Curtis
- 2009 – Before I Self Destruct
- 2014 – Animal Ambition
50 Cent Net Worth
As of 2021, 50 Cent’s net worth is estimated to be $30 million, which is a big drop from recent years when his net worth was stated at $150 million by Forbes.
50 Cent Private Life
The rapper prefers to keep his personal life a secret and believes details of life offstage should remain private. Reporters discovered that Jackson has a son Marquise with a certain Shaniqua Tompkins.
Curtis often posts photos with his sire’s second son on his Instagram page.
