50 Cent

Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, television producer, and businessman. Born in the South Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 1996. In early 2000, he recorded his "debut" album Power of the Dollar for Columbia Records, however he was struck by nine bullets during a shooting in May of that year, causing its release to be cancelled and Jackson to be dropped from the label. In 2002, Jackson released the mixtape Guess Who's Back?, and was thereafter discovered by Eminem and signed to his label Shady Records, under the aegis of Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records.His first major-label album Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2003), was released to critical and commercial acclaim. The album spawned the Billboard Hot 100 number one singles "In da Club" and "21 Questions" (featuring Nate Dogg), and was certified 9× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). That same year, he founded G-Unit Records, signing his G-Unit associates Young Buck, Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo; prior to becoming the de facto leader of the East Coast hip hop group G-Unit. 50 Cent had similar commercial and critical success with his second album, The Massacre (2005), which contained his third number-one single "Candy Shop" (featuring Olivia). He then adopted a lighter, pop rap derivative tone for his third and fourth albums, Curtis (2007) and Before I Self Destruct (2009)—which were met with stagnate commercial reception and mixed reviews—and aimed for a return to his roots with his fifth album, Animal Ambition (2014). He executive-produced and starred in the television series Power (2014–2020) and is slated to produce its spin-offs.50 Cent has sold over 30 million albums worldwide and won several awards, including a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, thirteen Billboard Music Awards, six World Music Awards, three American Music Awards and four BET Awards. As an actor, Jackson appeared in the semi-autobiographical film Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005), the war film Home of the Brave (2006), and the crime thriller film Righteous Kill (2008). Billboard ranked 50 Cent as the 17th best rapper of all time on their '50 Greatest rappers' list (2023); and named him the sixth top artist of the 2000s decade. Rolling Stone ranked Get Rich or Die Tryin' and "In da Club" in its lists of the "100 Best Albums of the 2000s" and "100 Best Songs of the 2000s" at numbers 37 and 13, respectively.