Author Topic: 50 Cent: Gettin' Richer (Read 797 times)

ωεεźγ ғ · « **on:** November 03, 2005, 05:00:07 PM »

50 Cent changed the rap game in 2003 with his debut, Get Rich Or Die Tryin', which broke records as the highest-selling debut in history, with 900,000 units sold its first week. The CD went on to sell 12 million copies worldwide. With his follow up, the quadruple Platinum, #1 CD, The Massacre, 50 became the first artist to have four songs in the top ten of Billboard's Hot 100 since the Beatles in 1964. From the streets of Queens to the corridors of Mike Tyson's old home - now 50's current crib - to the aisles of Hollywood, the name 50 Cent is unanimous with success. This month, Get Rich Or Die Tryin' the movie, based loosely on 50's own life, hits theaters along with the soundtrack, which is due in November as well. Powered by the vision of director Jim Sheridan and backed by producers Jimmy Iovine (head of Interscope, 50's parent label), Paul Rosenberg (Eminem's manager and Shady Records prez) and Chris Lighty (50's manager), not just 50 stands to get rich this go-round. HHDX sat with the G-Unit giant on the eve of his film's release as he reveals the turning point in his life, if he treats women right and what's #1 on his wish list.

The director and actors in this film have all commented on your professionalism.

I knew I was going into a film project for the first time coming from music. You don't want to go there and be exactly what they anticipate. Because of my position in music, they were anticipating I'd be a lot more high maintenance, as far as the things that would maintain me being comfortable. But I didn't need a lot of things. I had a studio trailer outside of my actual trailer. And I created the soundtrack in between everything we did on set.

Did you have any fears or hesitation about doing this film?

Not much. I've done what I needed to do to prepare for it. I worked with an acting coach when I had the first screenplay. I got excited about the project and committed to it after I read the first one. That one had so much of me in it. For me, it was exactly what I said to him [Terence Winter, the screenwriter]. That's what made it exciting. Because I hadn't made a film yet, I wasn't aware that there would be two or three more drafts of the film before we shot it. I worked with an acting coach on that portion of the screenplay, and by the time we shot it, it was a whole other screenplay.

This movie is so close to your life. Was that hard to deal with, or are you used to it because you rap about your life so much?

It's different when you're actually acting it out. They say when you play in a film that's loosely based on yourself, they don't even think you're acting anymore. They think you're just being yourself. I think it's difficult at some points. Sure you have your self and your own feelings to make reference to in each one of the scenes because it's based on you. But it's difficult to get out of those emotions. Once you get there... because the scenes are shot out of sequence, if you get somewhere... like I had to actually cry in a scene with Joy (Bryant) in the Poconos. Then the next scene was me in a car just acting crazy. The contrast between the two was a big transition.

How much of the film is true story?

It's about 75% factual but it's still a collage. At some points it's jumbled up.

What message are you trying to send with this movie?

It's an opportunity for me to draw my base closer to me. The more they know about my past, the more they'll be able to predict and understand some of the moves I make in the future. For me, the title I came up with for the film that wasn't used was ‘A Hustler's Ambition,' and it turned out to be the theme of the first song I released to set the mood of the overall film.

There's a line in the movie when your mother says, ‘treat the women right.' Do you think you have?

Absolutely, under the circumstances and the situations I've been in. I know for a fact that stability is attractive. After a man is successful and publicly noted he then becomes as attractive as a beautiful woman.

There's a fight scene in the movie when you and four others are naked in the prison showers.

We were supposed to be shot above the waist, but our shorts got wet and got darker than our skin complexions. I went into the film saying, I would do anything away from what people perceive me as 50 cent.

You seem very comfortable making the switch from music to acting.

To give you an example of who I am, my grandparents, what you see in the film is kind of true, when I got to the point that I had friction with my uncles and I moved into the basement. I had the opportunity to be out later than usual and for them not to notice that I wasn't there because there are so many kids upstairs. There are 8 people in the family. I always, when I started hustling initially, I could only hustle from 3-6 when my grandparents thought I was in my after school program. I'm still a 12-year-old kid. I don't never carry myself in a way that I become intimidating to people. I've been showing them my teeth more than I'm showing me frowning, even while saying aggressive things. I've had to be aggressive in the neighborhood and it shows in the film, but at home I'm my grandmother's baby. I've had to be able to have both of those characteristics.

Recently your film's ads were yanked off billboards for violence. In light of this type of reaction to you, do you feel like you have to watch what you say and do in public?

I don't. I create my own lane. The reason why they consider me more aggressive than people they've seen in the past... There are people who have had similar experiences and were brought up in similar environments, but they just try to fit in with everybody so much that once they get on, they start trying to fit in with that crowd so they start making the politically correct answer as opposed to what they actually think. With the Billboards, there are standards placed on music as an art form that aren't placed on any other forms of entertainment. You haven't seen a gun or a weapon on the cover of a CD distributed by a major company since 1987 with KRS-One Criminal Minded. But if we walk into our local Blockbuster, we'll find guns, knives, everything else that you can find used as a marketing tool. They're advertising the film with these images. It's exciting because death is a large form of entertainment, probably the largest. Everybody at this table fate is that we're going to die. So watching death in different ways is entertaining. Tupac and Biggie wrote so much about death. Biggie themed his albums Ready To Die, Life After Death, Born Again. Tupac wrote about life-threatening situations after being shot so often that it seemed like he was obsessed with it. He even left material behind after he died that made reference to him dying already. I think the significance in that ties back to us knowing that's our fate. For me I wrote so much aggressive music ahead of releasing Get Rich Or Die Tryin' that I wanted to have a good time so I went the opposite direction when I did "Go Shorty, it's your birthday." Every day is someone's birthday, it's a celebration of life. That's why it's the biggest record that I've released to date.

What was the major turning point in your life?

My son. He's the reason why I write music. He's the reason everything is different for me. Because when he came in the picture my priorities changed. When it's not just about me, I can risk possibly being incarcerated because the only person that pays for it is me. Until he comes into my life, and then I know that if I'm not psychically available to take care of him, nobody else will. And I wanted to have the relationship with him that me and my father didn't have.

What do people get wrong about you?

That my intentions are bad. They write their perceptions.

When you first came out on the mixtape circuit, you were hungry. Do you think you still are?

I think so. I think people feel like success changes you to a point. Anybody who tells you money don't change you is only saying that because they didn't make enough. It definitely changes your lifestyle. But the things you go through make you who you are, your experiences they travel with you.

What's the first thing you bought with your money?

I bought my grandmother a C-220 Benz and the trademark for G-Unit. I spent 175,000 on it. My attorney was like, are you sure you want to trademark it worldwide? I said, yes!

Talk about Mase signing to G-Unit.

That project is a project I'm excited about. Mase made a decision to do the right thing with his life, for his religious beliefs. I sat with him and I said, when you were writing aggressive music you were selling four millions records. When you sell four million, for everybody who bought it there was someone who stole it or got it for free. Away from that, there were that many people who heard it but didn't go out and buy it. So you generate the interest of about 12 to 16 million people. Well, Minister Farrakhan showed significance by being able to bring one million men to Washington D.C. at a time. I think that's great significance if you can generate the interest of the people you initially had, in order to deliver a positive message. Mase has been writing aggressive music to try to capture what he was doing at that point, and the theme of the new album is the stages that he's been through in his life. You are going to have to take people not understanding what you're writing about. You can't explain it. In order for it to be effective you have to write. Put the aggressive material out, and let people pass judgment on you and let people talk about you so much that they promote you so that you can actually reach that level. They're confused. They go from God to the G-Unit. Like I'm Satan.

Are you religious, or do you believe in God?

It took me being shot to understand that. When you have things happen to you and you don't have the answer, you say it's your higher power that's responsible for you being blessed to the point where you're able to survive, and then able to progress at the pace that I've been progressing.

What's on your wish list?

I wish to see Mobb Deep sell three or four million records. For me, I always have a new project or situation that I go to. I was a dreamer. But now I make steps towards making my dreams come true, so I call it envisioning things. I realize growing up without finances it seems like finances are the answers to all of your problems. It's not until you acquire them that you realize there are always new obstacles.