This feature was originally published on August 1, 2017.
Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson knew he was destined for greatness. In June 2002, the Queens-bred rapper—who signed with Columbia Records in the late 1990s, recorded an album called Power of the Dollar, and was unceremoniously dropped from said label after getting shot before the album ever hit stores—released a mixtape called 50 Cent Is the Future. Armed with a slew of catchy hooks, some help from his G-Unit crew—which consisted of fellow rap up-and-comers Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo—and one hell of a back story (he infamously got shot nine times in May 2000), 50 Cent found his voice on that mixtape and let the world know what he already knew to be true: That 50 Cent was the future.
Since then, 50 has accomplished just about everything there is to accomplish as a rapper. He's released a handful of chart-topping albums, including his classic debut, Get Rich or Die Tryin'. He's crafted hit singles that have landed on the Billboard charts over and over and over again with favorites like "In Da Club" or "Candy Shop." But he's also had his downs, too. In the past few years he's largely struggled to reinvent himself as an artist and keep himself relevant. Still, more than a decade after releasing 50 Cent Is the Future, his latest album, Animal Ambition, is being released independently this week through his own G-Unit Records imprint on Capitol Records. Even if he isn't what he once was, 50 Cent is still one of the most important rappers of the 2000s.
Part of that is because 50 Cent used releases like 50 Cent Is the Future to change the way artists put out music. Long before rappers were remixing other artists' songs and releasing free projects, 50 Cent was feeding the streets and putting out more tracks than anyone else. The other part of it is that 50 Cent has consistently put out songs that have stood and will continue to stand the test of time. At this point, he's branched out into a million and one other areas—from sneakers and video games to headphones and clothing, 50 has done it all—but he's also continued to put out quality music and lyrics throughout the years. So in honor of 50 Cent releasing his fifth solo album this week, and reuniting with G-Unit (sans The Game) on stage at Summer Jam, Complex decided to pay tribute to "the kid 50 Cent" by showing some love creating a list of his 50 Best Songs.
Listen to Complex's Best 50 Cent Songs playlists here: YouTube/Spotify/Rdio
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Producer: Brandon Parrott, Mr. Porter
Album: Get Rich or Die Tryin'
Label: Shady/Aftermath/Interscope
When this song was recorded back in '03, 50 Cent was on top of the world. He had just inked a $1 million recording contract with Dr. Dre and Eminem, was on the verge of releasing a classic album, and his name was ringing out everywhere. But you'd never know any of that by listening to this track, which featured 50 rapping about trying to use girls to make money and proclaiming "there's no business like ho business" over Mr. Porter's steel drum-laden production. It proved just how popular 50 was at the time, though, because in spite of the crude subject matter, the song still climbed to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was eventually certified Gold by the RIAA. Pimpin' ain't easy...unless you're 50.
Producer:
Album: Three Headed Monster
Label: N/A
It doesn't matter how many records he sells or how many big business deals he closes. If you diss 50 Cent on a song, he will respond to you. He proved that for the umpteenth time on this track. Shortly after Lil Wayne rapped, "All about a dollar, fuck two quarters/I'll pour syrup in that Vitamin Water/I hope you die ugly, and tonight will be gorgeous," on a mixtape track called "Louisianimal," 50 fired back with this song. On it, he took aim at Wayne and Kanye West with the vicious opening lines, "First they say that faggot hot, then they let that junkie shine/Gave'em all them fucking trophies, tell me where the fuck is mine?" But he also took time to take shots at Oprah, "I don't wanna sip tea or chit chat on your sofa/Bitch I ain't Jay-Z: fuck you, Oprah." Once he was finished, he dared Wayne to respond during a subsequent DJ Whoo Kid interview. "If he says something back, I'm gonna drop a bomb on his ass," he said. "It's gonna be hard for me to get off him." Wayne never did respond and it ended up looking like yet another beef 50 tried to start for publicity.
Producer: C. Styles, Sire
Album: Get Rich or Die Tryin': Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture
Label: G-Unit/Shadyville
By 2005, 50 Cent was winning in a big way and there were plenty of his peers who weren't happy about it. Ja Rule, Jadakiss, Fat Joe, and Nas had all gotten involved in beefs with the G-Unit general, and 50 was loving it. So much so, he created this track, which featured him name-checking all four of them in the hook. And while their names were eventually omitted from the song in the radio edit, it was clear that 50 Cent was thoroughly enjoying the fact that he was at the top of the game. He even yelled: "The top feels so much better than the bottom!" at the beginning of the song. It was 50's world—and everyone else was just living in it.
Producer: Erick Sermon
Album: Power of the Dollar
Label: Trackmasters Entertainment/Columbia
Most of the songs that appeared on Power of the Dollar were produced by the Trackmasters. But Erick Sermon was tight with 50 Cent's manager back in the late 1990s, so he agreed to provide a couple beats for him. This song, which featured a sample of BDP's "The Bridge Is Over," was built using one of the beats that Fif selected from Sermon. Because it was recorded prior to 50 getting shot in 2000, it doesn't have the same sound that most of his subsequent work did. But "Da Heatwave" was a gritty New York anthem that could have been a lot bigger if Power of the Dollar had actually dropped as planned. "'Da Heatwave' would've blew," Sermon told us back in 2012. True, but it was still a sign of things to come.
Producer: Eminem
Album: Cheers
Label: Shady/Interscope
The four rappers who contributed to this posse cut sounded like they had two goals in mind when they put the song together. The first was to prove that Shady Records was the best rap label out. The second was to find a ton of different ways to describe murdering people on a rap song. And they accomplished both of those things thanks to the four solid verses that they came up with. Eminem might have stolen the show, but 50 still had an inspired verse filled with the typical tough talk and hood tales with a touch of black humor; "If you trying to buy guns, I'm the nigga to look to/So what they got bodies on 'em? They still look new."
Producer: DJ Whoo Kid
Album: Return Of The Body Snatchers - Thisis50 Vol 1
Label: N/A
Although this song eventually landed on a mixtape, it was reportedly recorded back in 2006 or 2007 when 50 was trying to put together Before I Self Destruct, which was originally going to be his third album. It got lost in the shuffle once 50 switched things up and decided to release Curtis as his third album instead. It was pretty clear Fif was intent on sticking with his street sound when he recorded this. Even though the entire track was basically one long love song to his guns, 50 still managed to make the hook sound like something that would sound right at home on the radio.
Producer: Team Demo
Album: Before I Self Destruct
Label: Shady/Aftermath/Interscope
50 wanted to let the world know he was going to go to a darker place on Before I Self Destruct than he had on his previous project, Curtis. So he released "Crime Wave" as a street single in October 2009 and rapped about guns, guns, gun, guns, guns, and—oh yeah—more guns. Even though he was a very rich man at this point in his career, he was adamant about the fact that he was still the same old G. "I talk about my arsenal, I rap about my infantry," he rapped, "Them crackers, they be scared of me, the hood, man, they into me." It set the perfect tone for the under appreciated BISD.
Producer: Havoc
Album: Still Runnin NY
Label: N/A
Back in the early 2000s, 50 Cent hated Ja Rule. He also hated anyone who associated with Ja Rule. So after Jadakiss and Fat Joe agreed to appear on Ja's 2004 song, "New York," 50 started firing shots at both rappers and their respective crews. And the result was a long list of diss tracks from both sides. But "I Run New York" stands as one of the harshest ethers 50 ever delivered. It featured 50 Cent borrowing Mobb Deep's beat from their track, "Cobra," to create a song about how he runs New York, despite living in Connecticut.
For the most part though, 50 coasted through the song and let Yayo do the heavy lifting. But 50 still had a trick up his sleeve: He ended the song ranting about how Diddy still owned Jadakiss and Styles publishing even though they had been off Bad Boy for years at that point. Of course, this lead to Jada and Styles taking their case to Hot 97 and calling out Puffy. They even threatened to drop a refrigerator on him, but luckily, cooler heads prevailed. Oh, and 50? He probably just sat back and laughed.
Producer: Eminem
Album: Music from and Inspired By the Motion Picture 8 Mile
Label: Shady/Interscope
At the beginning of his career, Eminem caused a lot of controversy when he name-dropped other artists on his songs. So it was kind of funny to hear 50 Cent do the same exact thing on one of his first collaborations with Em. Even though this track from the 8 Mile soundtrack didn't exactly call for it, 50 hurt a lot of feelings when he took shots at everyone from R. Kelly and Bow Wow to Lil' Kim and D'Angelo on the song before turning his attention to a couple of female artists who were running with Murda Inc. at the time. "My back shots'll help Ashanti hit them high notes," he said, "and B.I.G. been taught Charlie B'more to deep throat." So disrespectful.
Producer: Carlos "Fantom of the Beat" Evans
Album: La Bella Mafia
Label: Queen Bee/Atlantic
Consider this 50 Cent's gift to Lil Kim. While he was working on Get Rich or Die Tryin', he recorded "Magic Stick," sent it to Trina, and asked her to drop a verse on it. However, he didn't like the way her verse sounded when she sent it back. So he sent the song to Kim and asked her to give the track a try. But by the time she recorded something for it, it was too late to include the song on 50's debut. So instead of using it himself, 50 let Kim keep the song—which featured both artists bragging about their skills in the bedroom—for her next album. In the end, the raunchy single turned out to be a hit, landing at the top of Billboard's U.S. Radio Songs and U.S. Hot Rap Songs charts right when everything 50 touched turned to gold.
Producer: Sha Money XL, Black Jeruz
Album: The Massacre
Label: Shady/Aftermath/Interscope
The first three singles from 50's second album, The Massacre—"Disco Inferno," "Candy Shop," and "Just a Lil Bit"—scared a lot of hardcore 50 fans. He had taken so many shots at Ja Rule for singing all over his songs, and yet, it sounded like he was stealing a page out of Ja's playbook when he put together his sophomore album. Thankfully, not everything on the album sounded as soft as those songs, and this track in particular featured Fif taking it back to the streets, which allowed a lot of his longtime fans to breathe a sigh of relief. The song lives on as the name of 50's site, ThisIs50.com.
Producer: Phoenix
Album: Before I Self Destruct
Label: Shady/Aftermath/Interscope
When 50 sat down and started to create Before I Self Destruct, the goal was to come up with a bunch of dark, temperamental songs. And even though this particular song only ended up being a bonus track on the album, it definitely fit the bill. A lot of people got caught up in all of the name-dropping 50 did on the song—specifically, he called Jay Z out for "rocking that Urkel look"—but the paranoid lyrics and the moody production took this song much deeper than that. "Man, everything is changing', I don't understand a thing," he rapped, "I guess this is that bullshit that all the money brings."
Producer: Dr. Dre, Scott Storch
Album: Beg For Mercy
Label: G-Unit/Interscope
People probably don't give 50 Cent enough credit for the success of G-Unit. Over the years, there have been a ton of successful rappers (Jay Z, Nelly, etc.) who have tried to put their crews on. But very few of them have enjoyed the kind of success that G-Unit enjoyed in their prime. The group's initial success was due in large part to the fact that 50 decided to release the group's first album less than six months after his debut dropped, which helped G-Unit capitalize on his major buzz.
But you also have to credit the group as a whole for taking advantage of that buzz by creating songs like this one. It legitimized them as a group and was a sign of good things to come for all of the Unit's individual members. Although 50 kicks off his verse with the unforgettable couplet about his baby mama drama ("After the VMAs my baby momma cuss my ass out/I kicked her ass we back friends like Puffy and Steve Stout") Banks and Buck don't slouch either with the former rhyming, "I been out and I'm buzzing niggas just slept on me/So I'm out for revenge like one of Bin Laden's cousins."
Producer: Ron Browz
Album: Get Rich or Die Tryin': Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture
Label: G-Unit/Interscope
To fully appreciate this song, you really need to go back and listen to "Best Friend," one of the other tracks that was featured on this soundtrack. Did you go back and listen to it yet? Ugh, right? It was a song that featured everything that 50 Cent railed against at the start of his career when he took shots at Ja Rule. But the thing about 50 is that he can record a song like that one and then turn around and record a song about pistol whipping dudes in the side of the head. This song was prominently featured in the Get Rich movie and served as one of the few songs 50 made with M.O.P after signing them to G-Unit.
Producer: Lab Ox,Vikaden
Album: Before I Self Destruct
Label: Shady/Aftermath/Interscope
50 Cent's life has always been dramatic. Part of his rise to fame was that he had the illest origin story of nearly any rapper: He got shot nine times and miraculously survived. Once he got famous the drama keep popping up, the G-Unit era was marred by endless beefs, shootouts outside of radio stations, stabbings at award shows, and even a teenaged boy getting slapped up. But 50's life was super dramatic even when he was a kid, a fact highlighted by the autobiographical "Days Went By." Curtis-or Boo-Boo as they called him then-recalls childhood tales of having sex with babysitters, selling crack and being in "Cocaine heaven," how his grandfather and uncle were drunks and his other uncle was a crackhead who smoked his whole stash. "I pistol whip that nigga till his face was purple," claims 50. Damn, life as a shorty shouldn't be so rough.
Producer: DJ Whoo Kid, Red Spyda
Album: Bad Boys II Soundtrack
Label: Bad Boy/Universal
There have been a lot of rappers who have "collaborated" with Biggie posthumously. But most of the time, those rappers have performed terribly when paired with B.I.G. because they were either artists who B.I.G. wouldn't have ever worked with in the first place or they were artists who didn't do a good job of blending their verses with Biggie's verses. 50 took a different approach here, though. He basically created a song that sounded as if the two artists had been in the studio together, right down to the chorus. "We the realest, nigga," he sang on the hook, "50 Cent and B.I.G., my nigga. Don't try to act like you don't feel us, nigga!" Even if Jadakiss would later diss 50 saying, "I did real songs with BIG, no made-up shits," the song felt like something that the two artists had recorded together.
Producer: Dr. Dre, Mark Batson
Album: Before I Self Destruct
Label: Shady/Aftermath/Interscope
Is it just us or did a lot of people end up getting killed on Before I Self Destruct? 50 Cent was clearly in a really foul mood when he recorded that album, so much so he rapped, "Niggas send me the wrong message, we gon' fucking kill the messenger." The real appeal of "Death To My Enemies" comes from Dr. Dre and Mark Batson's gloomy production, even if it sounded like Dre doing a vintage RZA impersonation. Still, lines like "This ain't the Carter nigga, THIS IS SPARTA!" provided the perfect warcry for loyal G-Unit soldiers who wanted that aggressive content.
Producer: Adam Deitch, Eric Krasno
Album: Curtis
Label: Shady/Aftermath/Interscope
Unfortunately, a lot of the songs that appeared on 50 Cent's third album were not in the same vein as this one. From "Amusement Park" to "Ayo Technology," 50 spent so much time searching for a solid single for the album that there were quite a few songs on the project that went away from what had made 50 so popular at the beginning of his career. But fortunately, he still included a few songs on the album, like this one, that captured the grit and tenacity that was present on much of 50's early work.
Producer: Disco D, Eminem, Luis Resto
Album: The Massacre
Label: Shady/Aftermath/Interscope
If you want a nice watch, an expensive chain, or a new pair of earrings, you could work hard, save up your money, and then buy it yourself. Or you could simply go out and steal it from other people. 50 Cent opted for the latter on this track, which featured him borrowing a line from Notorious B.I.G.'s verse on Craig Mack's "Flava In Ya Ear (Remix)"-"I get mine the fast way/Ski mask way"-to tell tales about robbing people for their valuables. The O'Jays' sample that Disco D used on the beat may have made the song sound nice, but there was nothing sweet about this particular track.
Producer: Eminem, Luis Resto
Album: The Massacre
Label: Shady/Aftermath/Interscope
At the beginning of 50 Cent's career, people were fascinated by his backstory. Specifically, they couldn't get enough of hearing about how he'd been shot nine times in 2000-and lived to talk about it. And 50 made the most of it by talking about it over and over and over again. Not that anyone minded. On this particular track, Fif used Eminem's menacing beat to touch on the time that someone tried to kill him and to rap about how he always had to keep one eye open to spot potential threats to his life. Although 50's backstory was starting to wear a bit thin at this point in his career, it hardly mattered when you matched the eerie atmosphere this beat set with 50's ice cold demeanor.
Producer: DJ Scratch
Album: The Streetsweeper, Vol. 1
Label: Columbia
A lot of rappers don't really want any problems when it comes to dealing with issues in the streets. But that definitely didn't go for 50 Cent at the beginning of his career. Even though he was on the rise back in '03, he still made everyone aware that he was more than willing to deal with you if you stepped to him incorrectly. "Say a prayer for me if you care for me 'cause I'm on the edge," he rapped. "I'm finna put a shell in a nigga head." And just in case you didn't think he was serious, he was more than willing to point out that he was speaking the truth, while simultaneously taking a shot at his fellow rappers who weren't in the streets at the time. "I write my lifestyle, y'all niggas is cheaters," he rapped, "your lines come from F.E.D.S., Felons, and Don Diva."
Producer: DJ Whoo Kid
Album: 50 Cent Is the Future
Label: Street Dance
On 50 Cent Is the Future, 50 did everything he could to let people know that he wasn't like any of the other rappers who were out at the time. "Are you ready?" he yelled at the beginning of "Cut Master C Shit" before the beat for the Geto Boys' song, "No Nuts, No Glory," dropped. And then, ready or not, he revealed that there was a new sheriff in town. "I'm not that nigga in your video," he sang, "I'm not a trick, I don't love the hoes." But the most telling part of this song came during 50's outro, which featured him issuing a warning of sorts to all of the rap fans out there. "All this shit I put out on the mixtapes is for the mixtapes," he said. "I got a million...oh my God! My shit is so hot right now. I'm in a zone." That zone was about to take his career to the next level.
Producer: Eminem
Album: Get Rich or Die Tryin'
Label: Shady/Aftermath/Interscope
When 50 Cent first signed with Eminem, it wasn't a given that his partnership with Shady Records was going to work. After all, 50 and Em are two completely different types of artists. However, this track proved that 50 would have absolutely no problem fitting in with Slim Shady as he sounded right at home rapping alongside him. Even though Em stole the show, 50 more than held his own-"The flow is bone-crushing, it's nothing, I'll come up with something," he rapped-and his hook was basically one big middle finger to all of his haters, which we're sure Em loved.
Producer: DJ Whoo Kid
Album: G-Unit Radio 25 - Sabrina's Baby Boy
Label: G-Unit/Shadyville
After releasing their 2003 album, Beg For Mercy, the G-Unit members went their separate ways and spent the next few years releasing their own respective solo albums. But by the time 2007 rolled around, they started gearing up for another project and prepared for it by getting into the studio and putting together songs like this one. It wasn't that far removed from some of the stuff that they had recorded for their first project...but that was more than OK for G-Unit fans. This track in particular featured the fellas putting on for their part of New York City and rapping about where they came from while simultaneously taking some shots at Irv Gotti. And it eventually led to them putting out the group's sophomore project, T.O.S. (Terminate on Sight), the following year.
Producer: Clark Kent
Album: Guess Who's Back?
Label: Full Clip Records
Shortly after Eminem got his hands on 50 Cent's Guess Who's Back? album in 2002, he decided to sign the rapper to Shady Records. And we can only imagine that this was one of the tracks that convinced him to do it. Even though 50 didn't have a major label deal yet, he was bold, braggadocios, and clearly very confident in himself and his lyrical abilities on this song. "Can't find a nigga in the hood that say '50 ain't hot,'" he rapped. "When I drop, I'ma sell like Eminem and Kid Rock." 50 hadn't really even developed into 50 yet. But this track-and this album as a whole-were a taste of what he was all about and what he had in store for the world.
Producer: Red Spyda
Album: Tupac: Resurrection Soundtrack
Label: Amaru
Wasn't this 50 Cent's ultimate stunt move? In 2003, he got the opportunity to rap on an official song featuring an unreleased 2Pac verse. It's something that would have left most young rappers feeling shellshocked. Not 50, though. Rather than approach the track timidly, he called Ja Rule out for trying to be exactly like 2Pac in the song's intro and then spent his entire verse taking a slew of shots at his nemesis. He rapped, "Motherfucker, I sat back and watched, you pretended to be 'Pac, you pretended to be hot." It was a bold move, for sure, but one that paid off in the end.
Producer: Eminem
Album: No Mercy, No Fear
Label: BCD Music Group
If you're going to borrow a beat that Eminem both created and destroyed, then you'd better be 100 percent sure that you can do it justice. Basically, you better be able to do what 50 Cent did here. His verse on "Soldier" wasn't long and he didn't do anything too outrageous on it. But he did do his best to match the energy that Em brought to the beat and tore through lines like, "When I pull out that thing, you better break yourself/Or win a trip to ICU, and you can take yourself." The G-Unit general delivered.
Producer: Mister Cee
Album: Forever King
Label: G-Unit Records
Over the years, 50 has borrowed songs from just about everyone and laid his own verses and hooks over them. It's how he transformed himself from a run-of-the-mill rapper into one of the hottest rappers in the game back in the early 2000s. So we're rarely surprised when we hear him ripping someone else's beat. But he outdid himself on Forever King when he swiped Michael Jackson's classic "I Wanna Be Where You Are" to create this and pay homage to the King of Pop a short time after his death. We never thought we'd hear anyone rap, "They act like they know God better than me/I know God Allah, he used to pump crack up the street," on an MJ song. But here, 50 did just that.
Producer: Eminem
Album: Music from and Inspired By the Motion Picture 8 Mile
Label: Shady/Interscope
The year was 2002 and 50 Cent was on his way to superstardom. He had just signed to Eminem's Shady Records and the only thing standing in between him and all of the fame and fortune was...himself. But on this song, he vowed, "I got places to go, got people to see, the penitentiary ain't the place for me," while celebrating the fact that he was on the right path. During the song's outro, he also bragged about driving around Los Angeles in Dr. Dre's Ferraris and helping Em make a lot of money. The beginning of that second verse-"Picture a perfect picture, picture me in a pimp hat, picture me starting shit, picture my busting my gat..."-was also something pretty special.
Producer: Sha Money XL
Album: 50 Cent Is the Future
Label: Street Dance
There were five songs on 50 Cent Is the Future that featured all of the original members of G-Unit. But this one, which sampled Nina Simone's "Feeling Good," was easily the best one on the mixtape. Lloyd Banks unloaded a clip full of punchlines (that one about putting a girl in the Boston crab is still funny), Tony Yayo provided the playbook for committing the perfect crime, and 50 Cent finished things off by boasting about being compared to 2Pac. It was the perfect way for 50 and his crew to burst onto the scene.
Producer:
Album: Guess Who's Back?
Label: Full Clip Records
This obviously isn't the first anthem about New York City written by a rapper. At this point, there are a gazillion and one of them out there and, truthfully, there are plenty that are better than this one. But 50 gave a pretty unique take on the "Rotten Apple" here and made it sound like a place that you wouldn't necessarily want to go to-partly because there are plenty of people like him running around on the streets there. "Better watch how you talk, better watch where you walk, on the streets of New York, that's how we get down," he sang on the chorus. Then again, would you expect anything less from a guy who survived being shot nine times in the city?
Producer: Dr. Dre, Mike Elizondo
Album: The Documentary
Label: G-Unit/Aftermath/Interscope
When Game was recording songs for his debut album back in 2004, Aftermath knew that he needed a hit to help him pop off. So they asked him to get into the studio with 50 Cent to record a bunch of songs for the project. This song, which featured a pretty basic but pretty amazing beat from Dr. Dre, was one of the tracks that came out of their sessions together. And 50 reportedly wrote the entire hook for the song as well as the verse that he contributed to it. Back then, 50 wasn't just turning himself into a star, he was helping turn others into stars, too.
Producer: Dr. Dre, Mike Elizondo
Album: Get Rich or Die Tryin'
Label: Shady/Aftermath/Interscope
Nothing-and we do mean nothing-could stop 50 Cent or slow him down back in 2003. His movement was strong and it was very evident that we were all witnessing something really special when he was making his way towards the top of the rap game. This song encapsulated what he must have been feeling at the time. "If I can't do it, homie, it can't be done..." Nothing was impossible for 50.
Producer: C. Styles, Bang Out, Eminem, Luis Resto
Album: The Massacre
Label: Shady/Aftermath/Interscope
What was it like to grow up in Jamaica, Queens? You could listen to some of 50's other songs and try to guess what it was like, judging by some of the things that he went through. Or you could listen to this song, which spelled out exactly what it was like for 50 coming up. He painted a picture of an unpleasant place that most of his own fans would never encounter.
Producer: Terence Dudley
Album: Power of the Dollar
Label: Trackmasters Entertainment/Columbia
Even though this song was originally recorded for 50's unreleased debut, Power of the Dollar, and even though 50 sounded nothing like he did on this song in 2003, it was still included on his official debut, Get Rich or Die Tryin', as a bonus track. Reason being, the song, which started off with 50 saying, "Nobody likes me, but that's okay, 'cause I don't like y'all anyway," pretty much summed up his entire approach to the rap game at the start of his career. He was a guy who wasn't liked by a lot of his fellow rappers. Yet, his brash "I don't give a fuck what you think" approach to rapping was what made him so appealing to rap fans. So it made perfect sense for it to appear on his first album.
Producer: Dr. Dre
Album: Get Rich or Die Tryin'
Label: Shady/Aftermath/Interscope
50 Cent didn't just diss Ja Rule on this track. He eviscerated him. He called him out for not getting any respect in his own neighborhood, criticized him for singing on songs and sounding like Cookie Monster, took shots at his Murda Inc. crew, and...well, we think you get the point. It was pretty clear that 50 and Ja weren't on the best of terms prior to this song dropping on 50's debut. But once this was out, it was obvious that 50 was coming for Ja's neck (and his necklace) and wasn't going to stop until Ja's career was over. Oh, and the skit at the end of this song? Ha. Classic 50.
Producer: Klasic
Album: Curtis
Label: Shady/Aftermath/Interscope
50 Cent has always loved to be the bad guy. For just about his entire career, he's happily played the role of the villain both on and off of his songs. This song was yet another example of that. It featured him urging people to smile because "my next album might be my last" and talking about all of the hate he's received from the likes of Oprah and Bill O'Reilly over the years. It also featured him taking some shots at Jimmy Iovine and comparing his struggles to Eminem's struggles. Of course, 50 didn't actually retire after he recorded this. But maybe that just gave his haters one more reason to hate him, which we're no doubt sure he loved.
Producer: Kareem "Reemo" Frazier, Steven "Lost Spirit" Dorsian
Album: Cradle 2 the Grave Soundtrack
Label: Bloodline/Def Jam
When's the last time you pulled out your Cradle 2 the Grave soundtrack and pressed play? Ha. Okay, so something tells us that that album is probably not in you collection, though it did have some heat on it. And one of the songs from the soundtrack that caught our ear back in 2003—and continues to catch our ear—is this G-Unit track. It features 50 Cent making a comparison between himself, Notorious B.I.G., and 2Pac, a hook that will bury itself deep inside of your head and refuse to leave once it gets stuck in there, and vintage Lloyd Banks punchlines like, "My team in the cut, packin' metal things/I've got more foreign shooters than the Sacramento Kings." It's a G-Unit classic.
Producer: Poke & Tone
Album: N/A
Label: Columbia/Sony
When 50 Cent recorded this song-which featured him rapping about robbing everyone from P Diddy and Mase to Kurupt and Jay Z-he claimed that he did it as a joke. But there weren't too many rappers who were laughing after they heard it. Big Pun, Wyclef, and Sticky Fingaz were just a few of the people who dissed 50 Cent in songs after hearing their names in "How to Rob." But if nothing else, this song made people aware of 50 Cent and proved that he was not against causing some controversy to get people to talk about him. It's a technique he used early and often later in his career.
Producer: Dr. Dre
Album: Get Rich or Die Tryin'
Label: Shady/Aftermath/Interscope
50 Cent has quite a few songs about guns tucked away in his arsenal. He's no stranger to talking about them in his raps and there are plenty of tracks that he's done that talk about nothing but guns. But "Heat" took things to a whole new level. The beat that Dr. Dre created for the song featured a series of sounds associated with guns. And 50-who claimed to be wearing a bulletproof hat in the song's outro-devoted almost every single bar in this song to some kind of gunplay. An example: "Keep thinkin' I'm candy 'til ya fuckin' skull get popped/And ya brain jump out the top like Jack-in-the-Box." Bang.
Producer: Red Spyda
Album: Guess Who's Back?
Label: Full Clip Records
Much like "Life's on the Line," this song was originally recorded long before 50 sat down and started putting together his official debut, Get Rich or Die Tryin'. It was actually recorded long before he even signed a deal with Shady Records. But it still ended up making the final GRODT tracklisting as a bonus track because it captured who 50 was—and still is—as an artist. "If you get shot and run to the cops, you not like me," he sang on the song's chorus. "You ain't got no work on the block, you not like me." 50 is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of rapper in a variety of different ways.
Producer: Eminem
Album: Get Rich or Die Tryin'
Label: Shady/Aftermath/Interscope
At the beginning of this song, 50 was quick to thank Eminem for contributing a track to his debut album. "Hey Em, you know you my favorite white boy, right?" he said. "I owe you for this one." But we think he was probably thankful for more than just the crazy production and the equally-as-crazy guest verse that Em provided for the project. Em was also the one who gave him a second chance in the music industry, so we're betting he was thankful for that, too. And he paid Em back by lyrically hanging with him on this song, proving he was a great acquisition for the fledgling Shady Records.
Producer: John "J-Praize" Freeman
Album: Get Rich or Die Tryin'
Label: Shady/Aftermath/Interscope
Originally, this song was recorded for No Mercy, No Fear, the first mixtape 50 put out after signing with Shady Records. But it was later added to the 8 Mile soundtrack and, eventually, 50's debut, Get Rich or Die Tryin', due to its overwhelming popularity. The song, which some people believed was aimed at Ja Rule, peaked at No. 13 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. And to think, it was a song that featured a word that 50 himself made up for its title. Is there anything this guy couldn't do back in 2002 and 2003?
Producer: Cool & Dre, Dr. Dre
Album: The Documentary
Label: G-Unit/Aftermath/Interscope
Depending on who you ask, 50 Cent either collaborated with Game on this track or wrote just about every single part of it, arranged the different parts, and then asked Game to lay down a couple of verses for it. Regardless of what role he actually played in creating it, 50 stole the show with an attention-grabbing opening verse—"Coming up, I was confused, my mommy kissing a girl" was his opening line—an extremely strong hook that featured both artists, and a bridge between Game's two verses that tied the whole song together. Couple all of that with the magic that Dr. Dre worked when he mastered Cool & Dre's heavily-sampled production and you've got one of the best songs of both 50 and Game's respective careers.
Producer: Darrell "Digga" Branch, Eminem, Luis Resto
Album: Get Rich or Die Tryin'
Label: Shady/Aftermath/Interscope
50 frequently takes aim at his haters on song. But this particular track was different. Here, 50 wasn't rapping about the fans who didn't want to see him succeed or the other rappers who wanted to watch him come up short when he released his debut album. Instead, he talked about the paranoia he was feeling at the time as a result of those who wanted to inflict onto him real physical harm. "Every night I talk to God, but he don't say nothing back," he rapped. "I know he protecting me, but I still stay with my gat." Had any other rapper said that on a song, we probably wouldn't have believed it. But because 50 actually got shot nine times—and because he made it sound like people out there actually wanted him dead—his paranoia was 100 percent believable.
Producer: Apex
Album: Curtis
Label: Shady/Aftermath/Interscope
Back in the early 2000s, 50 Cent had absolutely no problem coming up with hit singles. He was literally churning them out quicker than Interscope could release them, which is why several of them ended up going to other artists. But by 2007, that run had stopped and 50 was struggling big time to land on a single for his album, Curtis. From "Straight to the Bank" to "Amusement Park," nothing was working. And then seemingly out of nowhere came "I Get Money," a song that was built around a sample from Audio Two's "Top Billing." It was fun. It was catchy. And OMG, did 50 Cent stunt all over that song or what?! The guy rapped, "Have a baby by me, baby, be a millionaire/I write the check before the baby comes, who the fuck cares?"! It was exactly what 50 needed at the time and, strangely enough, ended up being one of the biggest songs of his career. It also proved why you should never doubt 50.
Producer: Poke & Tone
Album: Power of the Dollar
Label: Trackmasters Entertainment/Columbia
A lot of rappers have dedicated entire songs to rapping about drugs. But very few of them have done it in the way that 50 did here. Because rather than simply talk about drugs in generic terms on "Ghetto Qu'ran," 50 got very specific and mentioned notorious Queens-based drug dealers like Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff and Gerald "Prince" Miller on the song. He detailed their roles in the sale of drugs and talked at length about other guys who were putting in work in his part of town.
It was somewhat startling to hear 50 being so open about how the drugs flowed through Queens and the song led to Ja Rule trying to brand him a snitch. Additionally, legend has it that both 50 and Jam Master Jay were shot because of this song. It's unlike anything else that 50 has ever recorded, yet it's probably one of his most potent works to date.
Producer: Eminem
Album: No Mercy, No Fear
Label: BCD Music Group
50's verse on this song—which he recorded over Eminem's "Till I Collapse"—was less than a minute long. But as the first thing that we actually heard from 50 after he signed his $1 million deal with Aftermath Entertainment and Shady Records, it was exactly what we wanted to hear from him. He sounded hungry, aggressive, and, above all else, true to everything we'd heard from him prior to that point. "I write my life, you write what you seen in gangsta movies," he rapped. "I'm gangsta to the core, nigga, you can't move me." The $1 million investment that Dr. Dre and Eminem made sounded like it was already paying off.
Producer: Dr. Dre, Mike Elizondo
Album: Get Rich or Die Tryin'
Label: Shady/Aftermath/Interscope
It's not uncommon for a mixtape rapper to fall flat on his face once he signs a major label deal. There have actually been quite a few rappers over the years who have captured everyone's attention on the mixtape scene and then turned out to be huge duds once they've signed with a label. Because no matter how dope you are or how many metaphors you can cram into a single 16, you need to be able to put together singles in order to be a successful artist.
With that in mind, 50 Cent still had a lot to show and prove back in 2003 after signing with Aftermath and Shady. And he delivered with "In Da Club," an instant smash hit single that climbed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart and went on to sell more than two million copies. And the best part of all? 50 didn't have to compromise himself or his style of music one bit to create it.
Producer: Rob "Reef" Tewlow
Album: Get Rich or Die Tryin'
Label: Shady/Aftermath/Interscope
By the time 50 Cent released his debut album on February 6, 2003, people were well aware of who he was and what he was all about. So he didn't really have to include a great introductory song on Get Rich or Die Tryin' in order to make people pay attention to him. But this is 50 Cent, so guess what? He did it anyway!
There was nothing particularly earth-shattering about the concept behind "What Up Gangsta." 50 Cent did the same thing he did on most of his songs back then—he attempted to scare the shit out of enemies and fans alike by rapping things like, "Front on me, I'll cut ya, gun-butt ya, or buck ya/You gettin' money, I can't get none with ya, then fuck ya." But he did it with such urgency over Rob "Reef" Tewlow's pounding production that by the time he was rapping about stomping you out with "some brand-new Chukkas" on the final line of the song, you were immersed in his world and couldn't wait to see what else he had up his sleeve.
"What Up Gangsta" provided the mainstream with a great first impression of 50 and was the perfect song to help him kick off his major label career.
