In 2000, 50 Cent was shot nine times in the face and body in front of his grandmother’s house. An album, Power of a Dollar, was recorded for Columbia but never reached stores (though the street knows it well now). The second single, “Thug Love,” featured Destiny’s Child moments before they became globally known. 50 Cent’s first single was one of 1999’s most unusual radio hits, “How To Rob,” a comic list of hip-hop celebrities he planned to mug: “I’d rob ODB but that’d be a waste of time … I’d rob Pun without a gun, snatch his piece and run/ This nigga weigh 400 pounds, how he gon’ catch me, son?” Ballsy and clever, the track made it clear 50 Cent was not a docile genre rapper. Orphaned at 8 when his drug-dealing mother was shot in front of him, 50 Cent turned to dealing and was stabbed once and jailed numerous times in the ‘90s. Born 27 years ago in Queens as Curtis Jackson, 50 Cent is the biggest news in hip-hop, and he’s got a back story ready for TV. It’s the kind of boast that might show up in 50 Cent’s rhymes. Selling legitimate pressings of major-label releases and gray-market mix CDs, the lone vendor said two remarkable words when I asked if he had any 50 Cent albums: “Sold out.” When you buy street CDs, nothing’s ever sold out. 25, the bootleg-CD sellers that line Canal Street in downtown Manhattan were absent, save one. But until he drops that truly jaw-dropping album - or falls victim to his own hubris - this will certainly do.On Tuesday, Feb. And though he very well could be the rightful successor to the Biggie- Jigga- Nas triptych, Get Rich isn't quite the masterpiece 50 seems capable of, impressive or not. Dre (who does four) credit for laying out the red carpet here, and also give 50 credit for reveling brilliantly in his much-documented mystique - from his gun fetish to his witty swagger, 50 has the makings of a street legend, and it's no secret. Give Em (who produces two tracks) and Dr. After all, when co-executive producer Eminem raps, "Take some Big and some Pac/And you mix them up in a pot/Sprinkle a little Big L on top/What the f*ck do you got?" you know the answer. In sum, Get Rich is an incredibly calculated album, albeit an amazing one. That debate aside, however, Get Rich plays like a blueprint rap debut should: there's a tense, suspenseful intro ("What Up Gangsta"), an ethos-establishing tag-team spar with Eminem ("Patiently Waiting"), a street-cred appeal ("Many Men "), a tailor-made mass-market good-time single ("In da Club"), a multifaceted tread through somber ghetto drama (from "High All the Time" to "Gotta Make It to Heaven"), and finally three bonus tracks that reprise 50's previously released hits ("Wanksta," "U Not Like Me," "Life's on the Line") - in that precise order. The thing, though, is that 50 isn't exactly a rookie, and it's debatable as to whether or not Get Rich can be considered a true debut (see the unreleased Power of the Dollar and the Guess Who's Back? compilation ).
Even so, Get Rich is indeed an impressive debut, not quite on the level of such landmark debuts as the aforementioned ones by Snoop or Nas - or those by Biggie, Wu-Tang, or DMX either - but impressive nonetheless, definitely ushering in 50 as one of the truly eminent rappers of his era. In fact, the expectations were so massive that they overshadowed the music itself - 50 becoming more of a phenomenon than simply a rapper - so massive that you had to be skeptical, particularly given the marketing-savvy nature of the rap world. Probably the most hyped debut album by a rap artist in about a decade, most likely since Snoop's Doggystyle (1993) or perhaps Nas' Illmatic (1994), 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin' certainly arrived amid massive expectations.
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