50 Cent Drops Get Rich or Die Tryin’ Album – Today in Hip-Hop
XXL celebrates 50 years of hip-hop with this moment:
Feb. 6, 2003: It’s been 20 years since 50 Cent first made an impact in the game with his stellar debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin'. The nine-times platinum album delivered seven entries on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and four Grammy nominations (among a long list of others noms). Overall, Fif’s 2003 opus successfully cemented the former hustler as a rap phenomenon.
Opening with his signature 50 cent coin drops, and closing with the reflective "Gotta Make It to Heaven," Get Rich or Die Tryin' gives a look inside the paranoid mind of Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson: the South Jamaica, Queens drug dealer shot nine times only to survive, get dropped from Columbia Records and later hold court on Shady/Aftermath/Interscope Records.
Fif's cold-blooded delivery on the mic seeped throughout the album, whether he was being contemplative ("Many Men," "Gotta Make It to Heaven") or menacing ("Don’t Push Me," "What Up Gangsta"). His attempt at winning over the hip-hop outsiders even worked thanks to the Dr. Dre-produced smash "In Da Club" and the Nate Dogg-assisted rap ballad "21 Questions."
50 Cent's debut album proved to be pivotal in the New York rhymer's career, taking him from the corners of the tough streets of South Jamaica, Queens to becoming a rap superstar-turned-television mogul.
Not bad for a self-proclaimed "Bad Guy."