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-- by Shaheem Reid, with additional reporting by Sway Calloway, SuChin Pak, Heather Parry and Curtis Waller
A Playstation 2 system, DVD player, speakers loud enough to make your ears bleed, tinted windows, stash box and 23-inch rims are all must-haves for any A-list MC who's not traveling the road by tour bus or limo. But when you're Curtis Jackson, a.k.a. 50 Cent, your SUV has a little something extra.
"That's level four right there," 50 said while sitting in the backseat of his Jeep Cherokee, en route to Miami's Cristal Night Club. "It's bulletproof and bombproof."
Yes, bombproof. As in grenades won't stop it. K.I.T.T. from "Knight Rider," bow down.
"Bombproof," 50 said again with a chuckle. "The president be riding around in sh-- like this."
50 may not yet have as much juice as old Dubya does around the country, but for hip-hop fans, the Queens heavyweight is the chief that all hail. There is no one else.
Really. No one. 50's debut, Get Rich or Die Tryin', was the only album to be released the day it came out, February 6. Despite having to be moved up from its original February 11 street date because of bootlegging the week prior, and despite that fact it was only on sale for four days rather than the usual six before the SoundScan tally came in, the album marauded its way to the pinnacle of the Billboard albums chart, selling a staggering 872,000 copies. No debut artist has ever sold more albums their first week out.
"50's got the biggest buzz in a long time, as far as on a street level," DJ Clue said of the mania surrounding the MC. "He's got people going crazy. It's the same kind of feeling as when [the Notorious] B.I.G. first dropped his stuff."
"I love the 50 Cent album," Diddy said at his recent New York fashion show as cuts from Get Rich ... blared through the venue. "I've never really felt anticipation on an artist like that and I've dealt with Biggie and watched Dr. Dre and Snoop. This is a new type of beast."
50's mass appeal is not that much of a mystery. At a time when many MCs are obviously rhyming fairytales, hip-hop fans believe 50 when he spits those vivid life narratives and love him for having the audacity to talk about them.
"To me, rappers are liars until I see that their actions coincide with what they said through the music," 50 explained. "Me, I put my situations down and I make fun of them. Like I say, 'I gotta dimple on my face .../ I can go after Mase fanbase.' I got shot in the face. That's not a funny thing. It's not a joke, you could die. I make fun of those situations 'cause I'm not in control of these situations and I feel like to be upset or down about something I can't control is just being weak and wasting energy." |
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