He hustled his way from the streets to the top of hip hop. But for fifty Cent, the road to success wasn't easy. He grew up without his father and lost his mother at a young age. Fifty started dealing cracked until he brought his street edge to a new hustle music. He made enemies across the wrap Ward and nine Bullets nearly ended at all, but fifty came out the other side, stronger and more determined than ever, turning his anguish into fame and fortune. He was never afraid and never back down. Fifty Cent has lived by his own notorious words, get rich or die trying. This is his story behind the music. Fifty Scent was born Curtis James Jackson the third on July six n in Jamaica, Queens. His mother, Sabrina, was just fifteen. He never knew his father. I asked my mother one time he was in the park. I saw a little boy throwing football back and forth with his father. I said, why I don't done no father, mom, And she said, because he was special. He was going to the Immaculate Conception. Jesus boy, now go play. Sabrina moved out of the house shortly after Curtis was born. He was raised by his grandparents, who had nine children of their own. He was a special jah thought. He was very happy little boy. He was Caverleka my son because I had graded him with my other kids. But he would just that little was in debunked. Curtis's mom wasn't around much. She was a drug deal around the streets of South Side, Jamaica, one of New York's roughest neighborhoods, and she didn't see public assistance as an option, so she did she had to do to take care of me, and I was hustling. She spoiled very time she come to scene. She would bring him up to presidents. My mom was It was everything to me. Every time I sin it was Christmas, so I associated everything good with my mom's coming. But one day, when Curtis was eight, his mom didn't show up for a family visit. We knew something was wrong. We went over to her apartment to see what was going on. Somebody put something in a drink and then they turned the gas on. She spent a few days in the space that she was in after she passed away. So body was all decomposed by the time they got to him, I remember my grandmother explaining it like she's not gonna come back, She's in a better place, and um, I didn't understand that at that point. The way he dealt with it, he would just act out, destructively, break things and get angry a lot where he was a little more baby boy. He can't tell her child like that. Nothing much they put to the fune and everything, but he didn't know what was going on. But I could tell he missed his mother. By the time Curtis was twelve, he was following in his mother's footsteps as her friends showed him the ropes. He saw the drug dealers with a lot of money and flash and clothes, and he wanted to emulate them. Nice places to stay, nice cars, nice jewelry. They appeared to have the actual life that I wanted. From their perspective, they were helping me. Then go, well, I'm gonna give you this. You know what to do with this, and it's three and a half grands. So from three to six from my grandparent styles in after school program, I was hustling, m I know, fifties hustling his whole life. When he was twelve, he was on the block with like guys that were seventeen eighteen, like what is this little kids doing? And the wolves. In the late eighties, South Side was the epicenter of New York's crack epidemic. Curtis cooked it at his friend's house, stashed it in his room, then sold it. I was standing there with an entrepreneur spirit, and I had to be aggressive or aggressive. Curtis did what it took to survive in the neighborhood. To make himself a more imposing presence on the street, he joined a youth boxing program. I used to get my ass kicked a lot. I went to boxing to him. I learned something near goo right course the street and try it and thought the education. I actually seen him break somebody's jow before. To further defend himself. Fifty got his hands on a gun and I used it. I used it a bunch of times. I didn't hit a lot of people with it, but I used that. They didn't know I would shoot it. It changed their whole perspective on me. Based on that, I saw his lifestyle start to change. When he was in the house with us. We saw Curtis, but I've heard stories on how aggressive. He was in the streets like two different people. When he was fourteen, Curtis was arrested for bringing drugs to school. A judge sentenced him to rehab, where he quickly learned how to hustle the system. I never really indulged in usage of drugs, but they teach you like the twelve steps, and I had the kind of act as if to get out of it. It works if you work, is still work it. Hi. My name is Curtis Jackson and I'm an attic. At seventeen, Curtis was busted again when cops searched his home and found heroin, cocaine, and fifteen thousand dollars in cash. He was running well at that time. His grandfather tried to discipline him, but felt that he should have done more. That probably was one of the biggest disappointments from my grandparents to see that I had went into that lifestyle, because that's how they lost my mom. The charges could have sent him to prison for nine years, but as a teenager facing his first felony, he was offered an alternative six months in a military style boot camp. I think it definitely changed him. He knew more. He knew the system. He knew how things worked. Very smart guy. I don't know how you look at things. I slipped back into my ways after the actual program, but it worked for me because I've never been incosportd s. Curtis went back to dealing, but he knew his luck would run out eventually. Verybody hustling thinks that better than the last guy who said it. Somehow, on other they felt like they're gonna stop right before Scarface gets shot, you know what I mean? And it just it just doesn't work that way. It was time for a radical change of plans. Inspired by rappers who turned their gritty street stories into cold, hard cash, Curtis came up with a new hustle. I decided I was going to write music for a little. He told me that his probation officer had suggested that he goes into rapping. Then one day he had a chance meeting with run DMC's jam Master J and a Manhattan nightclub. I kind of hustle my way into a situation with Jay might have nothing and went straight into talking something like I knew how to do it, and he was like, all right, we'll stop finne what you got Curtis recorded a rough demo track for Jay. It just went on and on and on, and so he was like, go, what's the hook? What Jay heard was raw but very real. Seeing potential, he signed Curtis to his label, and just like that, the twenty one year old crack dealer had a new calling. He told me he was looking at a famous rapper. I said, you shure that's what you want to be, So he said yes, coming up, goes on the attack and pays a heavy price, and later he blows away a hip hop yicon, Wendy. Behind the music continues by Curtis Jackson had transformed himself from a streetwise drug dealer to budding rapper after being signed by run DMC's jam Master J. To complete his evolution, he created a new identity, taking the name of a well known Brooklyn stick up artist, fifty cent. For me, fifty cent was a metaphor for change, and then I would do things my way, which would be drastically different and even bigger. Change came a year later, when Curtis was just twenty two, he and his girlfriend Shaniqua Tompkins had a baby boy, Marquis. He got more serious about life if he knew he had to take care of his son. But I wanted to have the relationship that I didn't have with my father and my son. I didn't believe anyone would take care of him if I wasn't there to take care. Fifty gave up dealing drugs and sold off everything he had to support his family. He pinned his hopes on music, learning from jam Master J. If he would not want to leave the studio, dude was just soaking everything and he would just stay focused over in the corner, right right, right. Two years past. Progress was slow, and Fifty was frustrated that he didn't have Jay's undivided attention. So when he saw a record executive, Corey Rooney outside of barber shopping Queens, he sees the opportunity. He comes over to the car. He had like his hood on and looked sketchy. At that point, I don't know he's gonna rob me. I gave him my tape and put it in and the phone wrong and he was on the telephone. I'm like, uh yeah, yeah, yeah, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, and he gave me a look because I wasn't paying attention. I give my tape right mad old school. He looked at me like, this is a little He doesn't realize I can multitaz. So I heard everything he did. This was far beyond all This guy is good. I thought, Wow, this is the next jay Z. Fifty was signed to Columbia Records, but most of his advance went to pay his way out of the j contract broke, he returned to dealing. I had five thousand dollars and then the baby, so I had to take care him. I just put two in the fifty grounds with it. I went back to doing what I knew how to do. Fifty took only two weeks to record his debut, but the label let it language for two years. In he channeled his frustration into a lyrical assault on the biz, a track about mugging music stars called how to Rob and what do you have about right Now? I got a new single alcoholw to Rob. I wrote deliverything like that's from your heart, that's how you feel. Yeah, you know it's a little constant like comedy based on reality people going on. He was like, all right, this industry is do not let me eat, did not let me in? All right, I'm gonna rob everybody in this industry and let you know I'm coming. When I heard of the record, I was like, Wow, this guy is gonna make a lot of enemies. This guy is crazy. The single was a sensation. D MX, Big Pond, the Wu Tang Clan and jay Z all fired back that right there. That's when everybody was like, all right, Jason said his name, he's a fishert was making enemies, but none bigger than fellow Queen's rapper Rule, one of my homies. You're all job for his change, his energy shift towards me, and we ain't never been cool. Sif was the street dude, he wasn't, and fIF was like, I'm gonna get this little pump. Their animosity intensified when fifty Cent put the feud on record with your life's on the line, the ill will boiled over into a brawl in Atlanta. So we get face to face and we talked. Fifty just punches him in his uh phone. I caught him back, and now the fighting suits. We're throwing down. We're throwing down, and that's when the real real beef started, because now it's a physical thing. The violence escalated in March two thousand when Jah Rules crew paid a visit to Fifty at the Hit Factory recording studio in Manhattan. This time someone pulled a knife. They cut the lights off and ran and swinging these you know, snake knives. I've seen one of the speakers boom hit. One of them got blood everywhere and they cut Fifty. They called it a stabbing, and it sounded more graphic than it actually was. Three stitches. I got worse for having my pedal pie fifties rep as raps. New bad boy was growing for the actualtercation. It started to spiral out of control. People were coming after him because they felt he was such a threat. It got ugly. May four, two thousand something finally caught up with Fifty outside his grandmother's house in Queen's My son was in the house, my grandmother was in the front yard. Fifty got into the back seat of a friend's car. Another car pulled up beside them. It happens I hear some shoes like fire crackers. I thought it was kids. I was gonna yell at him, but when I see this guy point in the car and I said, oh, that's the car my grandson got in. Fifty reached for his gun, but it wasn't cocked when I put the gun out the actual window, and he shot down in my hand and moved to west. I got hit my thumb and came out the top of my pinks wine, gonna knuckle him all right hand. He was also hit in his face, his legs. Nine bullets and all fired at close range. And then I started yelling and then they run. Blood gushed all over the back seat as the friends sped toward the hospital, stopping only the dump fifties gun in a sewer. I kept saying, he shot me my face. Fifty was rushed into surgery. You don't know if you're actually gonna surviving. I get that cool. So many fifty got shot, So I run into his block and then I just see shells all over. You know they had homicide police. I thought he was dead. In the spring of two thousand and fifty Cent was on the cusp of rap stardom when he was ambushed outside his grandmother's house in Queens and shot nine times. I'm driving in the highway and all of a sudden, I own a radio fifty sinky shot so what rapp in critical condition after having it shot to the head straight to the hospital, and so all his family and the lobby they were crying, like for real, it's for real. He had tubes all over his body and he was unconscious. He was unconscious. I was there every day, brain vine as a bullet went through my face and into my actual tongue area, knocked my teeth out and my tongue asked for to point that I was almost suffocating myself. To clear his airway, doctors wanted to perform a trichy otomy. It was a critical decision for fifties family. But he told me if they operated on him, he may not talk again. So that's when I said, no, if he couldn't do his music, he would be lost about it. His grandmother's prayers were answered. Fifty survived without the operation, but he faced an uphill battle. He's weak, he was fragile. Um. Of course he was hurting. I don't know what it feels like to die, but doesn't look like it hurts as much as a hospital bed. It kind of made you feel like the only thing that you could really do legitimately is find the source of the actual problem and just kill him. The reason for the shooting has been the cause of endless Speculation kept popping up that it had something to do with the stabbing and connected to Gyro was record label murder anchor, and that's what the word on the street was. After leaving the hospital, he retreated to Pennsylvania's Poconot Mountains, where his girlfriend's mother owned a house. Fifty was safe, but in excruciating pain, unable to walk, his jaw wired shut. There was a sadness that he had, and that sadness was because he didn't know what was going to happen with the rest of his life. Their actually shooting, That's not even the most pain. The thing I went through the most pain I've been through with the confusion, not knowing whether I'd be able to do rap for a living. Ever, the survivor, fifty began the grueling process of rebuilding his body. I've never allowed my fear to limit me. I'll figure out how to get passed it. I think everything else is smaller than the loss of my mom. What did not kill him definitely made him stronger. Fifty was ready to conquer hip hop, but there was one problem. His label, Colombia was scared off by all the controversy. They dropped me like I couldn't even get them to answer the phone. Fifty approached other labels but found no takers. We went to so many record labels with executives actually shaken while we're in the meeting, shaken, me shaking, having a pistol. It was already caught his mandator. He did. He offered Fifty a job as a songwriter, but he wasn't exactly thrilled to find out his new employee was packing. He was the first person to call me active work. I was in his office like I heard altercation stop and he came in and I pulled my pistol. Had developed the paranoia as soon as something don't kill right, I'm shooting whoever, but because I'm not getting shot again. That was the last time he called me the right music rejected yet again. Fifty knew that he would have to do it on his own, so he started releasing independent albums known as mixtapes. His hustle was out of ten jumped to like a hundred. One of his tracks, f You, was aimed straight at his attackers. It was an aggressive tune in a new sound. Fifty still had a bullet lodged in his tongue, giving him a distinctive slur. His whole tone kind of changed a little bit. You can hear the pain in his voice. It wasn't just the voice after shooting, the confidence that he came back with. It was just a different swager. What it made him was a monster. He was kind of like, now you know, I'm here and nothing's gonna stop me. Capitalizing on the moment, he formed the group G Unit with two friends from the neighborhood that's Tony Yogo, that's the right Bank. With a growing reputation on the street, they hit the road, selling out show after show. For the first time, fifties music was paying off. I remember having like eighty tho dollars in the house. I thought I was rich. He's like this, it's gonna work now. Fifty didn't have to call the record companies. They were calling him. It was a bing wall because of the actually he I was developing in the street. All of a sudden, we got deals on the table yet like seven different labels, and I'm hearing o'kind of crazy numbers. Me. I think I would have grabbed the first deal, him saying million dollars. I'm looking at fifth boy, take it. He was like no, I just waited out. M and M, who had his own label, Shady Records, had no hesitation. I got the guests Who's Back mixtape, and I remember just listening to the first song like wow. It was like every single song that came on ended up becoming like one of my favorite songs. I felt like fifty was gonna be gigantic within them. Couple of days, I had brought him to dre and was like, Yo, you need to hear fifty. I played him one record and he was like, let's do it. He called man. It wasn't even like business hours. It was like fly out in the middle of the night, and I just said, all right, I'm gone. I remember when he walked in. I was excited to meet him and was like, homie, I'm a fan, and I just started like I think. I started like bloking out songs and lyrics and pretty much knew him by heart. He was so excited he made me nervous coming up. Fifty becomes the hottest starterist in hip hop. But trouble is never far away. We're behind the music continues in two thousand two, two years after being shot nine times and dumped by his record label, fifty Cent boarded a plane for l A to ink a deal with Eminem and Dr Dre. Him just heard the music and he did it based on the music. Me and Dre obviously weren't not strange as the controversy. We were like, let's let this guy be what he is. Let fifty fifty. They began working on fifties album immediately. I remember Dray would send him beats almost like an experiment. Let's see what fifty would do with this beat, and he would send it back and I just remember the rhyme being so crazy. Almost fell on the floor. I was like, Yo, this fifties I quit. I literally wanted to quit rapping. At that point. When Eminem put the song Wangster on the eight Mile movie soundtrack, the hype surrounding fifty Cent kicked into high gear. Wankster just blew up. It was making such a buzz in New York. Did it just became massive? Absolutely? All right, Now you've got to sell drug rules you ever right here. But just when it seemed like everything was going his way, violence once again shook fifties world. The rap world has lost a pioneer. Jam Master J of the popular group Run DMC. He was shot to death at his recording studio in New York City last night. On October two thousand, two, fifties mentor jam Master j was gunned down. A gunman burst into jam Master Jay's recording studio and shot him once in the head. When Jay got killed, it was such a surprise. I was supposed to meet him the day that he passed away, and I couldn't figure out why, like somebody would want to do that. He's not like the guy that has a lot of visible enemies. Police speculated that the hit was actually meant for fifty Cent, is considered a potential target by the same person who killed rapper jam Master jam was a very upsetting situation. The police are called and they say, if you think someone's assassinating rappers and if it's jam Master Jade and fifty must be next, They say made somebody did it to send me a message. The murder has never been solved. Sadly, j didn't live to see fifty Cent become a star. In January two thousand three, fifty released the single in the Club and the club came in was over Life Change five. I'm Out of here and we did in the club. I was thinking the celebration of life every day, someone's birthday, and then it won't get old. A month later, fifty released his debut album, Get Rich or Die Trying this time had finally come. It did like eight hundred thousand in the first week, and he was like what. Then the second week came in and there was no drop off, and I was like wow. I remember sitting on the bus with him and he's like, I noticed feeling ain't gonna have and again, so I'm just sitting just soaking up. He was amazed, man, he was amazed. After a long and brutal struggle to make it, the ex hustler from Queen suddenly had the world at his feet. And the award for Best Rap Video goes to tween two thousands three and two thousand and five. I think I've seen representation of every kind of God made the girls through the man's crazy, who's nuts to go in in the hotel room and the girls hops out like how did you get in here? It's a transition because you go from the norm to be in this instant sex symbol and it's like people going crazy and she's just going, oh my god, I'm like me, are you serious? Come on? Baby? But fifties hedonistic lifestyle came with a cost. His relationship with longtime girlfriend Shaniqua Tompkins, the mother of his child, was falling apart. We know each other for about thirteen years. She sees all of these women and they make her secure, and the relationship just went bad completely. To make things worse, fifty looked around and saw almost no one he could trust. Everybody starts to develop a sense entitled and even friends. Damn, how the money you made this year? If yo, you should buy me a car? I can't even remember them loaning be filed out. If I can remember, I give it back. What was doing shows? I would come up with some money, like yo, here's a stack like in a touching on it right, like I don't know, I'm lost one, Brittan, this to you. He didn't trust nobody, so I always knew that never played with his money. Yoh never. But not even personal turmoil could slow down fifty cent. In two thousand and five, his second album, The Massacre, sold over four million copies. The Kid from Queens had what every artist dreams of, and now all he wanted was more. I don't see a limit. How far I feel like I can make billions and billions of dollars. By two thousand and five, fifty cents was more than just a hit pop star. Not only was his second album, The Massacre another huge success, he was now the ruler of his own business empire. He had his own label, g Unit Records, and a budding acting career. Deals with Mark Echo and Reebok earned him millions more. Those things right here, they come out, no pimber y'all. He was thinking a step ahead of everybody when they were thinking fifty cents. He was thinking fifty cents. Even at the brand. Guy still has a hustler mentality. And now we're doing the right things with a hustler mentality, not to room him fifties. Biggest score was a venture with Vitamin Water, in which he took his endorsement fee in company stock and reportedly came away with a cool one million. He wanted something healthy, and I remember he was like, I want to do water, well water. Yeah, everybody drinks water. Man. That was the illest deal of it, Sentuary right there, that you know about his own bevery We've made more money on our brand extensions than selling records. But as his fortune grew, so did the criticism that Fifty was losing his edge. He's too successful, he's too rich, he's too this that by him and Water was too good, and they just didn't want to see him wind almore street cred. I don't even know what street cred is, but the Viroman want to deal is just good business. To his rivals, fifty Cents seemed soft, and the rapper who made his mark by targeting hip hop superstars was suddenly a target himself. Embroiled in feud with the likes of Naz, Jada, Kiss and Fat Joe saw a part of the hip hop culture. So I've been constantly confronted. You can't knock him, but shooting when everybody else is snicking, it doesn't mean that fifty starting with him, we're finishing the issue more than anyone. Fifty knew these battles came with the territory, but he viewed one attack by his g unit label Protegee the game as the ultimate rail. Fifty embraced them, took a man flow, the New York had him in the mansion, recorded all those records. I followed this man's lead, and we hold it down. I gave a lot of material that I created away, like I put that on to create games out these records. Fifty was writing for himself that he personally said, all right, I'm gonna take my first off you do this. I'm gonna take my hook off you do that. So he helped mold this whole shape, but soon after the game's debut album was released, he began challenging fifties authority at g und even consorting with fifties enemies. Fifty also says the game didn't give him proper writing credit on his album. A public war of words ensued. The game situation comes from jealousy like they want to be. The game wasn't rolling as a team member like he should. When you're part of the pre you're supposed to have the allegiance to the boss, and he didn't have that trash you know what I'm saying, garbage Fifty and magazines just knowing me every chance they get. The game was getting too disrespectful and he was on the radio talking manage. He took a real personal Not surprisingly, Fifty had the last word, firing the game from g Unit live on the air game. We have no communication. It's a shame that couldn't actually be resolved in conversation. Don't come to a fight with Fifth with a knife. You better come with your guns, because he is gonna destroy you. Fifty Cent had become a hip hop king by taking on some of the biggest names in the biz, but by two thousand and seven he was under siege from critics and rivals looking to knock him off his throne, which only intensified the pressure as he began work on his third album, Curtis, I found myself in the space where I was in probably the most vulnerable state as an artist. Every artist has that doubt in their mind of like, am I gonna live up to the hype? What is the hype to help ensure a hit record? Fifty summons his street savvy, the man who built his reputation on feuds manufactured one and Kaya westsells more of a or September that I'll no longer write music. With their albums coming out the same day, fifties Bold challenge made headlines. You said that if Kanye out sells you, I'm getting this right, that you will not make any more music. Are you really going to retire if no place saying that you set yourself. I don't care the media and fans ate it up. We set up the energy to get the consumers into a frenzy. You got everybody talking about the battle between you and Kanye. I'm it's exciting, man. We made a game. I don't have beefoot anyone. Actually, I don't like Kanye West to the end of this week, okay, because after number one we can be forens to good Kanye. He's selling nearly a million copies in the first week. Won the battle, but they both won the war. Me and Kanye collectively created the largest selling week for hip hop sales. People like controversy, people like beef, and he knew how to capitalize. Kanye West is the X, older and wiser fifty Cent doesn't get caught up in controversy the way he used to. People can say what they want Now he just laughs and find so many different things to say about me. But addicted to cocaine and croatia up and he's the steroids for me. It doesn't matter. I get a chance to be the guy in the picture. Fifty shows time and again that he hasn't lost the edge honed on the violent streets of Queens Queen. He's never forgotten his past. It's the fuel that drives his rhymes and still pushes him in his relentless quest for success. I think the fifty wants to go back to what made people love him in the first place. Fifty is a hustler. It's pretty much in his blood right now. Creatively, I find more significance and the struggle. I reflect on how far I've came. I can ask my mom a question. I probably asked up, how do I look? Because I know she's been with me the time. People surprise you, you might think they're gonna be a nothing. And by not being a suthing, he just took off like the wind is blowing, he just took off. I'm an addict. I'm addicted to success. Unfortunately, there's no rehab of success, and I'm in love with how it feels. If I can't create a direct parallel to a drug, but it's absolutely my violence. Fifty cents career as both a business entrepreneur and as a hip hop icon have continued to grow. From energy drinks to headphones to vodka. He's created product lines and partnered with brands. Remaining hungry for success, fifty founded two film and television production companies and served as a co star, co creator, and executive producer for the hit stars drama Power. As rap music has grown and evolved, fifty has become a mentor and an inspiration for a new generation of rappers. His debut album, Get Rich or Die Trying remains one of the most successful and popular albums of the two thousands, and fifty Cent has solidified himself as one of hip hop's most successful artists. Listen to Behind the Music on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Want more episodes, you can watch remastered best of the Vault and new episodes Behind the Music only on Paramount Plus.

He hustled his way from the streets to the top of hip hop. But for fifty Cent, the road to success wasn't easy. He grew up without his father and lost his mother at a young age. Fifty started dealing cracked until he brought his street edge to a new hustle music. He made enemies across the wrap Ward and nine Bullets nearly ended at all, but fifty came out the other side, stronger and more determined than ever, turning his anguish into fame and fortune. He was never afraid and never back down. Fifty Cent has lived by his own notorious words, get rich or die trying. This is his story behind the music. Fifty Scent was born Curtis James Jackson the third on July six n in Jamaica, Queens. His mother, Sabrina, was just fifteen. He never knew his father. I asked my mother one time he was in the park. I saw a little boy throwing football back and forth with his father. I said, why I don't done no father, mom, And she said, because he was special. He was going to the Immaculate Conception. Jesus boy, now go play. Sabrina moved out of the house shortly after Curtis was born. He was raised by his grandparents, who had nine children of their own. He was a special jah thought. He was very happy little boy. He was Caverleka my son because I had graded him with my other kids. But he would just that little was in debunked. Curtis's mom wasn't around much. She was a drug deal around the streets of South Side, Jamaica, one of New York's roughest neighborhoods, and she didn't see public assistance as an option, so she did she had to do to take care of me, and I was hustling. She spoiled very time she come to scene. She would bring him up to presidents. My mom was It was everything to me. Every time I sin it was Christmas, so I associated everything good with my mom's coming. But one day, when Curtis was eight, his mom didn't show up for a family visit. We knew something was wrong. We went over to her apartment to see what was going on. Somebody put something in a drink and then they turned the gas on. She spent a few days in the space that she was in after she passed away. So body was all decomposed by the time they got to him, I remember my grandmother explaining it like she's not gonna come back, She's in a better place, and um, I didn't understand that at that point. The way he dealt with it, he would just act out, destructively, break things and get angry a lot where he was a little more baby boy. He can't tell her child like that. Nothing much they put to the fune and everything, but he didn't know what was going on. But I could tell he missed his mother. By the time Curtis was twelve, he was following in his mother's footsteps as her friends showed him the ropes. He saw the drug dealers with a lot of money and flash and clothes, and he wanted to emulate them. Nice places to stay, nice cars, nice jewelry. They appeared to have the actual life that I wanted. From their perspective, they were helping me. Then go, well, I'm gonna give you this. You know what to do with this, and it's three and a half grands. So from three to six from my grandparent styles in after school program, I was hustling, m I know, fifties hustling his whole life. When he was twelve, he was on the block with like guys that were seventeen eighteen, like what is this little kids doing? And the wolves. In the late eighties, South Side was the epicenter of New York's crack epidemic. Curtis cooked it at his friend's house, stashed it in his room, then sold it. I was standing there with an entrepreneur spirit, and I had to be aggressive or aggressive. Curtis did what it took to survive in the neighborhood. To make himself a more imposing presence on the street, he joined a youth boxing program. I used to get my ass kicked a lot. I went to boxing to him. I learned something near goo right course the street and try it and thought the education. I actually seen him break somebody's jow before. To further defend himself. Fifty got his hands on a gun and I used it. I used it a bunch of times. I didn't hit a lot of people with it, but I used that. They didn't know I would shoot it. It changed their whole perspective on me. Based on that, I saw his lifestyle start to change. When he was in the house with us. We saw Curtis, but I've heard stories on how aggressive. He was in the streets like two different people. When he was fourteen, Curtis was arrested for bringing drugs to school. A judge sentenced him to rehab, where he quickly learned how to hustle the system. I never really indulged in usage of drugs, but they teach you like the twelve steps, and I had the kind of act as if to get out of it. It works if you work, is still work it. Hi. My name is Curtis Jackson and I'm an attic. At seventeen, Curtis was busted again when cops searched his home and found heroin, cocaine, and fifteen thousand dollars in cash. He was running well at that time. His grandfather tried to discipline him, but felt that he should have done more. That probably was one of the biggest disappointments from my grandparents to see that I had went into that lifestyle, because that's how they lost my mom. The charges could have sent him to prison for nine years, but as a teenager facing his first felony, he was offered an alternative six months in a military style boot camp. I think it definitely changed him. He knew more. He knew the system. He knew how things worked. Very smart guy. I don't know how you look at things. I slipped back into my ways after the actual program, but it worked for me because I've never been incosportd s. Curtis went back to dealing, but he knew his luck would run out eventually. Verybody hustling thinks that better than the last guy who said it. Somehow, on other they felt like they're gonna stop right before Scarface gets shot, you know what I mean? And it just it just doesn't work that way. It was time for a radical change of plans. Inspired by rappers who turned their gritty street stories into cold, hard cash, Curtis came up with a new hustle. I decided I was going to write music for a little. He told me that his probation officer had suggested that he goes into rapping. Then one day he had a chance meeting with run DMC's jam Master J and a Manhattan nightclub. I kind of hustle my way into a situation with Jay might have nothing and went straight into talking something like I knew how to do it, and he was like, all right, we'll stop finne what you got Curtis recorded a rough demo track for Jay. It just went on and on and on, and so he was like, go, what's the hook? What Jay heard was raw but very real. Seeing potential, he signed Curtis to his label, and just like that, the twenty one year old crack dealer had a new calling. He told me he was looking at a famous rapper. I said, you shure that's what you want to be, So he said yes, coming up, goes on the attack and pays a heavy price, and later he blows away a hip hop yicon, Wendy. Behind the music continues by Curtis Jackson had transformed himself from a streetwise drug dealer to budding rapper after being signed by run DMC's jam Master J. To complete his evolution, he created a new identity, taking the name of a well known Brooklyn stick up artist, fifty cent. For me, fifty cent was a metaphor for change, and then I would do things my way, which would be drastically different and even bigger. Change came a year later, when Curtis was just twenty two, he and his girlfriend Shaniqua Tompkins had a baby boy, Marquis. He got more serious about life if he knew he had to take care of his son. But I wanted to have the relationship that I didn't have with my father and my son. I didn't believe anyone would take care of him if I wasn't there to take care. Fifty gave up dealing drugs and sold off everything he had to support his family. He pinned his hopes on music, learning from jam Master J. If he would not want to leave the studio, dude was just soaking everything and he would just stay focused over in the corner, right right, right. Two years past. Progress was slow, and Fifty was frustrated that he didn't have Jay's undivided attention. So when he saw a record executive, Corey Rooney outside of barber shopping Queens, he sees the opportunity. He comes over to the car. He had like his hood on and looked sketchy. At that point, I don't know he's gonna rob me. I gave him my tape and put it in and the phone wrong and he was on the telephone. I'm like, uh yeah, yeah, yeah, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, and he gave me a look because I wasn't paying attention. I give my tape right mad old school. He looked at me like, this is a little He doesn't realize I can multitaz. So I heard everything he did. This was far beyond all This guy is good. I thought, Wow, this is the next jay Z. Fifty was signed to Columbia Records, but most of his advance went to pay his way out of the j contract broke, he returned to dealing. I had five thousand dollars and then the baby, so I had to take care him. I just put two in the fifty grounds with it. I went back to doing what I knew how to do. Fifty took only two weeks to record his debut, but the label let it language for two years. In he channeled his frustration into a lyrical assault on the biz, a track about mugging music stars called how to Rob and what do you have about right Now? I got a new single alcoholw to Rob. I wrote deliverything like that's from your heart, that's how you feel. Yeah, you know it's a little constant like comedy based on reality people going on. He was like, all right, this industry is do not let me eat, did not let me in? All right, I'm gonna rob everybody in this industry and let you know I'm coming. When I heard of the record, I was like, Wow, this guy is gonna make a lot of enemies. This guy is crazy. The single was a sensation. D MX, Big Pond, the Wu Tang Clan and jay Z all fired back that right there. That's when everybody was like, all right, Jason said his name, he's a fishert was making enemies, but none bigger than fellow Queen's rapper Rule, one of my homies. You're all job for his change, his energy shift towards me, and we ain't never been cool. Sif was the street dude, he wasn't, and fIF was like, I'm gonna get this little pump. Their animosity intensified when fifty Cent put the feud on record with your life's on the line, the ill will boiled over into a brawl in Atlanta. So we get face to face and we talked. Fifty just punches him in his uh phone. I caught him back, and now the fighting suits. We're throwing down. We're throwing down, and that's when the real real beef started, because now it's a physical thing. The violence escalated in March two thousand when Jah Rules crew paid a visit to Fifty at the Hit Factory recording studio in Manhattan. This time someone pulled a knife. They cut the lights off and ran and swinging these you know, snake knives. I've seen one of the speakers boom hit. One of them got blood everywhere and they cut Fifty. They called it a stabbing, and it sounded more graphic than it actually was. Three stitches. I got worse for having my pedal pie fifties rep as raps. New bad boy was growing for the actualtercation. It started to spiral out of control. People were coming after him because they felt he was such a threat. It got ugly. May four, two thousand something finally caught up with Fifty outside his grandmother's house in Queen's My son was in the house, my grandmother was in the front yard. Fifty got into the back seat of a friend's car. Another car pulled up beside them. It happens I hear some shoes like fire crackers. I thought it was kids. I was gonna yell at him, but when I see this guy point in the car and I said, oh, that's the car my grandson got in. Fifty reached for his gun, but it wasn't cocked when I put the gun out the actual window, and he shot down in my hand and moved to west. I got hit my thumb and came out the top of my pinks wine, gonna knuckle him all right hand. He was also hit in his face, his legs. Nine bullets and all fired at close range. And then I started yelling and then they run. Blood gushed all over the back seat as the friends sped toward the hospital, stopping only the dump fifties gun in a sewer. I kept saying, he shot me my face. Fifty was rushed into surgery. You don't know if you're actually gonna surviving. I get that cool. So many fifty got shot, So I run into his block and then I just see shells all over. You know they had homicide police. I thought he was dead. In the spring of two thousand and fifty Cent was on the cusp of rap stardom when he was ambushed outside his grandmother's house in Queens and shot nine times. I'm driving in the highway and all of a sudden, I own a radio fifty sinky shot so what rapp in critical condition after having it shot to the head straight to the hospital, and so all his family and the lobby they were crying, like for real, it's for real. He had tubes all over his body and he was unconscious. He was unconscious. I was there every day, brain vine as a bullet went through my face and into my actual tongue area, knocked my teeth out and my tongue asked for to point that I was almost suffocating myself. To clear his airway, doctors wanted to perform a trichy otomy. It was a critical decision for fifties family. But he told me if they operated on him, he may not talk again. So that's when I said, no, if he couldn't do his music, he would be lost about it. His grandmother's prayers were answered. Fifty survived without the operation, but he faced an uphill battle. He's weak, he was fragile. Um. Of course he was hurting. I don't know what it feels like to die, but doesn't look like it hurts as much as a hospital bed. It kind of made you feel like the only thing that you could really do legitimately is find the source of the actual problem and just kill him. The reason for the shooting has been the cause of endless Speculation kept popping up that it had something to do with the stabbing and connected to Gyro was record label murder anchor, and that's what the word on the street was. After leaving the hospital, he retreated to Pennsylvania's Poconot Mountains, where his girlfriend's mother owned a house. Fifty was safe, but in excruciating pain, unable to walk, his jaw wired shut. There was a sadness that he had, and that sadness was because he didn't know what was going to happen with the rest of his life. Their actually shooting, That's not even the most pain. The thing I went through the most pain I've been through with the confusion, not knowing whether I'd be able to do rap for a living. Ever, the survivor, fifty began the grueling process of rebuilding his body. I've never allowed my fear to limit me. I'll figure out how to get passed it. I think everything else is smaller than the loss of my mom. What did not kill him definitely made him stronger. Fifty was ready to conquer hip hop, but there was one problem. His label, Colombia was scared off by all the controversy. They dropped me like I couldn't even get them to answer the phone. Fifty approached other labels but found no takers. We went to so many record labels with executives actually shaken while we're in the meeting, shaken, me shaking, having a pistol. It was already caught his mandator. He did. He offered Fifty a job as a songwriter, but he wasn't exactly thrilled to find out his new employee was packing. He was the first person to call me active work. I was in his office like I heard altercation stop and he came in and I pulled my pistol. Had developed the paranoia as soon as something don't kill right, I'm shooting whoever, but because I'm not getting shot again. That was the last time he called me the right music rejected yet again. Fifty knew that he would have to do it on his own, so he started releasing independent albums known as mixtapes. His hustle was out of ten jumped to like a hundred. One of his tracks, f You, was aimed straight at his attackers. It was an aggressive tune in a new sound. Fifty still had a bullet lodged in his tongue, giving him a distinctive slur. His whole tone kind of changed a little bit. You can hear the pain in his voice. It wasn't just the voice after shooting, the confidence that he came back with. It was just a different swager. What it made him was a monster. He was kind of like, now you know, I'm here and nothing's gonna stop me. Capitalizing on the moment, he formed the group G Unit with two friends from the neighborhood that's Tony Yogo, that's the right Bank. With a growing reputation on the street, they hit the road, selling out show after show. For the first time, fifties music was paying off. I remember having like eighty tho dollars in the house. I thought I was rich. He's like this, it's gonna work now. Fifty didn't have to call the record companies. They were calling him. It was a bing wall because of the actually he I was developing in the street. All of a sudden, we got deals on the table yet like seven different labels, and I'm hearing o'kind of crazy numbers. Me. I think I would have grabbed the first deal, him saying million dollars. I'm looking at fifth boy, take it. He was like no, I just waited out. M and M, who had his own label, Shady Records, had no hesitation. I got the guests Who's Back mixtape, and I remember just listening to the first song like wow. It was like every single song that came on ended up becoming like one of my favorite songs. I felt like fifty was gonna be gigantic within them. Couple of days, I had brought him to dre and was like, Yo, you need to hear fifty. I played him one record and he was like, let's do it. He called man. It wasn't even like business hours. It was like fly out in the middle of the night, and I just said, all right, I'm gone. I remember when he walked in. I was excited to meet him and was like, homie, I'm a fan, and I just started like I think. I started like bloking out songs and lyrics and pretty much knew him by heart. He was so excited he made me nervous coming up. Fifty becomes the hottest starterist in hip hop. But trouble is never far away. We're behind the music continues in two thousand two, two years after being shot nine times and dumped by his record label, fifty Cent boarded a plane for l A to ink a deal with Eminem and Dr Dre. Him just heard the music and he did it based on the music. Me and Dre obviously weren't not strange as the controversy. We were like, let's let this guy be what he is. Let fifty fifty. They began working on fifties album immediately. I remember Dray would send him beats almost like an experiment. Let's see what fifty would do with this beat, and he would send it back and I just remember the rhyme being so crazy. Almost fell on the floor. I was like, Yo, this fifties I quit. I literally wanted to quit rapping. At that point. When Eminem put the song Wangster on the eight Mile movie soundtrack, the hype surrounding fifty Cent kicked into high gear. Wankster just blew up. It was making such a buzz in New York. Did it just became massive? Absolutely? All right, Now you've got to sell drug rules you ever right here. But just when it seemed like everything was going his way, violence once again shook fifties world. The rap world has lost a pioneer. Jam Master J of the popular group Run DMC. He was shot to death at his recording studio in New York City last night. On October two thousand, two, fifties mentor jam Master j was gunned down. A gunman burst into jam Master Jay's recording studio and shot him once in the head. When Jay got killed, it was such a surprise. I was supposed to meet him the day that he passed away, and I couldn't figure out why, like somebody would want to do that. He's not like the guy that has a lot of visible enemies. Police speculated that the hit was actually meant for fifty Cent, is considered a potential target by the same person who killed rapper jam Master jam was a very upsetting situation. The police are called and they say, if you think someone's assassinating rappers and if it's jam Master Jade and fifty must be next, They say made somebody did it to send me a message. The murder has never been solved. Sadly, j didn't live to see fifty Cent become a star. In January two thousand three, fifty released the single in the Club and the club came in was over Life Change five. I'm Out of here and we did in the club. I was thinking the celebration of life every day, someone's birthday, and then it won't get old. A month later, fifty released his debut album, Get Rich or Die Trying this time had finally come. It did like eight hundred thousand in the first week, and he was like what. Then the second week came in and there was no drop off, and I was like wow. I remember sitting on the bus with him and he's like, I noticed feeling ain't gonna have and again, so I'm just sitting just soaking up. He was amazed, man, he was amazed. After a long and brutal struggle to make it, the ex hustler from Queen suddenly had the world at his feet. And the award for Best Rap Video goes to tween two thousands three and two thousand and five. I think I've seen representation of every kind of God made the girls through the man's crazy, who's nuts to go in in the hotel room and the girls hops out like how did you get in here? It's a transition because you go from the norm to be in this instant sex symbol and it's like people going crazy and she's just going, oh my god, I'm like me, are you serious? Come on? Baby? But fifties hedonistic lifestyle came with a cost. His relationship with longtime girlfriend Shaniqua Tompkins, the mother of his child, was falling apart. We know each other for about thirteen years. She sees all of these women and they make her secure, and the relationship just went bad completely. To make things worse, fifty looked around and saw almost no one he could trust. Everybody starts to develop a sense entitled and even friends. Damn, how the money you made this year? If yo, you should buy me a car? I can't even remember them loaning be filed out. If I can remember, I give it back. What was doing shows? I would come up with some money, like yo, here's a stack like in a touching on it right, like I don't know, I'm lost one, Brittan, this to you. He didn't trust nobody, so I always knew that never played with his money. Yoh never. But not even personal turmoil could slow down fifty cent. In two thousand and five, his second album, The Massacre, sold over four million copies. The Kid from Queens had what every artist dreams of, and now all he wanted was more. I don't see a limit. How far I feel like I can make billions and billions of dollars. By two thousand and five, fifty cents was more than just a hit pop star. Not only was his second album, The Massacre another huge success, he was now the ruler of his own business empire. He had his own label, g Unit Records, and a budding acting career. Deals with Mark Echo and Reebok earned him millions more. Those things right here, they come out, no pimber y'all. He was thinking a step ahead of everybody when they were thinking fifty cents. He was thinking fifty cents. Even at the brand. Guy still has a hustler mentality. And now we're doing the right things with a hustler mentality, not to room him fifties. Biggest score was a venture with Vitamin Water, in which he took his endorsement fee in company stock and reportedly came away with a cool one million. He wanted something healthy, and I remember he was like, I want to do water, well water. Yeah, everybody drinks water. Man. That was the illest deal of it, Sentuary right there, that you know about his own bevery We've made more money on our brand extensions than selling records. But as his fortune grew, so did the criticism that Fifty was losing his edge. He's too successful, he's too rich, he's too this that by him and Water was too good, and they just didn't want to see him wind almore street cred. I don't even know what street cred is, but the Viroman want to deal is just good business. To his rivals, fifty Cents seemed soft, and the rapper who made his mark by targeting hip hop superstars was suddenly a target himself. Embroiled in feud with the likes of Naz, Jada, Kiss and Fat Joe saw a part of the hip hop culture. So I've been constantly confronted. You can't knock him, but shooting when everybody else is snicking, it doesn't mean that fifty starting with him, we're finishing the issue more than anyone. Fifty knew these battles came with the territory, but he viewed one attack by his g unit label Protegee the game as the ultimate rail. Fifty embraced them, took a man flow, the New York had him in the mansion, recorded all those records. I followed this man's lead, and we hold it down. I gave a lot of material that I created away, like I put that on to create games out these records. Fifty was writing for himself that he personally said, all right, I'm gonna take my first off you do this. I'm gonna take my hook off you do that. So he helped mold this whole shape, but soon after the game's debut album was released, he began challenging fifties authority at g und even consorting with fifties enemies. Fifty also says the game didn't give him proper writing credit on his album. A public war of words ensued. The game situation comes from jealousy like they want to be. The game wasn't rolling as a team member like he should. When you're part of the pre you're supposed to have the allegiance to the boss, and he didn't have that trash you know what I'm saying, garbage Fifty and magazines just knowing me every chance they get. The game was getting too disrespectful and he was on the radio talking manage. He took a real personal Not surprisingly, Fifty had the last word, firing the game from g Unit live on the air game. We have no communication. It's a shame that couldn't actually be resolved in conversation. Don't come to a fight with Fifth with a knife. You better come with your guns, because he is gonna destroy you. Fifty Cent had become a hip hop king by taking on some of the biggest names in the biz, but by two thousand and seven he was under siege from critics and rivals looking to knock him off his throne, which only intensified the pressure as he began work on his third album, Curtis, I found myself in the space where I was in probably the most vulnerable state as an artist. Every artist has that doubt in their mind of like, am I gonna live up to the hype? What is the hype to help ensure a hit record? Fifty summons his street savvy, the man who built his reputation on feuds manufactured one and Kaya westsells more of a or September that I'll no longer write music. With their albums coming out the same day, fifties Bold challenge made headlines. You said that if Kanye out sells you, I'm getting this right, that you will not make any more music. Are you really going to retire if no place saying that you set yourself. I don't care the media and fans ate it up. We set up the energy to get the consumers into a frenzy. You got everybody talking about the battle between you and Kanye. I'm it's exciting, man. We made a game. I don't have beefoot anyone. Actually, I don't like Kanye West to the end of this week, okay, because after number one we can be forens to good Kanye. He's selling nearly a million copies in the first week. Won the battle, but they both won the war. Me and Kanye collectively created the largest selling week for hip hop sales. People like controversy, people like beef, and he knew how to capitalize. Kanye West is the X, older and wiser fifty Cent doesn't get caught up in controversy the way he used to. People can say what they want Now he just laughs and find so many different things to say about me. But addicted to cocaine and croatia up and he's the steroids for me. It doesn't matter. I get a chance to be the guy in the picture. Fifty shows time and again that he hasn't lost the edge honed on the violent streets of Queens Queen. He's never forgotten his past. It's the fuel that drives his rhymes and still pushes him in his relentless quest for success. I think the fifty wants to go back to what made people love him in the first place. Fifty is a hustler. It's pretty much in his blood right now. Creatively, I find more significance and the struggle. I reflect on how far I've came. I can ask my mom a question. I probably asked up, how do I look? Because I know she's been with me the time. People surprise you, you might think they're gonna be a nothing. And by not being a suthing, he just took off like the wind is blowing, he just took off. I'm an addict. I'm addicted to success. Unfortunately, there's no rehab of success, and I'm in love with how it feels. If I can't create a direct parallel to a drug, but it's absolutely my violence. Fifty cents career as both a business entrepreneur and as a hip hop icon have continued to grow. From energy drinks to headphones to vodka. He's created product lines and partnered with brands. Remaining hungry for success, fifty founded two film and television production companies and served as a co star, co creator, and executive producer for the hit stars drama Power. As rap music has grown and evolved, fifty has become a mentor and an inspiration for a new generation of rappers. His debut album, Get Rich or Die Trying remains one of the most successful and popular albums of the two thousands, and fifty Cent has solidified himself as one of hip hop's most successful artists. Listen to Behind the Music on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Want more episodes, you can watch remastered best of the Vault and new episodes Behind the Music only on Paramount Plus.