The Grammy winning artist, 47, announced a 20th-anniversary tour, The Final Lap, to celebrate his debut studio album Friday. Busta Rhymes is joining him for all 90 days and Jeremih is coming along for the North American stops.
50 Cent (real name Curtis Jackson) helped define an era of hip-hop with his 2003 album that included hits “In Da Club,” “21 Questions,” and “Many Men (Wish Death).” Several of the songs referenced the moment he was shot nine times in 2000 as well as various happenings from street life in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, New York.
The album also popularized hip-hop artists rapping and singing, laying the foundation for Drake, 6LACK, Monaleo, Doechii, Ty Dolla $ign and more.
Twenty years later, 50 Cent quips that “Get Rich or Die Tryin'” anniversary signifies “I’m getting old.”
What can you expect for 50 Cent’s The Final Lap tour with Busta Rhymes and Jeremih?
If you saw the rapper perform the album in the past, don’t expect the same from this tour. “It’s gonna be a whole new show,” he promises.
“Sometimes out of habit, you go to certain records,” 50 Cent says. “People love other things on it, so I wanna make sure I touch those records before I don’t do those anymore.”
One thing you shouldn’t expect from the tour is upside-down crunches, a move he executed in the music video for “In Da Club” and duplicated during a special appearance at the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show headlined by Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Dr. Dre, Eminem and Kendrick Lamar.
“I think that was a mistake for the Super Bowl,” he says. “Everybody else walked in regular, the songs still went over and they got the trophy, too. They all won an Emmy. They got the same thing I got and I had to put myself upside down.”
Adding in jest, 50 Cent says that if he had fallen, he would have been made fun of for years to come. It was high risk over gain.
In contrast, “Get Rich or Die Tryin'” has proved to be all reward. After all, he did get rich.
Answer: It’s not really a revolution. If you’re gonna make music that is going to be world music, it has to have melodies. English is not their first speaking language in a lot of places that I travel. What (those crowds) follow is the melody until they understand what you’re saying.
Drake is the new, stronger version like that because he can do a whole pop record, sing the whole song. I’ve never done that. He’ll say that I’m one of those influences… That is a significant compliment given his professional success and outstanding work.
How did you learn to perfect your craft?
Luckily enough I was able to run into Jam Master Jay from Run DMC and he took an interest in (my music). He helped develop me as an artist in the very beginning (and) taught me my song structure.
He would make me write the chorus to the song twice or three times before we decided which one and then write the rest of the record. “P.I.M.P.” has two (choruses) on the record and that instinctively comes from because of how I learned how to write music.
