50 Cent

50 Cent, a.k.a. Curtis James Jackson III, was born July 6, 1975 in Queens, New York. He is a rap artist. 50 began dealing drugs at age 12 but eventually quit to pursue a rap career. In 2000, Columbia Records refused to release his heavily-bootlegged first album, Power of the Dollar. Eminem came to 50’s rescue, signing him to his label Shady/Aftermath. In 2003, the label released 50 Cent’s official debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, which sold millions of copies and has since been certified eight times platinum. The single “In Da Club” broke a Billboard record for being the most-listened-to song on the radio in a one-week span. After all this success, 50 Cent started his own label, G Unit Records, in 2003, and signed Tony Yayo, Young Buck and Lloyd Banks. 50’s second album, The Massacre, was released in 2005. That year, he became the first solo artist to have three singles -- “Candy Shop”, “Disco Inferno” and “How We Do” -- on the Billboard top five in the same week. 50 Cent has since recorded two more albums, Curtis and Before I Self-Destruct, and is currently working on another album, Black Magic. He recently toured with Jay-Z and mentor Eminem on the Home & Home Tour.