The album debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart with 872,000 copies sold within the first week, making it the best-selling album of 2003 and one of the most hyped hip-hop albums O.A.T. It's been 17 years since our favorite Instagram troll released his classic magnum opus with appearances from Eminem, Nate Dogg, Young Buck, Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo, and Snoop Dogg on P.I.M.P.'s remix version. Get Rich or Die Tryin', A Street Hustler's Mantraĥ0 Cent wasn't playing around when he came up with a bold statement, Get Rich or Die Tryin, which also served as his debut breakthrough album's name in 2003. Related: 18 Years Of ‘The Eminem Show’: 15 Facts About Eminem’s 2002 Magnum Opus They then got into all the markets on the mixtapes and all the mixtape DJs were messing with them," Shady Records A&R Marc Labelle told HitQuarters. "He took all the hottest beats from every artist and flipped them with better hooks. It was nothing that we could even say, "Oh, that would be cool for a mixtape."" "My manager (Paul Rosenberg) gave me a copy of Guess Who's Back, Eminem told Complex in 2017. "Hey Em, you know you my favorite white boy right? I owe you for this one," 50 shouted Eminem on Patiently Waiting. It didn't take forever until Eminem, who was on the top of the world after releasing three classic albums back-to-back, gave 50 his one shot to seize.
Then, he linked up with his G-Unit partner in crimes, the lyrical genius Lloyd Banks and the energetic Tony Yayo, to develop three remix mixtapes, 50 Cent Is The Future, No Mercy No Fear, and God's Plan, over classic hits from A-list rappers like Jay-Z, Mobb Deep, Wu-Tang Clan, and many others. 50 didn't stop there after being blacklisted, instead, he flew to Canada with business partner Sha Money XL to develop mixtapes to build his reps.Īround 2002, he released a solo, 18-track mixtape, Guess Who's Back, with some leftover power from Power of the Dollar. The shooting impacted in 50s slightly slurred voice, which later became his signature sound. Then, 50 Cent Took The Streets to Build His Reps By Releasing Back-to-Back Mixtapes Related: 18 Surprising Facts About 50 Cent’s Son, Marquise Jackson Not only that, but he was also blacklisted from the industry because of one problematic song, Gettho Qur'an, saw 50 name-dropping drug dealers from the 1980s in his neighborhood of South Jamaica, Queens.
"How much more damage could that shell have done? Give me an inch in this direction or that one, and I'm gone."Īfter the shooting, 50's label, Colombia Records, dropped him and scrapped his intended 2000 debut album, Power of the Dollar. "After I got shot nine times at close range and didn't die, I started to think that I must have a purpose in life," 50 wrote on his 2005 autobiography, From Pieces to Weight: Once Upon a Time in Southside Queens. To understand how 50 Cent cemented himself as a mixtape genius, let's take a train of time to the year 2000, when nine bullets landed on 50 Cent's hand, arm, hip, both legs, chest, and left cheek. "Mixtapes destroyed the demo tape nobody cared about your demo tape anymore, it was like, "What are you doing with your mixtape, and how are the streets selling it?"" "From the 50 era, that's pretty much when it became a street album," legendary mixtape artist DJ Drama told Billboard in 2017. "Don't you ever forget it, n***a, I'm the reason why you made the mixtape, s***er!," Fiddy ad-libs on Eminem-featuring Murder One. Whatever the formula is, believe it or not, 50 Cent was the one who pushed the art of mixtapes to the next level.
Cole, almost every new-gen rappers use the streets to sell their mixtapes, make the names for themselves, and build a fanbase. From Drake to Lil Wayne, to Wiz Khalifa, to Chance the Rapper, To Kendrick to J. If you're an up-and-coming rapper, mixtapes are essential to create a buzz that you need.