Curtis Jackson III, extra famously generally known as 50 Cent, is wealthy. “Very, very wealthy,” he says with a smile. That grin has been on his face since he first stepped into the foyer at Us Weekly on this punishing summer season day.
Completely nobody needs to be stunned at his wealth. His first album, Get Wealthy or Die Tryin’, launched 23 years in the past, stays the highest-selling rap debut ever. His Remaining Lap Tour final 12 months offered greater than $100 million in tickets, a rap milestone reached up to now by just one different act (Drake).
That’s simply music. There are equally staggering numbers to quote within the TV and movie initiatives Jackson produces in addition to the manufacturers and merchandise he’s embraced. At age 49, 50 Cent does rather a lot and earns much more — but it surely wasn’t all the time like that.
Born in South Jamaica, Queens, his mom died when he was solely 8. When he was 12, he offered medicine. He by no means met his father. Survival was unsure.
Jackson’s son Sire is now 12 himself. (Mother is 50’s ex-girlfriend Daphne Pleasure Narvaez.) His life consists of video video games, roughhousing along with his dad (“I’ll throw him onto the sofa — he’s having a ball”) and getting schooled within the empire he’ll in the future inherit. In any case, Jackson’s Sire Spirits is known as for, and will probably be for, his son.
Within the leisure realm, Netflix, Hulu, Peacock, Paramount+ and BET are among the many networks working with Jackson’s G-Unit Movie and Tv on dozens of exhibits. His new FAST channel with Lionsgate, 50 Cent Motion, launches later this 12 months with Starz’ complete Energy sequence (from G-Unit, in fact), a sampling of fifty’s movies and extra. Starz has been dwelling to Jackson’s Energy Universe with Energy: E-book I Ghost, E-book II Elevating Kanan, E-book III Pressure and the upcoming E-book IV Origins. Additionally at Starz: his profitable BMF franchise (with spinoffs coming) and a beforehand aired docuseries, plus 4 exhibits in improvement.
“I feel having or not it’s free tv is a big leap,” he says. (Let the fan binges start!) And G-Unit Studios, a manufacturing facility in Shreveport, La., is effectively beneath approach. It will likely be the world’s second-largest Black-owned manufacturing studio, second solely to Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta. By the point you learn this, Jackson may have simply hosted Shreveport’s Humor & Concord Weekend, a four-day pageant front-loaded with expertise he’s pulled in, from Monica to Keith Sweat, Cam’ron to Flo Rida. Proceeds go to his G-Unity Basis.
How does he do all of it? Properly, he insists he solely wants 4 hours of sleep. After which there’s this: In January, he proclaimed on Instagram that he was “practising abstinence… and specializing in my objectives.” Requested about his progress, he says slyly, “Properly, I did it for so long as I may.” The money stored pouring in, although! Right here, he opens up his pockets (figuratively) within the newest situation of Us.
You’ve made hundreds of thousands. Lots of of hundreds of thousands. Are you a billionaire but?
I don’t quantify the cash like that — I quantify the extent of successes and wins I’ve achieved. I’ve far exceeded anybody’s expectations of me. I feel my longevity and endurance within the business have stunned many, however that’s what drives me additional. [Besides,] I’m not in a rush to succeed in billionaire standing. I’ve reached a degree the place I don’t need something I don’t have. What’s the frenzy? I’ve purchased each automobile I needed, a number of instances over.
Do issues change at billionaire degree? Extra cigars? Extra watches? You simply dropped $5 million on a Rolex!
When individuals publicly say you’re a billionaire, they arrive for what you might have. The IRS would possibly abruptly determine they need 58 p.c of your cash. The ambulance chasers, the attorneys — it’s a military of ’em after you. Then you definately’d have to guard your self as a result of you might have deep pockets.
Being a billionaire received’t be a lot completely different from the place I’m now. At that time, it’s important to work out find out how to give again. You begin constructing a legacy, doing extra refined issues. Individuals keep in mind those that helped others greater than those that simply accrued wealth. They’ll ask, “How did he profit others? How vital was his success if it didn’t have an effect on different individuals’s lives?”
Although many celebrities are very, very wealthy, solely a handful have truly achieved billionaire standing. The ten-figure membership is generally populated by entrepreneurs and enterprise magnates — individuals together with Elon Musk, Invoice Gates and Jeff Bezos. Celebrities who breathe that rarefied air have normally diversified their portfolios to incorporate every kind of partnerships, investments and […]
If not billionaire, what’s the phrase or phrase you’d like individuals to make use of when describing you?
Very wealthy. As a result of wealthy would imply that you just’ve surrounded your self with good individuals, that you just’re comfortable, that you just’re residing a top quality of life. And that’s the essential half.
One one that clearly makes you content is your son Sire. Will all this be his in the future?
That’s the thought. What’s left of me will probably be there for him to run with. On the finish of it, that’s what it’s about.
Are you instructing Sire all in regards to the enterprise world?
After I can get him away from the online game? Yeah, that’s what I’m speaking to him about. I don’t need to overwhelm him or give him a lot the place it feels such as you’re placing stress on him to grasp issues he’s not [ready for]. So it’s actually fundamental stuff, as a result of he’s a younger 12. I used to be off to the races already by the point I used to be his age. [Laughs.] I had much more expertise.
However he does take a look at [Sire Spirits] prefer it’s his firm. The precise stars of the groups [we’ve partnered with, like the Timberwolves and Anthony Edwards] draw the eye of the child, after which he sees himself in it.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rank your ambition and drive?
I fluctuate round an eight. Someinstances I discover myself distracted after which I must recalibrate to get again on observe nearer to a ten, but it surely’s essential to offer your self time to cease and benefit from the achievements. And I’m ceaselessly shifting my goalpost as I obtain new ranges of success.
Let’s discuss present initiatives. One which has individuals speaking is a Netflix docusequence about Sean “Diddy” Combs, who’s going through lawsuits alleging sexual abuse, rape and intercourse trafficking. [Combs has denied the allegations.] What makes you the proper producer for this high-profile title?
I’m the one individual in hip-hop tradition that has produced any hit tv. Why wouldn’t I be the individual to supply it? And I’m not on the tapes. [Party videotapes were reportedly found after search warrants were executed on Diddy’s homes.] See, a number of the individuals who have been round within the tradition who aren’t saying something — that’s as a result of they’ve been to the events, [and] they don’t know what a part of their experiences are on tape. So it retains them quiet and it seems like I’m the one man, however I’ve been [saying] for years that one thing’s not proper.
Shifting on to books: The Confederate, the primary in a fiction sequence, arrives this fall. What do we have to know?
That is the primary time I’m launching a guide that I do know I’m going to show into a movie. [Coauthor] Aaron Philip Clark is a tremendous, award-winning thriller author. There’s a feminine lead in it, the primary African-American U.S. marshal in Texas. I despatched the synopsis over to Regina Corridor so she may test it out.
What was your motivation for G-Unit Studios? Why go all in on manufacturing?
With what I’m doing in movie and tv, govt producing these initiatives, now I can present manufacturing providers. Now I’ve the bodily studio to create with out restrictions. [In music,] as quickly as you get the cash to have your personal recording setup, you do it, so that you don’t have a boss and you may simply go to work. Properly, within the movie and tv enterprise, you all the time need to report back to somebody. As soon as the services are up and operating, I’m not reporting to anybody once more.
You’re dedicated to the Shreveport neighborhood as effectively.
Numerous the issues it’s important to see earlier than you make it to the studio weren’t lively. So I’m like, how do you [visit] and say you loved being there if these issues aren’t working? So I began shopping for the properties alongside that stroll. I do know Vegas to achieve success simply primarily based on one strip, proper? After which if I carry that again to life, I feel it’ll carry the city again fully. The larger the challenges in entrance of me, the extra excited I get.
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