The rapper that made 50 Cent want to become an MC
’21 Questions’ rapper 50 Cent has been in the limelight for over 20 years and was undisputedly one of the most dominant rappers of the early 2000s. Alongside G-Unit, Eminem and Dr Dre, he was a powerhouse of an artist. However, some only know about the criminal aspects of his life before fame.
Hits such as ‘In da Club’ and ‘Candy Shop’ are party anthems, so one would expect that, growing up, a young 50 Cent was influenced by figures such as Run-DMC and N.W.A. Surprisingly, during an interview, the Queens native shocked fans when he revealed that his biggest inspiration was a conscious artist.
While discussing the late 1980s and early 1990s, Fifty told NME that he wanted to become an emcee after he heard Eric B and Rakim’s 1987 debut project, Paid In Full. Speaking about how he first got a hold of the album, 50 Cent began, “In those days, hip-hop wasn’t the dominant global pop culture it is now!”
He continued, “It’d only be on public radio for maybe an hour a day. I used to get my grandmother’s tape recorder, the one she used to tape church services with and use that to tape hip hop off the radio. And with Erik B. & Rakim, I think, was the first moment where I felt like: ‘I’ve got to own this.”
Eric B and Rakim don’t get as much recognition as they deserve, but they were once one of the hottest duos in hip-hop and changed lyricism in rap music forever. In 1991, Rakim released ‘Know The Ledge’, which was featured on the Juice soundtrack starring Tupac Shakur. This song, in particular, drove 50 Cent to pursue music.
In his interview, Fifty disclosed, “It was a song that made me feel like it represented my neighbourhood. Listening to it, I felt like they were painting a picture of where I lived and all the moves you needed to make in order to live on the streets there.”
The rapper also noted, “The law of the jungle out there. It’s like: ‘Where’s the ledge?’ Where’s the edge of what you can get away with in the hood?’”
Interestingly, that was not the only time 50 artistically crossed paths with Rakim. In 2014, it was revealed that some of the instrumentals featured on Get Rich Or Die Tryin were meant to appear on a Rakim and Dr Dre album that never materialised.
The little-known fact was disseminated by Aftermath protege and Shady Records artist Stat Quo, who unveiled, “A lot of them 50 records was Rakim songs. That first album? Rakim did songs on all those beats. All those shits was Rakim songs, them beats. 50 came in. Rakim’s problem was, he couldn’t do the hooks. The choruses was never strong…Dre is about songs. You can be a dope-ass rapper, but them hooks.”