Rapper turned film executive 50 Cent once had more money than he knew what to do with.
At the onset of his career, Curtis Jackson, better known as 50 Cent, lived a frugal lifestyle, residing in a two-bedroom apartment and only paying $800 for rent after netting $53 million from his first domestic tour.
The 47-year-old MC’s hit single “Wanksta” was a foundational start to his career that long-time hip-hop artists saw as a legend in the making. The explosion of his fanbase got No-Limit record label founder Master P to bankroll 50 Cent’s first ‘Roc the Mic’ concert tour.
“I think he [Master P] gave me like $80,000, and now I’m getting like $900,000, $1 million,” he said, referring to his per-show quote in an interview with Billboard.
‘If You Don’t Spend It…’
The media mogul quickly realized that racks of cash sitting idle in his bank account would suffer the consequence of hefty taxes. He eventually purchased a sprawling mansion for $4.1 million in Connecticut that was originally owned by heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.
“If you don’t spend it, you know the IRS is gonna take it. So I needed the expense,” he said during a 2021 interview with writer Brian J. Roberts that was shared by VladTV in a resurfaced video clip.
The triumphant success of his breakout album, “Get Rich or Die Tryin’,” which sold 13 million copies in 2003, made it the bestselling album of the year. But it was just the start of a burgeoning career. The album led to 50’s debut on the big screen in a film of the same name, and was a parallel chronicling of the street life he lived in Jamaica, Queens.
Downsizing
He has since sold the 55,000-square-foot mansion with 50 rooms for almost half of what he paid. Downsizing to smaller dwellings has been his preference after the mega-mansion resulted in mounting debt for him. The executive filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, revealing the cost of maintaining the Connecticut mansion to be $70,000 a month. The rapper reportedly also has invested between $6 million and $10 million in renovations.
Fifty has been able to bounce back from the financial blunders, getting involved in numerous lucrative investment deals over the years. He got a taste of wealth-building with his first investment in VitaminWater. The deal reportedly reaped him $100 million before the brand was sold to Coco-Cola in May 2007.
“People were talking about how much money I made, but I was focused on the fact that $4.1 billion was made,” 50 Cent told Zack O’Malley Greenburg in 2008, according to Trapital. “I think I can do a bigger deal in the future.”
Staying true to his word, 50 Cent worked consistently to stay ahead of the game and not sell himself short in business dealings. He now boasts a $40 million empire, most notably for his creativity in the film industries for crime TV dramas “Power” and “BMF” with the network Starz. In 2018, he signed a four-year overall deal with the network that was reportedly worth up to $150 million. He split with Starz in 2022, citing his unhappiness with his dealings with the network. Earlier this year, 50 Cent signed a non-exclusive broadcast deal with Fox.
While 50 Cent continues to expand his reach in several industries, music is still his first love. Selling over 30 million albums worldwide, the rapper had been out of the game for a bit, but he plans on making a comeback with some of hip-hop’s heavy hitters. He announced that he is currently working on new music with producer Dr. Dre., and is planning to return to the big stage for the first time in 13 years.
