It's Been 16 Years Since 50 Cent Dropped "Get Rich or Die Tryin'"

I can’t believe its been 16 years since 50 Cent dropped one of the best albums in the history of music. The numbers speak for itself with 13.3 MILLION Albums sold. Crazier part of that is that was a strong majority hard copies. People physically getting in their car and going to Best Buy or some shit like that strictly to buy a CD and play it in the car. What a time that was. We were so cute with our CD players. Now guys like A Boogie have number 1 albums with less than 1,000 hard copies sold. The world has really changed.

50 Cent is one of the people who really got me into Rap music in the first place. I’ll never forget being down the Jersey Shore with my family and going to the store for bagels in the morning with my uncle. I was 8 about to be 9 years old and he was bumping “Beautiful” by Snoop Dogg and Pharell in the car and it sparked me right away. After hearing In Da Club and P.I.M.P. on the way back 50 Cent was my favorite person on the entire planet next to Derek Jeter. I was in shock that my parents had been sheltering me from all this good music for the first 8-9 years of my life. But it didn’t take me long to realize their idea of 50 Cent was the change you get back when you pay $4.00 for a $3.50 bagel and coffee.

For me when it comes to Rap albums, its Tha Carter III and Get Rich or Die Tryin’ in terms of my favorite two of all time. Every single song on this album is an absolute smash.

From top to bottom its hit after hit after hit. Patiently Waiting to If I Can’t is a murderers row of bangers. Many Men and 21 Questions are timeless classics and this tracklist is missing “Wanksta”, “U Not Like Me”, and “Life’s on the Line” added to the deluxe version that are absolute heat. 50 Cent was such a game changer. Dude was making the most fire music on the planet while simultaneously being the baddest mother fucker on the planet. No one wanted beef with him he was the coolest bully ever. He was not only funny but extremely talented and was really a true gangster. This man was shot 9 times and lived to not only tell the tale but be one of the highest selling rappers of all time. He’s also the reason that Ja Rule is part of Fyre Festival schemes now and not living cozy on an island somewhere. He eviscerated Ja Rules entire existence as a man. He never recovered from that abuse he took. I still love Ja Rule but when the trains coming you better get the fuck off the tracks because when 50 Cent gets in the mix he comes in hot. Full steam ahead with absolutely zero regard for repercussions. Probably something to do with he was gonna do whatever he wanted and you weren’t gonna do shit about it. Great energy.