50 Cent’s Net Worth: The Rapper And Actor Has Amassed A Fortune
50 Cent has made a career on the screen and with the mic, accumulating a net worth of at least $40 million dollars.
50 Cent might be better known to the public as a rapper, but he has also made an impression in Hollywood. While both his music and film career has mainly been high marks on his career, his personal life, at times, has been replete with drugs, violence, and death. What is 50 Cent’s net worth and how has it fluctuated over the years with different projects and incidents?
HOW OLD IS 50 CENT? HE WAS BORN IN 1975
50 Cent was born Curtis Jackson on July 6, 1975, in South Jamaica, Queens, New York. It was not an easy childhood, and his teenage years were not any better. Jackson’s mother was a drug dealer who died when he was eight.
After his father left, Jackson was raised by his grandmother, who did everything she could to keep the young Jackson on the straight and narrow. Unfortunately, the outside influences were more than she could deal with and by the time Jackson was 12 years old, he was on the streets selling drugs.
Jackson sold narcotics around his neighborhood at a time when his grandmother thought he was staying at school for their after-school programs. He began to bring guns and drug money to school and in the tenth grade, he got caught by his school’s metal detectors. This led to the first of his arrests.
A few days before 50 Cent was to turn 19, he was arrested by undercover cops for trying to sell them four vials of cocaine. Just three weeks later, he was arrested again. When the police searched his home, they found a starting pistol, ten ounces of crack cocaine, and heroin.
This was big-time now and Jackson was sentenced to three to nine years in prison. Jackson never served that length of time. In fact, he ended up in a boot camp where he only did six months.
His life as a rapper has been a roller coaster of violence, massive rap hits, money, drugs, you name it. After being introduced by a friend to Run-DMC rapper Jam Master Jay, 50 Cent began to craft his own style. Jam Master taught him the ins and outs of creating music and in 1998, 50 Cent made his first appearance on the Onyx single, React, from their album Shut ‘Em Down.
Incidentally, a short six years after Jam Master Jay began to help 50 Cent carve out an early music career, he was brutally gunned down in his Hollis, Queens, New York music studio, just one more instance of violence that would involve 50 Cent.
50 CENT ON GETTING SHOT, DID IT AFFECT HIS CAREER AND NET WORTH?
The violence that surrounded 50 Cent’s lifestyle caught up to him two years before Jam Master Jay met his untimely demise. Curtis Jackson was at his grandmother’s house when the violence almost took his life.
He was sitting in the back seat of a friend’s car when he was asked to go back inside to get some jewelry. His young son was in the house while his grandmother was in the front yard. When Jackson returned to the car, another one pulled alongside his.
A man then got out of the car, walked up to Jackson, and with a 9mm handgun, shot Jackson 9 times. He took bullets to his legs, hand, arm, chest, and left cheek. The gunshot to the face shaved off part of his gums while leaving a hole between the top and bottom rows of his teeth.
“It happens so fast that you don’t even get a chance to shoot back,” 50 Cent recalled via MTV News of the attack. “You can’t move. Your first reaction is to move and then the shots is going off and you jumping around the backseat. I was scared the whole time. Ain’t nobody gonna tell you they ain’t scared in that situation. It’s a hit, man. You supposed to die in that situation. They’re not playing.”
Nine shots. 50 Cent survived, but also remembers the moments right after the shooting. “[After they finished shooting] I was looking in the rearview mirror like, ‘Oh shit, somebody shot me in the face!” Jackson continued. “It burns. Burns, burns, burns. The adrenaline is pumping so fast that the pain is not really that bad until the doctors finish with you. Then that morphine wears off and then you’re introduced to the pain.”
Jackson spent 13 days in the hospital recovering. He needed six weeks with a walker and five months total to be fully recovered. During an interview with Oprah, Jackson claims he knew immediately who pulled the trigger.
“I knew who did it shortly after,” 50 told Oprah via LAD Bible. “The guy who actually shot me is dead and the guy who paid him to do it got life in jail.” That man was Darryl Baum, who was a bodyguard for boxer Mike Tyson.
According to Billboard, it was Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff, the crack kingpin, who ordered the hit on Jackson. Apparently, McGriff was not happy with a song 50 Cent penned and released that detailed McGriff’s criminal past.
50 CENT’S NET WORTH IS AT LEAST $40 MILLION DOLLARS BUT IT WAS HIGHER AT ONE POINT
50 Cent has been able to turn his rough beginning into a rapper dynasty, accompanied by a solid acting resume. But those two things aren’t the only way 50 Cent has amassed his $40 million net worth.
Jackson has dabbled with other ventures that have also helped, one notable one being his deal with Vitamin Water. After he negotiated a minority stake in Vitamin Water, 50 Cent became the celebrity spokesman. When the Coca-Cola Company purchased Vitamin Water from parent company Glaceau for $4.1 billion, 50 Cent found himself making over 10 times as much as he ever did with his rap music.
When 50 Cent was at his most powerful of earnings, his net worth easily topped the $125 million mark. If it weren’t for a few bad choices, he could still easily be there. A $40 million net worth, though, is nothing to sneeze at, especially given the fact that 50 Cent continues to produce music and get more time in front of the camera.
Let’s take a look at 50 Cent’s life, career and how he amassed such a huge net worth.
HIS FIRST MOVIE WAS GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN’
Although 50 Cent started his career in music in 1995, it took ten years for him to start venturing into the film industry. Of course, by this time he was used to being in front of the camera as he had already appeared in dozens of music videos.
His first film was called Get Rich or Die Tryin’ and was based on his early life. The movie told about a young criminal (Jackson) who is in deep. After he and his friends rob a Colombian safe house, the young criminal is shot nine times. As the gun is pointed at his head, the gunman pulls the trigger. The movie then turns into a flashback of his life and how he got to where he was at.
The movie was critically panned, though 50 Cent was praised for his performance. That spurred him on to find other acting gigs. He was in Vengeance, Home of the Brave, Righteous Kill, and Dead Man Running. He continued to make music during this time while also producing music videos as well.
50 Cent began to see more time in feature films with movies such as Twelve, 13, Caught in the Crossfire, Gun, and Morning Glory. For the next decade or so, this is how 50 Cent contributed to his net worth. In 2013 he found himself in a big-time action movie with Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger called Escape Plan.
Jackson would return in its two sequels, Escape Plan 2: Hades and Escape Plan: The Extractors. He also had a small part playing himself in the underrated yet hilarious comedy Spy.
Along with finding time in music videos and feature films, 50 Cent has been involved in a couple of solid TV series as well. He starred in the drama Power and also was seen in For Life. Recently he was in Power Book II: Ghost and earlier this year he was a surprise musical guest on the Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show 2022.
Up next for Curtis Jackson is another big Stallone film as he joins the crew for The Expendables 4. After that, 50 Cent will be seen in Den of Thieves 2: Pantera.
