50 Cent was born Curtis James Jackson III on July 6,1975 in Queens, New York. He was raised until the age of eight years old by his mother Sabrina Jackson who made her living dealing cocaine. He than moved in with his grandmother. At the age of 14 he started boxing and selling crack cocaine on the street to earn extra money. In the summer of 1994, 50 Cent was arrested for selling drugs to an undercover officer. He was sentenced to 9 nines in prison but only had to serve 6 months in a boot camp program, where he earned his GED. Afterwards her started rapping and in 1996 met Jam Master Jay of Run DMC, who took him under his wing and taught him how to write and structure songs. 50 Cent made his first official appearance on Run DMC’s 1998 album Shut ‘Em Down, on the song React. In 1999 50 Cent left Jam Master Jay and signed to Columbia Records. In 2000 he released his unofficial debut album Power Of The Dollar. If February 2003, 50 Cent released his official commercial debut album Get Rich Or Die Tryin’. It debuted at number one and sold over 800,000 copies in it’s first four days. Since then he has released three other studio albums which include The Massacre, Curtis and Before I Self Destruct. 50 Cent has sold over 23 million albums to date.
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