American rapper Curtis James Jackson III, aka 50 Cent, was born July 6, 1975, in South Jamaica, Queens, New York City. Raised by his mother Sabrina Jackson until the age of 8, Jackson moved into his grandparents' house when his mother was murdered, and grew up with his younger cousin, Michael Francis, who earned the nickname "25 Cent" for being his younger counterpart. Francis raps under the stage name "Two Five". At the age of 11, Jackson began boxing, and went on to compete in the Junior Olympics as an amateur boxer. He has made comparisons between the sport and music - "I was competitive in the ring and hip-hop is competitive too... I think rappers condition themselves like boxers, so they all kind of feel like they're the champ".

Adopting the nickname "50 Cent" as a metaphor for "change" (the name was derived from Kelvin Martin, a 1980s Brooklyn robber known as "50 Cent"), Jackson started rapping in a friend's basement where he used turntables to record over instrumentals. In 1996, a friend introduced him to Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC - Jay taught him how to count bars, write choruses, structure songs, and make a record, and Jackson credits Jam Master Jay as an influence who helped him improve his ability to write hooks. 50 Cent's, first official appearance was on a song titled "React" with the group Onyx on their 1998 album "Shut 'Em Down". However, after leaving Jam Master Jay in 1999, platinum-selling producers Trackmasters took notice of 50 Cent, and signed him to Columbia Records, sending him to a studio in upstate New York where he produced 36 songs in 2 weeks. 18 were included on his unofficially released album "Power of the Dollar" in 2000.
However, 50 Cent was dropped from Columbia and "blacklisted" in the recording industry after it was discovered he had been shot in an incident in Queens. Unable to find a studio to work with in the U.S, he travelled to Canada, where he recorded over 30 songs for mixtapes, with the purpose of building a reputation 50 Cent eventually released material independently on the mixtape, "Guess Who's Back?" in 2002.

Eminem received "Guess Who's Back?" through 50 Cent's attorney, who was working with Eminem's manager Paul Rosenberg. Impressed with the album, Eminem invited 50 Cent to fly to Los Angeles, where he was introduced to Dr. Dre. After signing a $1 million record deal, 50 Cent released the mixtape, "No Mercy, No Fear", which featured a new track, "Wanksta", which was put on Eminem's 8 Mile soundtrack.

In February 2003, 50 Cent released his commercial debut album, "Get Rich or Die Tryin'", which debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 872,000 copies in the first 4 days. Lead single, "In da Club" broke a Billboard record as the most listened to song in radio history within a week.
March 2005 saw the release of the second commercial LP "The Massacre", which sold 1.14 million copies in the first 4 days (the highest in an abbreviated sales cycle) and peaked at number 1 on the Billboard 200 for 6 weeks. He became the first solo artist to have 3 singles on the Billboard top 5 in the same week with "Candy Shop", "Disco Inferno", and "How We Do".

September 2007 saw the release of a third album, "Curtis", which was inspired by his life before "Get Rich or Die Tryin'". It debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200, selling 691,000 units in the first week, behind Kanye West's "Graduation", whom 50 Cent had a sales competition with, as both albums were released on the same day.