50 Cent
In 1999, 50 Cent was an up and coming artist signed to Columbia Records. With the impending release of Power of the Dollar a year later, it seemed like nothing could stop him, except maybe bullets. In May 2000, he was shot nine times, the album didn’t drop and he was eventually dropped from Columbia and blacklisted in the industry, allegedly for making the song “Ghetto Quran.”
That’s until…
He said f#ck the industry and got on his mixtape ish. A copy of his 2002 mixtape Guess Who’s Back later caught the ear of Eminem. Em was so impressed he introduced the Queens rapper to Dr. Dre. Fif eventually signed a $1 million record deal with Shady/Aftermath, and the rest is history.
