As a person shows growth, whether it be in their own personality and character or in their overall outlook on life, there comes a time when he/she must leave parts of their past just there. In the case of Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, the rapper has built an image from his moniker that presented a man dealing with violent circumstances and the aggression that came from dealing with them.
Raised during the early 80’s, then a drug dealer, Jackson was slanging during the crack epidemic and ran the streets as the life of a hustler. As he tried to leave the negativity and pursue something positive with rap, he was shot in 2000. Clearly before meeting Dr. Dre and Eminem, the rapper was heading in a direction that would have lead to his eventual downfall.
Jackson is no longer in the position that he was when he first hit the streets with his mixtapes and when he made his mainstream debut in 2003 with Get Rich Or Die Tryin’. As a result, the rapper has stated that since he is no longer part of those circumstances, he feels that he no longer feels the need to go by his rap alias and would like to be referred to only as Curtis Jackson. In a recent interview, 50, excuse me, Curtis stated:
“The aggression that translated the strongest in my first album is what Hip-Hop culture looks for. It’s a persona. I’m not under the same circumstances I was under when I (first)worked in music, so it feels completely different.”
Ever since his debut, fans have gritted their teeth in discontent and have had the feeling that the aggression that helped build the rapper before becoming famous had fizzled and he had become yet another victim of the money and the control it has over an artist with their creativity in music. Making bubble gum songs such as “Candy Shop” has made listeners discredit him and question his credibility as his music wasn’t as hard edge as it once was and with a name such as 50 Cent, they expected more.
Adopted as a metaphor for “change,” the alias was derived from Kelvin Martin a.k.a the “Real” 50 Cent, who was a talented robber, as the name stood for everything that he wanted to say as Jackson felt as though he had the same mentality as Martin in which he would provide for himself by an means.
As was the case with Jay-Z when he made the song “There’s Been A Murder”, sometimes there comes a point where a person must shed the weight of their past and start off new. Back to Curtis Jackson the hustler, 50 Cent is dead.
