50 Cent has always been open about how the attempt on his life shaped the way he moved in music. Speaking with Fox News, he described the shooting that left him with nine bullet wounds as the turning point that gave his career new direction. “It shifted my concept,” he said. “My first album concept was ‘Power of a Dollar,’ and then I went to ‘Get Rich or Die Tryin,’ the stakes just got higher.”
The experience of fighting his way back from recovery gave him a new perspective. He explained that when Columbia Records dropped him, he had no choice but to create his own path. “You look, and you go, well, what am I going to do? The record company’s not answering the phone anymore. Everything’s changing. And then it’s like, you got to figure out how to do it on your own.” He leaned into independence, forming G-Unit and releasing mixtapes that spread quickly in the streets. Those projects eventually caught the attention of Eminem, which opened the door to a deal with Dr. Dre’s Aftermath.
The first major record that broke through was “Wanksta.” During a BET.com interview celebrating its 20th anniversary, 50 Cent recalled how the track gained traction on its own without label support. “That record was organically connected. It actually was being picked up by radio, by radio DJs, without any make-sure assistance, there was no record company, nobody’s saying play this, none of that s**t,” he explained. With DJs like Stretch Armstrong behind it, the buzz quickly snowballed.
The success of “Wanksta” was so big that it even caused discussions at Shady Records. “There actually was a point where [Shady Records president] Paul [Rosenberg] wanted to take ‘Wanksta’ off to put a record that me and Em did for the 8 Mile soundtrack on there, and I was like, Nah, just put that on 8 Mile. And that’s what happened.”
Looking back, he noted how different promotion was before social media. “We were in a different climate, so I couldn’t do anything that the new artists can do. They go record and upload music to YouTube and Apple iTunes. I had to trick bootleggers into thinking to steal it so they could reproduce it and distribute it for me, ’cause there were no other outlets to get it out.”