Over the years, legendary rapper 50 Cent has reinvented himself, appearing in some hit TV shows and movies.
But one of his roles, which required him to lose a significant amount of weight, just didn’t pay off.
Scroll on to find out more…
Now, 50 Cent is certainly an interesting character.
And, most of the time, we love him for it.
He started out his music career in the early 2000…
But things didn’t exactly go to plan.
After producing his first studio album, Power of the Dollar for Columbia Records, he was shot.
Which meant the album was never released.
But that didn’t stop him. In 2002, 50 Cent released the mixtape Guess Who’s Back? which caught the attention of Eminem.
He was quickly signed to Shady Records, and his career really took off.
50 Cent quickly became one of the world’s best-selling rappers.
The hip-hop artist has sold over thirty million albums worldwide and won several awards for his music.
But that’s not all.
He’s grown a huge fan base over the years, and one of the reasons why is that he is unapologetically himself.
We were big fans of 50’s stance against Gucci’s horribly misjudged release of a sweater that looked a lot like a racist caricature.
Gucci did issue an apology, but many decided to boycott the designer brand and 50 Cent took this to the extreme. He took to Instagram to burn his Gucci shirt, captioning his post, “I gotta get rid of all the Gucci I have at home. I’m not supporting their brand anymore.”
But some of 50’s antics have been a little more controversial.
Like when he said that he wouldn’t mind if his own son, Marquise Jackson, got hit by a bus after he posed for a picture with 50’s rival, Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff.
Yikes.
50 has also been in some really hot water in the past.
In 2015, 50 Cent lost a lawsuit that ordered him to pay $6m to a woman whose s*x tape he posted online without permission.
3 days later, he filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
He cited debts of $36m and assets of less than $20m.
After filing for bankruptcy, 50 posted a photo to Instagram surrounded by hundreds of 50-dollar bills, alongside a video in which he said: “My crib is almost finished in Africa.”
Concerning the posts, 50 Cent’s lawyers said: “The cash depicted in the social media postings is not real. The postings, which among other things, make use of stage or prop money, are part of the debtor’s routine social media marketing activities and relate directly to the debtor’s various business interests. Prop money is routinely used in the entertainment industry, including in movies, television shows, videos, and social media postings.”
Judge Ann Nevins ordered him to pay back around $23m in 2017.
A hefty amount of money.
And when he’s not rapping and working on his business ventures, he’s acting.
He’s played some pretty impressive roles over the years.
He famously appeared in Get Rich or Die Tryin’ in 2005, Home of the Brave in 2006…
And even worked alongside Hollywood legends Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in Righteous Kill.
He also directed and starred in Before I Self Destruct in 2009.
However, there’s one film you might not remember.
And that’s because it flopped.
But what makes the news so tragic, is that the star lost a whopping 24kg for the role back in 2010.
The movie was All Things Fall Apart, and it was based around a college football player called Deon.
The story follows Deon’s struggle with cancer while in his final year of college, and although he took the role very seriously, losing a significant amount of weight in just 9 weeks, it didn’t pay off.
At the time, the rapper told the Associated Press: “This time it was a lot tougher for me. I had to discipline myself not … to actually have myself be in the physical state to convey the energy I felt.
“It’s a passion project for me.”
Sharing how he got his motivation, 50 said: “I actually got on the computer. When it started getting difficult, I was looking to see what their experience was like and I got a chance to see all of the interviews they had at different time periods when they were doing promotion for the projects.”
Sadly, when it was released, it recieved a 58 percent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
And the critics comments were even worse…
Critic Brian Orndorf wrote: “Straining to be meaningful until its blue in the face, All Things Fall Apart is a hackneyed, stilted production, held back in great part by Jackson’s decision to insert himself in the lead role.”
Now that’s a little harsh!
After the movie premiered at the Miami International Film Festival, it immediately went to DVD.
You can watch the trailer for the movie here.
What do you think?