With his debut album “Get Rich or Die Tryin’,” rapper 50 Cent set the record for most albums sold by a new artist on a major record label in the first week of release. Breaking the previous record of 803,000 with Snoop Doggs "Doggystyle," "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" scanned 872,000 copies last week. The album also entered the pop charts at number one and was the first smash hit of the year.

,50 Cent, aka, Curtis Jackson, was signed to Interscope Records’ Aftermath by mentor Eminem after being dropped by Columbia who never released his album in 2000. This was shortly after being shot nine time in the front seat of his car.

50 Cent was raised in Queens, New York by his grandmother, in a bad neighborhood deep in the borough. He took to selling crack cocaine before he started rapping and was later taken under the wing of the late Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC and received his first exposure to the music industry.

Source: cnn.com

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