As a Grammy-winning rapper, you could have found 50 Cent In Da Club or at the Candy Shop, but you can also check out his acting chops as one of the stars of the popular crime drama series Power.
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The recording artist, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, is one of the executive producers of Power in which he also stars as Kanan Stark, a drug dealer sent to prison after being set up by James "Ghost" St. Patrick (Omari Hardwick), a high-level drug distributor and nightclub owner in New York City and his Ghost's wife Tasha (Naturi Naughton), who is secretly romantically involved with Kanan's son Shawn (Sinqua Walls). The show follows Ghost's attempt to pursue legitimate business interests while trying to navigate his crumbling marriage and manage shifting economic alliances.
In its latest third season, Power achieved rating records for small cable network Starz with more than two million viewers, in what led to a two-season renewal.
For 50 Cent it means another successful entrepreneurial effort as he has been expanding his portfolio over the past decade, including investments in a beverage company acquired by Coca-Cola, a boxing company promoting Las Vegas events, his own production company and a fashion brand with his name.
His business endeavors rank him as one of the highest-earning hip-hop artists in the world alongside moguls such as Jay-Z and Dr. Dre.
"I think I'm a collage of all the scenarios that I have been through in my life, one of the biggest points would be deciding to creatively go after music and the interest generated in music allowed me to evolve myself in different projects and having opportunities that allowed me to work with major corporations or the film projects that came later", said 50 Cent at an interview promoting the new season of "Power".
Q: Did you dream of fame and fortune?
"I think most people that are ambitious, they say that they have that, because they are going through an endless tunnel of ideas that creatively when it comes together, a plan or something that you just want to focus on and move in that direction and success in your life and success, when you pray for it, you don't pray for envy and you don't pray for jealousy, you don't pray for entitlement, and those things come with it. If you have enough success, it will change your immediate social circle and like the people that are just around you and you will find reasons why those people do things that won't actually make sense to you and whether it's their personal assessment or their viewpoint on things, when you have the ability to do things, they think you should just do it and disregard the fact that you worked for it."
Q: Are you over recording music?
"For me, the music never stops. Cause it's constantly around me and whatever you do for relaxation and let's say you go on vacation and there will be some sort of film, television, and music in it. And what happens to me creatively is that I am able to go off on more extreme projects and it's not just the Pisano or an idea for a style of music or extreme, being involved in creating a whole new world or a whole new idea and energy for characters for actual series, and since Power, the success of Power, people are more receptive to my ideas so I will get more projects picked up a lot easier. So, it's cool and it's working out."
"I think musically, one of the initial concepts and ideas that attracted me to this project was to create a project that was as well-received as Superfly. Curtis Mayfield's soundtrack to the film, those points where the things that were said in the music the lead character didn't even have to speak because the music was saying what he was feeling and he could just stare off and let the music play and we achieved that in Season Two and I think it was Episode Three, they were passing Thorne in two different directions and the music was playing.
"And the song is saying what the characters are feeling going in two different directions while at that point and that was what the idea was, those points that have music and there is a place for bad music and its television. Because they spend the money everywhere else. In the last part of the project, the last piece of the puzzle is the budgeting for music, and this is where we can cut in someone's cousin who has music that is sample free. And who just wants to see it on television and be on a show and wherever he is. It just gives us a chance to have a slot there."
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