Action

GAME
changing
Words: Drew Tewksbury Portraits: Emily Shur

rom 50 C ent.
’v e hea r d f
a w h i l e since we
It ’s been il di ng ac tor sl ash business magnate
But the br an d-bu

o u n din g ou t new beats and

tudio, s
is back in the s
mulling the future of music

Behind the façade of beaches and work ethic that once teemed under these since his much delayed last album,
boutiques, the celebrity hotspots and thick wood rafters and curved roofs. Before I Self Destruct, hit the streets
million-dollar lofts, Santa Monica, Somewhere inside a huge warehouse last November. Other than a handful
California, has a secret history of dating back to 1959, the inimitable of remixes and cameos, the rapper
warfare. During World War II, this city rapper, actor, and entrepreneur Curtis has largely stayed off the media radar.
by the Pacific was home to the American James Jackson III, aka 50 Cent, is in the While other rappers have been dropping
aeronautics industry and played an studio debuting beats that will be the pretentious art films (Kanye), scripting
integral role in keeping the US war skeletal structure of his next album. prison communiques (Lil’ Wayne), or
machine running. Here, engineers and Two dark black Cadillac Escalades waxing literary on book tours (Jay-Z),
designers drew up the plans for fighter wait like club bouncers outside the door Jackson has been developing his film
planes, while welders and construction of the Red Bull Recording Studio, and career and perfecting his sound to come.
crews made them into reality. inside, the bass is quaking. Jackson and His entourage in the studio looks
Sixty years later, the airplane his team sit in the control room, behind a nothing like the gangstas, pimps, or
hangers and warehouse buildings state-of-the-art mixing desk, compressors, playas preening behind him in rap
no longer bustle with the activity of speakers and all manner of cables. A videos. Instead, these are the men
warplane builders. The creative industry stony-faced man in jeans and suit jacket behind the music, the ideas men, beat
has now taken over these expansive sits on the couch, while Jackson is aficionados, and business types who
complexes, turning them into movie and pleading the case for his beats. are helping to determine Jackson’s
music studios, perhaps in the hope that It has been a year of relative radio next move in music. He presses play on
they can channel the innovation and silence for Jackson and nearly a year a laptop and the beats swell, Jackson’s

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head, topped with a baseball hat, nods skinny jeans, as though to hark back
to the bass-heavy, lurching beat, as he to the old days of rap, where electro and
paces around the studio, repeatedly hip-hop overlapped with the 808 drum
checking his BlackBerry. Jackson’s machine-banging sounds of Arabian
a compulsive Twitter-fiend, and even Prince and J.J. Fad. Like those days
in top-secret studio sessions, he can’t before the late 1980s crack epidemic,
help but throw some textual messages LA’s crime rate is relatively low and kids
in bottles out to the digital sea. are headed back to the clubs. Los Angeles
Jackson’s arms are chiselled, tightly raves, like this summer’s Electric Daisy
fitting into his YSL shirt. His eyes stare Carnival, brought in 80,000 wide-eyed
at the glow of the computer screen, then rollers from across diverse economic
up to his team assembled in the room, and racial divides. While Jackson’s
some of whom nod their heads, while style of hard-edged hip-hop has largely
others stare downward, listening intently stagnated, Kanye’s gone art-house and
to these never-before-heard sounds. Jay-Z has become a father figure.
There’s the steady kick drum pulsing Jackson is no stranger to trendspotting
waves of bass over rolling snares, mixing or self-examination and, earlier in 2010,
the ubiquitous warehouse party thump he announced that his next album,
with the syncopated groove of classic Black Magic, would lean more towards
hip-hop. Jackson moves to the beat, an emerging confluence of hip-hop and
seemingly laying down a flow in his Europop. Then just a few months later,
head to these instrumental tracks. He Jackson wound down the project.
seems tired but healthy, a far cry from “I moved it, because it’s a total artist’s
the shocking images of Jackson that hit album,” he says, “it was something that
the internet, revealing his emaciated I just wanted to do, so I went in and
face with sharpened cheekbones and recreationally made a full-bodied piece
cavernous eyes, evidence of his dramatic of work. I gave myself a new concept
54lb weight loss for his role as a college and now it’s in the vault, but you can
football quarterback ravished by cancer build another album out of that material
in the upcoming Things Fall Apart. He that you put to the side.”
reaches to turn off the song, revealing Pieces of Black Magic, or at least
forearms inscribed with mysterious scars. their house influence, appear in these
After more than an hour of beat studio songs, but at best they are just
debuts and secret conversations with the prototypes. No album title nor song titles
producers, his management team packs have been announced, nor a release date.
their bags for a flight back to New York. After Black Magic went in flux, Jackson
Jackson has been away from his roots in re-evaluated his music-making process
NYC for a month-long mission in LA. and ruminated on whether his movie
“I’m here to find new sounds,” he says projects and other entrepreneurial
softly, a surprisingly different cadence efforts would leave room for hip-hop.
from his Rottweiler growl on records. “I feel like I’ll have to do it at
He just did a remix for the club anthem a different pace,” he says. “I won’t be
‘Like a G6’, produced by Los Angeles’ travelling as often, or go on big tours.
Korean-American sensations, Far East It’s not a long drawn-out process for me
Movement. “I mean that’s a different to create it, but it’s a long drawn-out
pocket. It feels like dance music. A lot process deciding what to offer the world.
of really up-tempo beats, that’s faster When I was making music initially, it
than what I would usually do.” was just for a 10-block radius, now
The rap game today has changed. it’s for the world.”
The class of 2010 barely resembles Eight years ago, Eminem first
Jackson’s compatriots at the turn of the invited Jackson to come to Los Angeles
millennium. Hip-hop has gone fully pop, to showcase the young upstart rapper’s
complete with upbeat dance rhythms skill to the legendary Dr Dre. The
and auto-tuned choruses crooned by meeting resulted in a $1 million record
aesthetically oriented starlets. Kids from deal, which led to 2003 debut Get Rich
Inglewood – the ancestral home of West or Die Tryin’. The album set sales records
Coast gangsta rap – now wear neon and with 872,000 copies sold in just four

“i won’t be travelling or go on big

tours. when I was
making music
initially it wa
s just for a 10
-block
radius, now it’s for the wo
rld 77
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days. His next album The Massacre would fades as his voice projects confidence

Film Buff break this record in 2005 with 1.14

million copies sold in four days.
and eloquence. He can sell you anything,
and he will. Even in a struggling economy,
Since the semi-autobiographical Not bad for a kid from Queens, NY, Jackson has the Midas touch in the
Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ in 2005, whose past was mired in trouble. Raised business world. His entrepreneurial
Jackson’s career hasn’t involved
during the 1980’s crack epidemic, efforts include the G-Unit clothing brand,
too many awards show invites.
Most of his films so far have been Jackson was surrounded by drugs and a film production company, and even a
heavy on the drug dealing and crime. His mother was a dealer, and was stake in a South African platinum mine.
the gunplay plotlines (a sample murdered when Jackson was only eight According to Forbes, in 2008, he
of his oeuvre so far, below). years old. He turned to drug dealing to brought in $150 million in 12 months.
But last year, Jackson lost 54lb survive, and he brought in a healthy The bulk came in when Coca-Cola
in nine weeks to play a cancer-
profit. By the time he was 19, Jackson bought Vitamin Water’s parent company
stricken athlete in the upcoming
film Things Fall Apart. His Cheetah had been arrested three times. To avoid Glacéau for $4.1 billion. Jackson had
Vision Films production company jail he went to a boot camp programme received a stake in the company after
has attracted more than $200 to straighten out. When he returned to creating an offshoot brand of beverage
million in investment and has Queens, he began pursuing a rap career, called ‘Formula 50’, and that foresight
just won Bruce Willis for the and ultimately landed a $65,000 contract landed him with a $100 million profit.
upcoming film, Set Up.
with Columbia. But before he could Then in October of 2010, Jackson and his
release his debut album in 2000, Jackson partner Randall Emmett’s production
was shot nine times while leaving his company, Cheetah Vision, landed a $200
grandmother’s house in Queens. He million deal to produce several films,
barely survived. Columbia saw Jackson including their first, Set Up.
as too controversial, and released him While sitting outside on the studio’s
from the contract. When he recovered, stoop, Jackson’s agent calls: “Bruce is
Jackson picked up the rap game where in,” he says. Willis, that is. The action
Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (2005) he started: mixtapes. When one of his star has committed to Jackson’s upcoming
The one that started it all, in which tapes landed in the hands of Eminem film project, Set Up, along with Paul
50 aims to emulate Eminem’s 8 Mile in 2002, Jackson’s life changed forever. Walker. Jackson smiles for the first
But eight years later, the music time at the end of this long day. Before
industry is evolving to save its existence. visiting the studio, he had been in talks
Jackson too has felt the effects and has at Creative Artists Agency (CAA), one of
developed his gameplan for this post- the world’s largest talent agencies. He
big-label environment. had shifted to CAA earlier this year, he
“I think the new music business says, as they focused more on film than
is going to be for you to identify how previous agency, William Morris.
Twelve (2010) Rich NYC kids on much people like you. Because some “I love music, but I’ve developed
too many drugs do bad things. people like you enough to spend 99 cents a passion for film and being a part of
Joel Schumacher directs, 50 deals for your single, some people like you film projects that have the right artistic
enough to buy the actual album. Some qualities to them,” Jackson says.
people like you so much they want the Jackson kept a virtual photo diary of
hat you have on in the picture, they want this day, snapping photos celebrities and
your glasses, they want your shirt, and actors he saw in the hallway. “This is
additional photography: Kobal Collection (1), rex features (1)

your shoes. They want everything that me and Robert Redford, one of the best
is attached to your lifestyle.” actors ever” he Tweeted, with a photo
“The object,” he continues. “Is to be of himself with an arm around Redford.
13 (2010) 50 joins Sam Riley and connected to those businesses and brand “My goal is to get Things Fall Apart
Mickey Rourke gambling with each things that they’ll actually acquire along into Sundance,” he says. “Then I ran into
other’s lives in a sick, twisted game with that single or along with that album. Robert Redford today, who started it all,
Artists are becoming NASCARs, and we and he actually knew about it. I almost
just got to figure out who’s going to pay fainted.” Jackson stares at his picture
to put their sticker on each artist’s ass.” with Redford on his BlackBerry. He
Jackson’s persona as a hip-hop star ignores the demands of his companies,
obfuscates his real talent. His true power the haters and celebrity gossip hounds.
is not exhibited on stage, or with a mic or He focuses on the Saltine-sized screen
even on the movie screen. His real gift is and smiles at the possibility of his name,
Gun (2010) Co-written by 50, in the boardroom. When he talks about Curtis Jackson III, scrolling the credits at
who also stars as a drug kingpin business, his demeanor changes. The soft- Sundance. Then his manager interrupts
opposite Val Kilmer spoken insecurity about his music career the daydream, beckoning him away from
the Santa Monica studio, and into an
jackson’s persona as a hip-hop sta adjacent Escalade. The engine rumbles
r obfuscates his and the 50 Cent entourage speeds away.
On to the next one.
real talent.
his real gift Keep up with 50 Cent’s msuic, movies and more
is in the boar at www.50cent.com
droom.
He can sell you anything,
and he will 79