It’s been almost 20 years since rapper 50 Cent‘s 2003 hit “In Da Membership” topped the charts and left the musician as one among America’s most recognizable hip-hop artists. Since then, 50 Cent has tried his hand at different forays into completely different components of the leisure world, together with getting in entrance of the cameras and behind the scenes for collection like Energy.
Let’s take a second to replicate on 5 of the star’s most iconic music movies that helped get him the place he’s at the moment.
5. ‘In Da Membership’
IMVDb reveals a protracted record of hit songs for 50 Cent, however the 2003 hit “In Da Membership” is the one one among 50’s quite a few singles to make it to the highest of the charts. It is usually the track liable for launching him into celebrity standing. The video opens up with a snazzy automobile traversing abandoned roads “Someplace . . .” earlier than taking us inside a futuristic bunker the place an Eminem video is taking part in on the wall. Quickly after, Eminem and Dr. Dre are seen watching on as robotic surgeons end up operations on an unconscious (or deactivated) 50 Cent.
The remainder of the video takes us via the track with its iconic “it’s your birthday” line. Whereas the lyrics are a reasonably easy reflection on getting drunk and having intercourse, the video has a deeper that means the place the “birthday” is the creation day for this futuristic 50 Cent, who’s concurrently saying his “start” onto the mainstream hip-hop scene.
4. ‘P.I.M.P’ (Snoop Dogg Remix)
50 Cent and Snoop Dogg on the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards | Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic through Getty Photos
What might be extra iconic of music in 50 Cent’s heyday than the iPod with the press wheel? That’s how this YouTube video opens up.
What begins as a reasonably typical hip-hop trope of the artist surrounded by scantily clad ladies takes a flip for the absurd because the scene cuts to the ‘Pimp Legion of Doom Headquarters,’ a decked-out house with a line of males (Snoop Dogg taking part in a personality on the heart) in a caricatured array of ‘pimp’ put on. As they contemplate whether or not or to not let newcomer 50 Cent into the Legion, 50 holds up his magic stick, a shiny gold cane.
At that time, the skit cuts again to the track and Snoop Dogg’s verse. Whereas 50 Cent has seen many attention-grabbing collaborations through the years, this playful tackle being a ‘pimp’ may solely be pulled off with Snoop.
3. ’21 Questions’
“21 Questions” takes a foray into the storytelling mode for music movies that grew to become more and more common throughout its 2003 launch. The video opens with 50 Cent as a drug dealing character fortunately counting his cash at house together with his associate when the police bust via the door. As the 2 attempt to flush the medication and conceal the money, it’s clear they’re not getting away with it.
The scene cuts to 50 Cent behind a police cruiser with a number of different males, and he croons the lyrics — a track about whether or not or not the singer’s girlfriend would nonetheless love him if he wasn’t wealthy. The video additionally has a twist ending that it’s best to try in the event you haven’t watched it earlier than!
2. ‘Many Males (Want Demise)’
One other video that takes a filmmaking method to its material, “Many Males (Want Demise)” opens with a voiceover because the narrator takes the viewers again to “begin from the start.” As 50 Cent’s character is the sufferer of a drive-by taking pictures, the track begins, and the lyrics give attention to 50 being the goal of “many males.” The track’s total vibe is in contact with an period of gangsta rap that fifty Cent has since spoken out about as a misplaced artwork of types.
The remainder of the track cuts via a collection of scenes of revenge, police investigations, and a story of “two road children, now males,” who ended up in a vicious feud.
1. ‘Only a Lil Bit’
Associated Why 50 Cent Believes the Streets Had Nothing to Do with His Success
“Only a Lil Bit” is one other video the place 50 Cent performs a personality. This time he’s named El Jefe. Flanked by a trio of beautiful ladies, El Jefe and his group have traveled to a different nation to buy groceries that ends with a bag full of cash and a number of crime scenes.
As the ladies every assist El Jefe take out his rivals via the ability of seduction, the complete video has a sort of Bonnie and Clyde meets gangsta rap really feel.