50 Cent is an evil genius who sells more sweet hooks and sour lyrics than anyone else and that's the main reason why around 30,000 people are expected to turn up for the rapper's show tonight at Zhongshan Football Stadium.
They will also attracted by the 30-year-old's fascinating story: his rise from the wreckage of a horribly scarred New York ghetto childhood to become the planet's hottest hip-hop artist and a celluloid hero in last year's semi-autobiographical movie Get Rich Or Die Tryin'.
It's an almost mythological tale of tragedy, violence, cunning and transcendence that begins in Queens, where Curtis James Jackson III was born. He never knew his dad and his drug-dealing mother was murdered when he was eight. He sold drugs in his teens and did seven months in a "shock incarceration" boot camp for committing various felonies, taking the name 50 Cent from a gangster of the same name when he was killed.
The wheel of fortune turned when he met up with Run DMC's master rapper Jam Master J, who taught him how to deliver lyrics and match beats. It turned again when 50 Cent was shot nine times in front of his grandparents' house.
The record company Columbia dropped 50 Cent as a result of the shooting, but destiny was looking after him and he was picked up by Eminem and Dr. Dre, who helped produce his first single Wanksta. The following album in 2003, Get Rich Or Die Tryin, was massive and since then he has been producing songs which are as addictive as the crack he used to push.
A street-educated man but a smart player, 50 Cent has made the most of his opportunities and now has his own company, supported by the G Unit crew. He has had Reebok sneakers named after him and a video game 50 Cent: Bulletproof. He now pimps records, movies, his own clothing line and even bottled water.
PHOTOS: AGENCIES
50 Cent is the latest in a picaresque line of black US artists -- stretching back to the blues legends of the early 20th century -- who have revealed the dark side of the American dream with a simple melody and a telling story.
It's all there in song titles like Thug Life, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Gun Runners, This Is a Stickup and Hustler's Ambition. He lays it on the line with lyrics like, "I'm so gutter, so ghetto, so hood/So gully, so grimy, what's good?" -- Disco Inferno.
Everyone knows 50 Cent's the real deal -- it ain't Milli Vanilli -- so when he raps about the street you're forced to listen because he's been there and done it. It's the antidote to bubble gum pop and apple pie in the land of plenty.
The strange thing, on first glance, is why this message resonates around the world. Ximending in Taipei is not Queens, but the hip-hop stores there are doing brisk business selling rap CDs, baggy, ghetto clothing, thug life chains and accessories.
Ah-han (
"Many people don't understand the lyrics, but you don't always have to because you can understand the feeling, the heaviness. We don't have to live a New York gangster's life to understand it," Ah-han said.
"The other thing is that parents and the government don't like this kind of music, so it's logical that kids who are rebelling against control will like it."
Liquid Lifestyle promoter Elroy Tay said hip hop has been gaining in popularity over the last three years and tonight will be a breakthough concert for Taiwanese audiences.
"These things go in cycles but right now it's a worldwide trend. Hip hop isn't just the music, it's a mindset. There are multiple levels. The media control opinion and 50 Cent burst onto the scene when he got shot in 2000. Then they [the media] picked up on him wearing a bullet proof vest and it just got bigger," Tay said. "The thing about 50 Cent is that he has retained his credibility at the same time as having commercial success."
A 90-person crew, including Fort Minor, featuring Mike Shinoda, is traveling with 50 Cent on his world tour which touched down in Taipei last night.
And if you think thug life is just hype a sneak view of the list of demands for the artists could prove you wrong. A "deep throat" source among the organizers of the concert said six local girls have been requested to "entertain" the artists at their hotel during their two-day stay.
Rap sheet:
What: 50 Cent and Fort Minor concert
When: Tonight, doors open at 5pm, performances start at 7pm.
Where: Zhongshan Football Stadium, 1, Yumen St, Taipei (
Tickets: From NT$2,000 to NT$6,000 from Era Ticketing or 50@liquidlifestyle.com
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located