50 Cent hit #1 with Get Rich Or Die Tryin’

Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ 50 Cent

Released: February 6, 2003 Charted: February 22, 2003 Peak: 16 US, 18, 2 UK, 13 CN, 4 AU Sales (in millions): 8.3 US, 1.12 UK, 15.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: rap

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Intro What Up Gangsta (5/3/03, 26 RB) Patiently Waiting (with Eminem) (2/15/03, 56 RB) Many Men (Wish Death) In Da Club (12/28/02, 1 US, 1 RB, 3 UK) High All the Time Heat If I Can’t (2/22/03, 34 RB, 76 US) Blood Hound (with Young Buck) Back Down P.I.M.P. (4/12/03, 3 US, 2 RB, 5 UK) Like My Style (with Tony Yayo) Poor Lil’ Rich 21 Questions (with Nate Dogg) (3/8/03, 1 US, 1 RB, 6 UK) Don’t Push Me (with Lloyd Banks & Eminem) Gotta Make It to Heaven Total Running Time: 53:44

Rating: 3.712 out of 5.00 (average of 29 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “Probably the most hyped debut album by a rap artist in about a decade, most likely since Snoop’s Doggystyle (1993) or perhaps Nas’ Illmatic (1994), 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’ certainly arrived amid massive expectations.” AMG “The backstory – promising street rapper gets shot nine times and lives to make a classic debut – was irresistible.” RS’20 “His hulking figure, physically and metaphorically, loomed over the rap charts for years, teaching a generation of artists that nothing sold like fear itself.” RS’20 “The expectations were so massive…that you had to be skeptical, particularly given the marketing-savvy nature of the rap world. Even so, Get Rich is indeed an impressive debut, not quite on the level of such landmark debuts as the aforementioned ones by Snoop or Nas – or those by Biggie, Wu-Tang, or DMX either – but impressive nonetheless, definitely ushering in 50 as one of the truly eminent rappers of his era.” AMG 50 Cent cooked up “precision-engineered beats and hooks…with his new mentor, Dr. Dre.” RS’20 “The thing, though, is that 50 isn’t exactly a rookie, and it’s debatable as to whether or not Get Rich can be considered a true debut (see the unreleased Power of the Dollar [1999] and the Guess Who's Back? compilation [2002]).” AMG “That debate aside, however, Get Rich plays like a blueprint rap debut should: there’s a tense, suspenseful intro (What Up Gangsta), an ethos-establishing tag-team spar with Eminem (Patiently Waiting), [and] a street-cred appeal (Many Men [Wish Death])” AMG in which he “antagonized an entire generation of his peers.” RS’20 Most significantly, 50 Cent “enraptured the suburbs with In da Club,” RS’20 “a tailor-made mass-market good-time single.” AMG He also served up “a multifaceted tread through somber ghetto drama (from High All the Time to Gotta Make It to Heaven).” AMG “In sum, Get Rich is an incredibly calculated album, albeit an amazing one. After all, when co-executive producer Eminem raps, ‘Take some Big and some Pac/And you mix them up in a pot/Sprinkle a little Big L on top/What the fuck do you got?’ you know the answer.” AMG “Give Em (who produces two tracks) and Dr. Dre (who does four) credit for laying out the red carpet here, and also give 50 credit for reveling brilliantly in his much-documented mystique – from his gun fetish to his witty swagger, 50 has the makings of a street legend, and it's no secret. And though he very well could be the rightful successor to the Biggie-Jigga-Nas triptych, Get Rich isn’t quite the masterpiece 50 seems capable of, impressive or not. But until he drops that truly jaw-dropping album – or falls victim to his own hubris – this will certainly do.” AMG Notes: The album was also released with bonus tracks “Wanksta,” “U Not Like Me,” and “Life’s on the Line.”

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for 50 Cent AMG All Music Guide review by Jason Birchmeier RS’20 Rolling Stone (9/22/2020). “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time” WK Wikipedia First posted 7/6/2010; last updated 4/24/2022.