50 Cent “Candy Shop” hit #1

Candy Shop 50 Cent with Olivia

Writer(s): Curtis Jackson, Scott Storch (see lyrics here) Released: February 8, 2005 First Charted: January 29, 2005 Peak: 19 BB, 17 BA, 18 DG, 5 RR, 14 RB, 4 UK, 7 CN, 3 AU, 26 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 6.9 US, 1.2 UK, 9.41 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 0.3 radio, 1368.03 video, 1253.82 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Rapper Curtis James Jackson III (aka “50 Cent”) was bon in 1975 in Queens, New York. He recorded his first album, Power of the Dollar, in 1999 and 2000, but was dropped by his label when he was shot nine times. His 2002 mixtape Guess Who’s Back? caught the attention of Eminem, who signed 50 Cent to his label Shady Records. His 2003 album Get Rich or Die Tryin’ was a monstrous success, selling nine million copies in the U.S. and spawning the #1 hits “In Da Club” and “21 Questions.” On Get Rich, “50 depicted himself as a cold-blooded warrior-prince who still knew how to write a hook, and the album was so focused and intense that even its big hits mostly didn’t sound like pop-radio pander-moves.” SG On the follow-up, 2005’s The Massacre, “50 was happy to make the cheesiest shit in the world if he thought that it would sell.” SG It did – nine million copies worldwide – on the strength of four top-10 songs. The most successful of the singles was “Candy Shop,” the third chart-topper for 50 Cent. He made the song “as pure radio-bait, and he didn’t even bother to attempt to sell the song as anything bigger than that.” SG He said, “I attempted to be as sexual as possible, from a male perspective, without being vulgar or obscene.” SG “Thinly veiled sexual connotations” TB with lines like “melts in your mouth, not in your hand” met with “widespread parental disapproval.” SG “The song is about sex, but it’s never sexy.” SG “50 sounds utterly checked out.” SG 50 Cent wrote the song with Scott Storch, who’d just had a #1 writing credit on Mario’s “Let Me Love You” a couple of months earlier. “Candy Shop” featured “a sickly strings-and-xylophones fanfare that was sampled, uncredited, from Salsoul Orchestra’s 1983 dance jam ‘Ooh, I Love It (Love Break).’” SG The song featured Olivia Longott, a Brooklyn-born R&B singer. “She just kind of deadpans half of the hook.” SG It was her biggest moment in the spotlight. She’d originally signed to Clive Davis’ J Records as a teenager but only released one album. Resources: SG Stereogum (12/21/2022). “The Number Ones” by Tom Breihan TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Pages 312-13. Related Links: First posted 1/27/2026.

50 Cent spent 9th week at #1 with “In Da Club”

In Da Club 50 Cent

Writer(s): Curtis Jackson, Andre Young, Mike Elizondo (see lyrics here) Released: January 7, 2003 First Charted: December 28, 2002 Peak: 19 US, 14 RR, 19 RB, 3 UK, 15 CN, 15 AU, 16 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 1.05 UK, 2.86 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 0.5 radio, 1187.24 video, 704.38 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Getting riddled with nine bullets would be a game changer, usually not for the better. As a former drug dealer earning a reputation for his mix tapes on his way toward rap stardom, however, such events only add to the lore of Curtis Jackson III, better known as 50 Cent. He didn’t just survive, but parlayed his gangsta cred into a blockbuster career under the tutelage of two of the genres biggest stars – Eminem and Dr. Dre. After a failed stint with Columbia Records, his Em and Dre-backed Interscope debut, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, stormed out of the gates with a whopping 872,000 first week sales. The only rapper to post a bigger debut? Eminem. SF The album jumped out to such a prominent start on the back of lead single, “In Da Club.” The song, which became the biggest selling single of 2003, TB was such a big hit that in clubs, DJs often had to play it twice in a row. SF The club has taken on a “mythic aura…in modern pop music, as a sort of hyperreal space in which all desires are satisfied, all bodies are beautiful (and available), and everything and everyone exists for the sake of the person making the song…Fiddy’s rhymes approach the club from a tough-guy street pose, but Dre’s polished, expensive beat and the very lack of urgency in his voice betray him: he’s just another rich asshole in paradise.” DS Ironically, the “hook [was] so chunky and flat-footed, it was hard to dance to.” NPR’09 The song marked “the joyful, playful start of a depressing era of party rap somewhat akin to the hair metal…of the ‘80s.” NPR’09 That beat, which “could fairly be called harsh or elegantly spare,” ID “helped set off the ringtone craze.” ID The song’s “infectious chant” TB “go shorty, it’s your birthday” “has now become standard drunken-birthday-party fare,” TB but 2 Live Crew’s Luther Campbell wasn’t feeling so celebratory; he sued 50 Cent for borrowing the line from his group’s 1994 song “It’s Your Birthday.” SF The song’s “success was evident by the number of songs it spawned. Beyoncé did a version (“Sexy Lil’ Thug”) with lyrics adjusted to be about a girls’ night out. Mary J. Blige recorded “Hooked” with P. Diddy, using the beat from “Club.” Similarly, Bubba Sparxxx did “In the Mudd” and Cadillac Tah did “There’s a Snitch in the Club.” SF Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for 50 Cent DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Dr. Dre DS Don’t Stay Up Too Late (10/31/09). “100 Songs of the 2000s” ID Idolator.com (11/23/09). NPR’s Songs of the Decade from Boy Bands to “Single Ladies”. By Becky Bain. NPR’09 NPR.org “The Decade in Music: ‘00s” (11/12/09) RS’09 Rolling Stone (12/9/09). “Songs of the Decade” SF Songfacts TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 304. Related Links: Last updated 4/11/2023.