100 Best Albums On the iconic cover of Get Rich or Die Tryin’, 50 Cent essentially looks like a hood superhero: He’s shirtless with pristinely chiseled muscles adorning his tatted torso, with matching gun holsters emblazoned with “50” in the style of the Gucci logo around his shoulders. But if anything, the album was an origin story for one of rap’s all-time great supervillains, and the lead-up to its release felt straight out of a comic book or a movie. 50 learned the ropes of songwriting under the mentorship of Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay, landed a deal with Columbia Records, and built a buzz with the clever, trolling single “How to Rob” before being hit with nine bullets outside of his grandmother’s home in South Jamaica, Queens. After recovering from the attack, he began a legendary mixtape run with his G-Unit crew that reworked the hit rap and R&B records of the time, maintaining those songs’ melodies while creating his own hilarious, street-savvy choruses. It was a brilliant marketing strategy that put him at the center of a bidding war between record labels—a bona fide, unapologetic gangsta rapper at a time when the radio was run by acts like Ludacris and Nelly who cloaked their street content with fun, nonthreatening melodies. Dr. Dre and Eminem came out on top, signing 50 in a joint venture of their respective companies Aftermath Entertainment and Shady Records. Appearances on the soundtrack for Eminem’s film 8 Mile showcased 50’s ominous tone, dark sense of humor, and penchant for sticky sing-along hooks—a perfect match for Em and Dre’s empire. When it came time for 50’s debut studio album, his powers were on full display and his resources were abundant. “In da Club” was an inescapable party starter that topped the Billboard Hot 100 charts, and “Many Men (Wish Death)” revisits 50’s nearly fatal shooting while triumphantly boasting his survival (“These pussy n***as puttin’ money on my head?/Go and get your refund, motherfucker, I ain...

After Get Rich or Die Tryin’, 50 Cent was invincible. He’d made good on all the hype he’d earned by way of an extensive mixtape discography and released one of the most impactful debut hip-hop albums in history. So The Massacre—his follow-up to Get Rich—was the product of a man who’d suddenly gotten everything he wanted. He utilized all of the tools at his disposal—most specifically the talents and curatorial insights of Eminem and Dr. Dre—to make a bigger sequel, and the music has a sheen we see exemplified on The Massacre’s cover: The domineering Jamaica, Queens, street bully who continuously backed challengers off his corner is very much still here, except now he seems even stronger. To introduce The Massacre, he released upbeat singles like “Disco Inferno,” “Candy Shop,” and “Just a Lil Bit,” understandably entranced by the crossover success of “In da Club.” But songs like “In My Hood” and “Gunz Come Out” are likely to go down as some of the hardest songs in his catalog. Which is not to mention “Piggy Bank,” where 50 calls out crosstown rivals Fat Joe, Jadakiss, Shyne, and Nas by name. And then there are ultra-smooth inclusions like “Ryder Music” and “God Gave Me Style.” 50 had it all on The Massacre, and he didn’t spare any of it in constructing the project’s 22 tracks. If we were to believe that “Many Men” wished death upon him as he claimed on Get Rich or Die Tryin’, then The Massacre was sweet revenge realized, 50 assuring everyone that he planned to live well for years to come.

The tense, blocky beats we've come to know from Get Rich or Die Tryin' and The Massacre have only become tenser and blockier on Curtis. 50 Cent has achieved riches beyond anyone's wildest dreams, and his dominant lyrical theme remains his own massive success, yet there is something tortured and restless in the rhythms of "Man Down" and "Straight to the Bank" that suggests a man banging his head against the walls of a cage. Beneath its million-dollar bravado, perhaps Curtis is a concept album about its author's confinement in a self-imposed psychological cell? Regardless of your personal interpretation, 50's third album fully represents everything the rapper stands for. The grimy sonics of "I Get Money" and "Ayo Technology" offer disorienting thrills, but the album's best tracks come towards the end. 50 hits his stride on the Mary J. Blige duet "All of Me," while "Curtis 187" begins to resemble something the RZA might have devised. The current of terrific frustration — confirmed by the close-up portrait on the album's cover — suggests that wealth has done little to resolve this man's inner demons.

Animal Ambition: An Untamed Desire to Win (Deluxe Edition) is 50 Cent’s answer to his most famous assertion: Get Rich or Die Tryin’, the name of his 2003 debut. As a rapper, entrepreneur, and actor, 50 built an empire, and Animal Ambition is both a victory lap and a how-to guide. On the album, he gloats spectacularly, but he also believes in his fans to achieve the level of fame and notoriety he found through unrelenting determination, a knack for stadium-ready hooks, hypnotizing tales from the streets of New York, and unmatched charisma. The album was planned as a two-part series, to be followed by Street King Immortal, but that album never materialized. The MC put it all on the table with Animal Ambition, a project that from title to concept leaves little to the imagination. The album is 50’s memoir and his magnum opus, the thing he leaves for the next generation to understand him. It’s an attempt to demonstrate how he got so successful, why being rich is the best thing on Earth, and how, with enough determination, his fans might one day be like him. 50 does a clever thing with the record, though. Using Notorious B.I.G.’s lament of “Damn, n****s wanna stick me for my paper” on his 1994 track “Warning,” 50 follows in the footsteps of New York’s rap king, asking why the haters multiply as the bank account adds zeroes. On the ScHoolboy Q–assisted “Flip On You,” which is exclusive to the deluxe edition, 50 lays out his entire artistic philosophy, rapping, “Got a bunch of enemies, I count my friends on one hand/Ghetto philosophy, watch me, I got a hundred scams/Like we could make a few dollars, that there a hundred grams.” Even after a decade at the top of the rap game, 50 can’t stay away from a good deal when he sees one.

"Get rich, or die trying." 50 Cent introduced this credo to the world and then pulled it off, surviving multiple gunshot wounds on his way to accumulating millions. Having been loaded for more than a decade, 50 now waxes like Gatsby on the opening verse for Animal Ambition, rapping about the trappings of wealth over a dusky soul beat. He's less contemplative on tracks like "Pilot" and "Irregular Heartbeat," which sport compelling boom-bap beats over which he snarls and boasts, spinning street yarns as if he were still making his way there. Meanwhile, the zealous synth stabs and Trey Sonz guest verse on "Smoke" remind fans that 50 has always known his way around da club as well as the corner.