It's hard to believe that just a few years ago, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson was actually the hottest thing in the rap game. Seemingly rising to fame out of nowhere in 2003, 50 went on to sell 12 million copies of his debut album 'Get Rich or Die Tryin'.' His reign on the top lasted about 5 years, until dwindling album sales, a constantly evolving music industry, and coming up on the short end of a pointless beef with Kanye West more of less relegated him to sideshow status. Not that anyone noticed with 50's bickering with Rick Ross, but Jackson's last, ominously titled album 'Before I Self Destruct' went triple wood, selling a mere 650,000 copies. A movie of the same name was so bad is not only skipped the theaters, it wasn't even good enough for Redbox. If you turn on Cinemax 4 right now, it's probably airing for the 172th time this month.
Although he's made some wise business decisions and held on to his money (Forbes magazine rated him the second highest earning African American Star in 2009), and his net worth is estimated at over $400 million, one thing 50 is quickly finding out is that in the rap world you simply can not buy relevance. Once your popularity (and ability to move units) is gone, it's pretty difficult to regain it, given how fickle fans are. In today's skinny jeans and dance party driven rap game, 50's hardcore East Coast ethos suddenly seems terribly outdated.
Acting Up: Queen Latifah, Will Smith and Ice Cube may be some of the most bankable black actors in Hollywood. But they are also hip hop royalty. These Grammy Award winners lead a growing list of rappers who caught the acting bug. Check them out.
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Rappers Turned Actors
Acting Up: Queen Latifah, Will Smith and Ice Cube may be some of the most bankable black actors in Hollywood. But they are also hip hop royalty. These Grammy Award winners lead a growing list of rappers who caught the acting bug. Check them out.
Stage Name: Bow Wow Real Name: Shad Moss Notable Acting Roles: 'All About the Benjamins,' 'Like Mike,' 'Johnson Family Vacation,' 'Roll Bounce,' 'The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,' 'Hurricane Season,' 'Lottery Ticket' Factoid: In the midst of promoting his latest film 'Lottery Ticket' Jermaine Dupri's former protégée revealed that he will appear alongside Loretta Devine and Isaiah Mustafa in the new upcoming Tyler Perry film, 'Madea's Big Happy Family.'
Stage Name: Queen Latifah Real Name: Dana Elaine Owens Notable Acting Roles: 'Jungle Fever,' 'Living Single,' 'Set It Off'' 'Chicago' Factoid: The New Jersey native spent five years as magazine editor Khadijah James on the hit television sitcom 'Living Single,' but this Grammy Award winning Cover Girl spokesperson was marked as an actress to watch when she scored an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Matron Mama Morton in the movie 'Chicago,' based on the hit Broadway musical.
Stage Name: Ice Cube Real Name: O'Shea Jackson Notable Acting Roles: 'Boyz N the Hood,' 'Barbershop,' 'Are We There Yet?' 'Friday' Factoid: This former N.W.A. rapper got his start as Doughboy in the John Singleton directed Academy Award-nominated film 'Boyz N the Hood' before starring in and producing his own comedy 'Friday' as well as family-friendly fare like 'Are We There Yet' and its sequel.
Stage Name: DMX Real Name: Earl Simmons Notable Acting Roles: 'Belly,' 'Exit Wounds,' 'Romeo Must Die' Factoid: Once a chart-topping rap superstar, DMX, who reportedly suffers from a bipolar disorder, has spent most of the past five years in and out of jail, which has side-lined his budding acting career -- not to mention the possibility of starring in an official sequel to the Hype Williams-helmed cult classic 'Belly' alongside fellow rapper Nas.
Stage Name: Ice T Real Name: Tracy Marrow Notable Acting Roles: 'New Jack City,' 'New York Undercover,' 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' Factoid: Talk about a 360. Once a controversial gangsta rapper with the song 'Cop Killer,' Ice T is a household name -- thanks to his role as NYPD Detective Odafin 'Fin' Tutuloa on the police drama 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.' Series co-creator Dick Wolf reportedly cast him in after seeing his NAACP Image Award-winning portrayal of drug dealer Danny Cort on 'New York Undercover.'
Stage Name: Will Smith Real Name: Willard Christopher Smith, Jr. Notable Acting Roles: 'Independence Day,' 'Six Degrees of Separation,' 'Men In Black' and 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' Factoid: At 40, not only is this 'Parents Just Don't Understand' rapper one of only two hip-hop artists to receive an Academy Award nomination in an acting category (Queen Latifah is the other), but Smith is the only actor in history to have eight consecutive films gross over $100 million in domestic box office and have all eight open at #1.
Stage Name: Nas Real Name: Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones Notable Acting Role: 'Belly' Factoid: In both a pivotal scene in 'Belly' and on a song called 'One Love' from his 1994 album 'Illmatic,' this New York lyricist talks about a character named 'Shorty,' who shoots from the roof of a Queens project building.
Stage Name: Method Man Real Name: Clifford Smith Notable Acting Roles: 'How High,' 'The Wackness,' 'The Wire' Factoid: According to 'The Wire' series creator David Simon, the Wu Tang Clan member's character Melvin 'Cheese' Wagstaff was the father of Randy Wagstaff, a young boy in the final two seasons of the Emmy-nominated HBO drama, but the relationship was never explored on the show.
Stage Name: Diddy Real Name: Sean John Combs Notable Acting Roles: 'Raisin in the Sun,' 'Monster's Ball' Factoid: Although his early days forming Bad Boy Records were portrayed on the silver screen by actor Derek Luke in the Notorious B.I.G. biopic 'Notorious,' Diddy has worked tirelessly so that he would be taken seriously as a thespian. Since starring in 'A Raisin in the Sun' on Broadway and then taking a bit role in the critically-acclaimed indie 'Monster's Ball,' the hip hop mogul has been cast in the upcoming movie 'Get Him to the Greek.'
Given the fact that 50's rise to prominence was fueled by (among other things) his willingness to grab headlines for things other than his music (e.g., the mythical "I got shot 9 times story"), it's no surprise to find him going the publicity stunt route to keep his name on people's Twitter timelines. Not a week goes by without some headline grabber that faintly smells of desperation. There was the pointless (and ultimately counterproductive) beef with Kanye West. The pointless beef with Fat Joe. The pointless beef with Dipset. The threatened retirement. The rapid weight loss for that football movie that will also go straight to Cinemax 4. The audiotape of Young Buck crying. The Rick Ross baby mama sex tape. The Rick Ross baby mama tell-all book. The Rick Ross sex tape. The alleged "dates" with Chelsea Handler. The quasi-homophobic Twitter rants. I could keep going on and on, but I thought we'd seen it all.
Keenan Cahill, the YouTube phenom who got over 15 million views on his lip-sync of Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream," has a new video making its way around the internet.
This time, he's lip-syncing 'Down On Me,' the Jeremih single featuring 50 Cent. Cahill, the adorably earnest Chicago youngster, mouths Jeremih's lines, and then a special guest drops in for 50's verse: 50 himself.
The multi-platinum rapper has to bend down to fit in the frame with the glasses-wearing 15-year-old. But the two dance around young Keenan's room, and 50 even drops some ice on his neck toward the end of the video.
Jesus, Curtis, really? You've made your money. Money can buy a lot of things, but it can't buy relevance.
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Please, for the love of all things precious, just retire already. Jay Anderson is a freelance writer from Washington, DC, whose work has been featured in the Washington Post and on NPR. When he's not busy talking smack here, he runs the award-winning blog AverageBro.com. Follow him via Twitter @AverageBro.
