Songoftheday 11/16/23 - You ain't a friend of mine you ain't no kin of mine, what makes you think that I won't run up on you with a .9?

 

 

"Wanksta" - 50 Cent

from the mixtape No Mercy, No Fear (2002) & albums 8 Mile (Original Soundtrack) (2002) and Get Rich Or Die Tryin' (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #13 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 14

 

Today's song comes from Curtis Jackson, the rapper who records under the moniker 50 Cent, who grew up in Queens, New York. With a mother who dealt drugs and died when he was eight, Jackson started dealing before he was even a teenager, and eventually was convicted of it, though he missed jail time in lieu of a "get straight" camp in 1994. In a couple of years Curtis would pick up rapping, and originally hooking up with Run DMC's Jam Master Jay, before being signed to Columbia Records. There he recorded a debut album, and released his first single "How To Rob" featuring The Madd Rapper (aka producer Deric Angelettie), which placed in on Billboard magazine's R&B chart for the first time at #62.  But after two more singles stiffed (including "Thug Love" with Destiny's Child, a seemingly can't-miss), 50 Cent was infamously shot nine times by a guy that turned out to be Mike Tyson's bodyguard. I guess straight-laced Columbia didn't want to take any more risks with the guy and dropped Jackson from the label. 

After recovering and building his body back up to weightlifter proportions, 50 Cent moved to Canada to record a series of mixtapes. One of them, Guess Who's Back, came out in the spring of 2002, and went to #28 on the Billboard 200 sales tally and #13 on their R&B Albums list. Three more of these were released that year, including his "rap posse" G-Unit. On the No Mercy No Fear collection from August of 2002 was the cut "Wanksta". During that period, 50 Cent caught the notice of Eminem, who signed Jackson to his Shady Records vanity label on Dr. Dre's Aftermath vanity label for Interscope Records. At that point "Wanksta" was added to the soundtrack of Eminem's pseudo-biopic 8 Mile in the autumn of 2002, and came out as the second single after Eminem's massive hit "Lose Yourself". Written by the rapper with producers Michael "Sha Money XL" and John "J-Praize" Freeman, the song pokes fun at the hip-hop "poseurs" who claim to be "street" but are only acting the part (he later claimed the song was about Ja Rule as had been rumored). The production is car stereo bass-friendly, but his sing-song delivery and endless boasting gets a bit tired. Nevertheless, with a real video budget behind him as well as Eminem's 8 Mile coattails, 50 Cent found himself with a crossover hit...

"Wanksta" became 50 Cent's first trip on Billboard's Hot 100, making it to the top 20 in March of 2003, while peaking at #4 on their R&B Singles chart and #3 on the Rap Singles list. On the radio, the song went to #6 on the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, as well as on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. The song would go on to be a bonus track on 50 Cent's debut studio album Get Rich Or Die Tryin', which came out in February of that year. At the Grammy Awards, Jackson was nominated for Best New Artist, losing to goth-rock band Evanescence. 

But 50 Cent's success wasn't over, two weeks after "Wanksta" made the pop top-40, his next single would also leap onto the level, and we'll be seeing that tomorrow.

(3/10)

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Here's 50 Cent appearing on BET...

And lastly, in concert in Detriot in 2003...

Up tomorrow: the song everyone knows 50 Cent for.