How Much Is 50 Cent Actually Worth?

50 Cent burst onto the rap scene in 2003, and things were never really the same after. His debut record, "Get Rich Or Die Tryin'," was a game-changer for the industry, and the whopping $1 million contract he signed with Dr. Dre and Eminem to produce it was impressive for a talent who seemed to come out of nowhere (per MTV). But 50 Cent had spent years building his career, and over the decades that would follow, it became clear he's a methodical, practical, and motivated businessman. 

There's a lot to take in from 50 Cent's life. As many know, he lost his mother at the age of 8 and was selling drugs by the age of 12, but he was also a kid living with his grandmother and trying to do the best that he could. Connecting with Jam Master Jay was a pivotal moment that set him on the right track, and by 2003 he was making tens of millions of dollars (via Elite Daily).

These days, Celebrity Net Worth values 50 Cent's overall net worth as $40 million. Here's a look at what he's made, what he's lost, and how that 2018 Starz deal changed a lot.

50 Cent's childhood isn't exactly a rosy story. As he's told numerous publications, including The Big Issue, by the age of 12 he was selling drugs, and by 16 he was well-versed in life on the street. 50 Cent lost his mother when he was only 8 years old, and from that point he lived with his grandmother and various family members who shared her home.

As he related to the publication, it wasn't always easy to live there. Some of his family members didn't seem to like him, and losing his mother was hard. He explained, "To have a single parent as your guardian — they're your whole life. I was eight. I was just like, what do you mean?  She had spent a lot of time away from me, she was always hustling." Once he moved in with his grandmother, his aunt began to resent him. In retrospect, 50 Cent believes that's because she had been the youngest in the home, and he took her spot as the baby of the house.

Living with his grandmother was tough in other ways, too. As he explained, his grandmother often seemed to see his mother's face in his own, which made the situation emotional. And despite his extra-curricular activities outside the home, his grandmother never believed a word. As he said, "People told my grandmother stuff I'd done and she'd say, nope, not my baby" (via The Big Issue).

Selling drugs isn't easy — especially when you're 12 years old. But 50 Cent had determination that would later serve him again and again in his more professional pursuits. 50 Cent told The Big Issue that he definitely had a mouth on him in his dealing days, even though he was the youngest by far, noting that everyone else in his group was at least 16 years old.

50 Cent also explains the reason he got into drug dealing in the first place: pursuing girls. As he put it, "We all wanted nice things, nice clothes, because we wanted to attract girls. So we had to hustle to afford them" (per The Big Issue). Eventually, things caught up to him, and Elite Daily notes that he ended up getting arrested when he was in 10th grade after metal detectors at his school picked up the gun he was carrying.

He was arrested for a second time years later after he sold cocaine to an undercover cop. He got out of the expected three to nine year sentence, instead spending six months in boot camp, where he completed his GED (per Elite Daily).

50 Cent turned toward the music industry in 1998, when he began rapping. While he was still years away from mainstream success, his initial landing in the world was strong. As shared by Elite Daily, 50 Cent first linked up with Run DMC's DJ Jam Master Jay, who helped him come up with a name, taught him how to put a song together, and even helped him land his first contribution on an album when he was featured on "React" by Onyx. 

In 2000, 50 Cent was infamously shot nine times as when he was visiting his grandmother's home. He admitted that the shooting caught him completely off-guard, but told The Big Issue that he ended up stronger than ever as a result. He explained, "I got shot in the afternoon, broad daylight. So I got scared, and that made me harder than I was before. The only time I was comfortable was when I didn't care."

When it came, mainstream success completely embraced 50 Cent. He was signed to Dr. Dre and Eminem's label in 2002 and released his debut album, "Get Rich or Die Tryin'," the following year to near immediate and overwhelming success. He later told Ambrosia For Heads that the timing was perfect, saying, "I had $800 a month [coming in] for my responsibilities — the rent and stuff. I went on that tour following that. By the time I came back, there was $38 million there [waiting for me]."

Not one to waste time or money, 50 Cent immediately turned that success back around and began investing in people and projects he believed in. In 2003, he started his own record label as a subsidiary of Interscope, and Elite Daily notes that G-Unit Records went on to launch the careers of dozens of talented people and groups, including Young Buck and The Game. 

As the BBC has shared, 50 Cent expanded G-Unit to include both sneakers and a clothing line, and for a period, the items were among the most popular and sought-after in the world. In 2014, 50 Cent announced that he was leaving Interscope and taking G-Unit Records with him, a move that was underwritten by Caroline/Capitol/UMG. The departure seemed amicable, with 50 Cent acknowledging Dr. Dre and Eminem and stating, "I've learned so much from them through the years. I am excited to enter this new era where I can carry out my creative vision" (via Complex).

While it's not clear what financial compensation 50 Cent received from Caroline/Capitol/UMG after the move, Celebrity Net Worth notes that his annual earnings for the year 2014 were approximately $8 million ... so we can assume that the swap was well worth his time.

50 Cent has made great use of his financial resources in other ways. He began signing deals with corporations back in 2003, when he took on a deal with Reebok to launch his own shoes (via Elite Daily). He invested in Glacéau, the brand behind Vitamin Water, the following year.

His partnership with Glacéau was a particularly ingenious one, as he negotiated a minority stake in the company while agreeing to be their spokesperson. 50 Cent made commercials for the brand, and when Coca-Cola purchased the company for $4.1 billion in 2007 (per Reuters), 50 Cent received a hefty payout — the actual number was disputed at the time, but Celebrity Net Worth estimates that it was 10 times what he made as a rapper. As Elite Daily notes, it's believed he made $100 million after taxes, which for many is a nearly unfathomable amount of money.

In 2014, 50 Cent entered into a partnership with Effen Vodka. The deal lasted three years until he decided to end it for a reported $60 million buyout from the company, shared the man himself. As he wrote on Instagram in a since-deleted post, "I got the bag, EFFEN Vodka Can you say 60M's since they like counting my money DO THE MATH" (via HYPEBEAST).

In 2005, 50 Cent starred in a biopic about his life, aptly titled, "Get Rich Or Die Tryin'." The film was generally a success, and it managed to make back all of its budget of $40 million (per Bomb Report). For 50 Cent, the appeal was making the movie in the first place, as it gave him the opportunity to truly explore a skill set that was not yet fully nurtured. 

50 Cent told Movie Web that he was ready for the role. As he put it, "I've done what I needed to do to prepare for it. I've worked with acting coaches when I had the first screenplay that came. I actually got excited about the project and committed to it after I read the first one."

He also shared that filming a movie about things he had lived through was an interesting experience in and of itself. For starters, it was interesting to have to vacillate between different emotions quickly because the scenes weren't shot chronologically. As he shared, "I actually had to cry in that scene with Joy [Bryant] and the next scene was me in the car just acting crazy pretty much. So the contrast between the two was a big transition" (via Movie Web).

It seems that once 50 Cent got a taste of filmmaking, he knew he didn't want to look back. As Elite Daily has shared, in 2009 he joined forces with Randall Emmett to found the film production company, Cheetah Vision. Two years later, the production company received a financial windfall of $200 million dollars in a deal that would require them to produce 10 films.

50 Cent was open about his interest in making movies, telling Variety that it's a very different field from music. He explained, "You have 90 minutes and 120 pages, compared with three minutes for a song. I've become very passionate about making films."

According to IMDb, 50 Cent made good on his end of the deal, and produced an impressive array of ten films through the company. These include 2010's "Gun," which starred Val Kilmer, as well as several films that starred none other than the rapper himself.

Proving that he's not really a man who can be stopped, 50 Cent jumped into the beverage game in 2011 when he launched his own energy drink company, Street King. As Forbes noted, 50 Cent's energy shot had catapulted itself into the No. 2 spot in the field only a year-and-a-half later (coming in second to powerhouse energy drink shot, 5-Hour Energy).

50 Cent's energy shot was wildly successful, having found a home in over 40,000 stores across the United States. And while 5-Hour Energy claimed roughly 90% of the $2 billion energy shot drink market, Forbes noted that all 50 Cent needed to get was 10% of what 5-Hour Energy possessed. 50 Cent's business partner in the endeavor, Chris Clarke, was thrilled. He told the publication that being in second place was a great thing, explaining, "The number two normally takes between a 20% and a 40% share, and the number three normally takes between a 10% and a 20% share. So we obviously want to be a strong number two."

In 2015, Forbes named 50 Cent the fourth richest rapper in the world ... which made his bankruptcy filing that same year all the more confusing. But there was more to the filing than met the eye. At the time, 50 Cent was tangled up in a lawsuit filed against him after he was said to have added his own commentary to an adult film a woman made with her boyfriend, which was then leaked. The jury in the case ultimately ruled in the woman's favor, ordering 50 Cent to pay her $5 million (per the BBC).

In return, 50 Cent filed for personal bankruptcy, which his lawyer explained would allow him to continue his business interests without anything getting messed up. As the lawyer put it, "This filing for personal bankruptcy protection permits Mr. Jackson to continue his involvement with various business interests and continue his work as an entertainer" (via the BBC).

In 2017, 50 Cent was discharged from bankruptcy after he paid off a massive $22 million debt. As The Guardian shared, he had been on a five-year-long payment plan, but ended up finishing things early with $8.7 million of his money and $13.65 million he won in lawsuits.

Things turned around for 50 Cent in a big way the following year when he entered into a partnership with Starz that was valued at $150 million. The four-year deal had the rapper agreeing to produce multiple series for the channel (per Variety). His hit series, "Power," and its subsequent spin-offs, "Power Book II: Ghost," "Power Book III: Rise of Kanan," and "Power Book IV: Force" have all been massively popular on the channel, with Vibe pointing out in January 2022 that his shows are the top three most popular in Black homes in the United States.

50 Cent told Variety that he knew he was asking for a lot for the deal, and Starz wasn't shy about telling him. As he put it, "When I sat down with Chris [Albrecht, Starz CEO] and walked him through my plans for G-Unit Film & Television going forward, he let me know I was essentially requesting the biggest deal in premium cable history." 

Clearly, that deal has paid off for both 50 Cent and Starz in a massive way. As the star pointed out on Instagram, it's almost like his shows on Starz can't even be stopped.

In 2014, 50 Cent released the album "Animal Ambition" and decided to let his fans buy the record with Bitcoin if they wanted to, which was still a fairly novel approach at the time. As TMZ has shared, at the time Bitcoin was worth $662 per Bitcoin, which is pretty impressive. 50 Cent never did much with his account, just letting the Bitcoin accrue. The album reportedly made the singer over $400,000 in Bitcoin at the time, which amounted to roughly $7.5 to $8 million in 2018. In other words, 50 Cent accidentally became a Bitcoin millionaire without even trying to!

50 Cent later admitted on Twitter in a since-deleted tweet that he had forgotten about the Bitcoin account entirely, but added, "Not bad for a kid from South Side, I'm so proud of me" (via The Verge). There's never been an update on whether or not 50 Cent did anything with his Bitcoin millions, but knowing him ... it's probably stashed away somewhere.