In this week’s issue of FT Weekend, on sale Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th February, 50 Cent explains to Ben Thompson how his notoriety as a rapper has helped make him a big hit in business too. “There are some people who actively enjoy doing the wrong thing, then there are others that are just standing there within the entrepreneurial spirit, thinking this is regrettable, but it’s gotta be done. I definitely fell within the latter category. For me, it was the only way that I could provide for myself.

“I was only a kid when I started dealing and I was kind of in a cycle. My mum had decided to go into that type of lifestyle in order to take care of me, and even though that decision led to her death, because I associated everything good in my life with her, I made the mistake of going the same way.”

Highlights of the interview include:

•Business: “The one real difference between a boss in my neighbourhood and the CEO of a company is that the guy selling drugs doesn’t think killing you is not an option. The guy running the straight business might not have psychotic means of accomplishing his goals – he won’t have you shot just to take over the corner you’re standing on but he will do pretty much everything else short of killing you to get what he wants.”

•Reading the financial press: “People probably assumed I had more interest in the sports section but for me it was always amazing to see the possibilities. I don’t see any limits. And with the right decisions, and of course with the money to put my ideas into practice, I knew I could become involved in some investments that could take me to a different space, financially.”

•The Formula 50 vitamin water deal: “Because I did a deal very early on, and got in the elevator on the first floor, when it reached the top, I was a big part of the situation.”

•Music: “There are some people who hear the music and identify with it because they’ve lived through something similar, and others who enjoy how close it brings them to a world they don’t actually have to inhabit. What I’m doing is trying to capture a portion of my earlier experience perfectly, before I move on and do different things.”

•Fame: “When you’re a public figure, everyone has a right to their opinion of you.” [And you don’t begrudge it?] “You can’t, because it’ll make you go crazy…that’s the moment celebrities really start to lose touch with reality, when they start to care too much what the public thinks about them. They’ll be looking at what the bloggers are saying about them… A blogger can say whatever he wants.”

•Throwing a model in a pool during ‘America’s Next Top Model’: “I threw her in the pool. I guess she was over-excited that I was there. She kept coming back at me and jumping in the middle of other people’s conversations but I was trying to talk to everybody – that’s what I was there for. I asked her to leave and she didn’t – she was really starting to irritate me. So I threw her in the pool. I didn’t do it for show, that just how my personality is. She was hot though.”

•His presence: “Fools like the perception better than the actual reality. So if people have a perception of 50 Cent based on what they’ve heard, and it’s not actually who I am as a person, then that can be very useful. Especially if people think that I’m not paying attention. If I’m having a business conversation with some guy, and we’re hanging out, and he’s excited just to be in my world, then there’s every chance he’s going to sign up to something his lawyer wouldn’t necessarily have wanted him to commit to”.

- ends -

For further information, please contact:

Jo Crosby, Financial Times, 020 7873 3811 or jo.crosby@ft.com

Sophie Grut, Financial Times, 020 7873 3119 or sophie.grut@ft.com

About the Financial Times

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