Alternative Sex

What 50 Cent wants is what 50 Cent gets. In this case, he wants the yellow elephant doll - they're being handed out as souvenirs to him and his G-Unit crew during a mini press conference - and not the green one, thank you. And of course, 50 Cent always gets exactly what he wants.

Whether on the television or in a magazine, 50 Cent appears intimidating (hard-as-rock muscles, bullet-proof vest), uncompromising (don't-mess-with-me pose, dead-on stare) and accomplished (he exudes an aura of success combined with an excessive amount of bling).

Surprisingly, "Fiddy" as he's known, seemed smaller in person and emanated a choir boy's warmth, serenity and courtesy throughout a brief group interview. Nary a swear word was uttered, as opposed to the x-rated language in his rhymes. His speech wasn't riddled with hip hop terminology so often heard on MTV Cribs. 50 Cent kept eye contact with every single soul in the room, including a record label rep, as he drove home his points.

On-stage, he's 50 Cent, a multi-million-dollar-selling, formidable gangsta rapper. In the music videos, he's 50 Cent, a player who parties with the best-looking bunch of honeys and homeboys. On the street, he's 50 Cent, a man whom you don't want to cross words with. During interviews, he's another 50 Cent: Smart as a whip, a soft sell executive whose products range from music to vitamin water.

"I'm more excited about performing here than I would be in New York because the people who attend the show actually want to see what's going on. In New York, it's so common to them. They're excited about it, but it's not as groundbreaking to them," he said.

50 Cent has been credited by many for resurrecting the sort of hip hop fanaticism once generated in the Land of Many Mobs during the early '90s before alternative rock took a stronger hold (one shudders to remember Kriss Kross and Vanilla Ice). Thanks to him and other glamorous hip hoppers, the genre's beats are being etched on the minds of RCA's frequent flyers. But the question remains as to how relevant hip hop can be, with all the ice, the cars, the hoods, the guns and the big bums, to a "simple" Thai life: Is it just the snappy beats that attract local youngsters, when hip hop is, in fact, a deeply-rooted culture that caters to a mostly American audience?

"They don't directly have to deal with [what we have to deal with] because it's different things going on in the environment that they're in. But they translate the aggression. They understand it. They have everything that we have in the US, so they get it. They have to choose hip hop music, they have a stronger passion for it."

Born Curtis Jackson in 1976 and raised in Queens by his grandmother, 50 Cent has had the kind of life that TV dramas are made of. His drug-dealing mother passed away when he was eight; his father soon followed. Young Jackson took to a life of crime and fought loosing battles with the law, which eventually led him to visit prisons on a regular basis. His break came in the form of the production duo known as the Trackmasters, who signed 50 to their Columbia imprint and released three of his singles in preparation for his planned album Power of the Dollar.

But before the release of that album, 50 Cent came face to face with violence. The first incident involved stabbing, but this would be overshadowed by the now infamous, much-talked-about shooting incident: He was shot nine times with a 9mm pistol in a car, but survived to tell the story through his music.

The brush with death resulted in Columbia dropping the rapper and abandoning the album. This didn't disencourage 50 Cent. He formed a collective, called G-Unit, and returned to the underground, circulating his mix-tapes throughout New York over a period of two years. These mix-tapes became the talk of the town and many labels vied to strike a lucrative deal with 50 Cent.

Famous rapper Eminem snatched up 50 Cent with a seven-figure sum, enticing the rapper to sign a joint deal with Shady/Aftermath - the latter label belonging to the famed Dr Dre. Eminem and Dr Dre co-produced and pushed Get Rich or Die Tryin', released in early 2003, as hard as they possibly could.

The partnership between himself and Eminem continues to this day, 50 Cent said. "Having Em being a part of my [life] is incredible for me. I have him to make reference to, and to have conversations with. He's experienced having the same caliber of success that I'm having right now. His Marshall Mathers LP sold 18 million records worldwide. When you've sold 11 on your first, you can still look to Em and say, 'What did you do that I didn't do?' He can give me constructive criticism, which I can accept because I am 100 per cent sure he's in my corner," he said.

Asked if anything had changed in the wake of the global success of his debut, 50 Cent seemed to cherish the wider business berth it has opened up. He has been able to release numerous G-Unit crew albums and jump-start a clothing line, a vitamin water company and a video game, with the biopic being the latest addition to his offerings.

So who is 50 Cent? A gangsta rapper who has had death knock on his door more than once, a man whose past was as hard as they come? Or is he a shrewd businessman who uses money to grow money?

"I've always been ambitious. I don't think ambition is a learned behaviour. I think it's a part of a person's character. Some people just have that drive. Even if I've accomplished a million things, I'll be trying to accomplish a million and one. My goals change as I move forward. I get excited about the next thing," he said.

The next stop for his money train might be at a sex toy station - he's working on a sex toy line. More bizarrely, there have been rumours floating about that he will make moulds of his own private parts to get the line up and running, so to speak.

"I was in the UK, at a radio station. I told them I wanna make a sex toy line. They were joking, and I said, 'Yeah, I'm gonna give them a mould of me.' I don't know where to start with the actual line, but I know I haven't got any bad responses. [Laughs.] It's in a development stage, so I'll be going to the local adult toy stores, to check out what's going on!"

Between visits to adult sex toy shops, 50 managed to release a follow-up album, The Massacre, last year. Needless to say it was another commercial triumph. But also grabbing headlines was his feud with former G-Unit member The Game, which ended in a shoot-out.

If you think 50 wants to keep mum about the entire situation, you would be wrong. He explains at length what happened between him and The Game. According to 50 Cent, he wrote six tracks for his former protege, half of which became hit singles, for which 50 would get 50 per cent of the profits from The Game's CDs. Somehow caustic words were exchanged, and 50 believes that when "the album took off, things just got to his head.

"I got to move him away from me ... I can't allow myself to use my energy to destroy something I've used my energy to build ... I don't actually have a problem with Game. I'd like to help Game be the best he can be, but he'd like to be me ... so it's impossible for him to be next to me.

"I see different hip hop scenes developing. Different languages. I see a lot of artists are kinda shifting. There're a lot more aggressive music being made after they've seen the success. You see new artists coming out, you're like 'wow'. They wanna do their version of 50 Cent. But if you already have the original, why would you get a copy?"

His words ring true, but in the competitive music business, success often spawns imitation or generates interest in a certain genre. 50 Cent has plenty to suggest.

"They gotta bring their stories. They try to bring mine. They're never gonna sing with the same passion that I sing because I mean it; I really came from these situations. I may have to get over being shot nine times, physically I had to recover from that. That was tough for me. For someone else, it might just be a break-up in a relationship with another person. It could be equivalent, just as tough for them to deal with that emotion. That's what their songs should be about ... When they get that down, it's gonna be incredible."

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