Rapper turned television production mogul 50 Cent is talking about simpler times in a new interview. While promoting his latest television endeavors, he sat down with Brian J. Roberts to talk about how much money he made off his first tour while still living in a two bedroom apartment. He also discusses what motivates him, and why he purchased Mike Tyson’s home.
50 Cent is easily the richest man in hip-hop. He achieved this by investing a ton of his money early on and shifting his focus to television when his popularity in music started to wane. He currently has three spin-offs of Power on television and the new show BMF. According to Google, “His assets were listed as between $10 million and $50 million in his bankruptcy petition, though he testified under oath that he is worth $4.4 million.”
He recently sat down to discuss money and his journey with Brian J. Roberts. Roberts is a “writer who has been featured in the Washington Post and published in Entrepreneur, Forbes, Business Insider, Time, Inc., CNBC and others.” During their sit down he talks about heading out on his first iteration of the Rock The Mic Tour back in 2003. “When I left for the first tour, I did my first run with rock the mic tour. I came back I had 38 million dollars in my account. All I had was a 2 bedroom apartment that was $800 a month.”
Understanding that the majority of that money would be taxes, he decided to invest it in property. His first purchase was Mike Tyson’s massive Connecticut estate. The 50,000-square-foot mansion was valued at 4.1 million dollars when he purchased it in 2003. The house reportedly boasts “21 bedrooms, 25 bathrooms, an indoor pool and hot tub, a nightclub, an indoor court, multiple game rooms, a green-screen room, [and] a recording studio.” 50 Cent recalls getting the house saying “If you don’t spend it you know the IRS gonna take it. So I needed the expenses. So I ended up buying Mike Tyson home in Farmington.”
He ended up selling the house in 2019. He originally listed the property at $18.5 million in 2015, but eventually sold it at a 84% discount, only netting $2.9 million. He goes on to say that at the time he was just trying to sort it all out, since he was not used to having money. “You want everybody to be with you. I never wanted to be someone different. I wanted to be a better version of me. Not have the restraint that I had. When you come up without finances it feels like the biggest restraint.”
Well these days money is no longer new to 50 Cent. In fact, he’s racking it in at maybe an ever steadier rate then before. 50 Cent kicked off his music career with the astronomical success of his debut album “Get Rich Or Die Tryin'”. It was the highest grossing album of 2003 selling 872K units in its first week.
Now he’s making his money off television. 50 Cent currently has development deals in place with ABC, Lionsgate, Quibi and most importantly Starz. Under his Starz deal he’s developed four Power spinoffs and a new series starring Lala Anthony titled “Intercepted.” He also made a historic deal with the Coca-Cola Company back in 2007 when they purchased Vitamin water for over $4.1 billion.
