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Page 1
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Onstage, 50 Cent hasn't even cracked the top 10 yet ...
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Page 2
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Jay-Z pulls a G move, and Busta tells 50 how to make sure no one survives ...
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Page 3
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50 leaps from a skyscraper and refuses to party with his crew ...
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Photo Galleries
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Onstage With 50 Cent
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Sway Goes Backstage With Eminem And 50 Cent
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Em And 50:
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Kings Of Detroit
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50 Cent:
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Still Hungry After 4 Million Records
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Mixtapes:
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The Other Music Industry
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Browse Bands by Name
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Or enter a band name below to search:
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 Bands Main
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One of the most obvious changes in 50's live show is his stage set. Long gone are the days where he can get away with just going onstage with a banner with his name and logo up there to represent him. As he's seen by watching Slim Shady's Anger Management set and the July Detroit concerts, a true superstar has to have staging that not only embodies the feel of their music, but dazzles the audience as well.
While Em chose a carnival setting, 50 has opted to stick close to home of late, using a set with replicas of Big Apple skyscrapers and the Statue of Liberty. As Dr. Dre proved with the Up in Smoke Tour a few years back, a set isn't just a piece of eye candy — it's an integral part of your show. The Dr. rolled out such props as lowriders and smoking skulls to bring his productions to life. 50 now uses pyro, confetti, his "Many Men" music video and 10-foot-high leaps out of the New York skyline to spruce up his show.
50's life on the road hasn't blurred his focus on making music. After all, that's why everyone is coming to see him in the first place. He rarely stays up all night partying after shows; instead, he rests up for an early morning wakeup or lays down vocals with his longtime producer, Sha Money XL, on his studio tour bus. Besides finishing the G-Unit album, Lock and Load, he's practicing the first lesson he learned once he became a superstar: You can't let your street credibility slip.
"We do a mixtape for everything we do, put it right onto the street," he says. "We always put out a mixtape 'cause you gotta keep your presence in the street. [Fans] start to doubt you ... if you don't consistently keep something hot in front of them. So I keep it out there."
With the mixtape game under his thumb and Get Rich or Die Tryin' resting comfortably in the upper reaches of the Billboard albums chart, 50 obviously has two-thirds of his game well in hand. If he continues to absorb the fine points of live performance at his current rate, he should be a complete rap superstar by the time his second solo LP goes double platinum.
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Photo: Interscope/MTV News
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