“I think people look for excuses in life for not being successful.

I am the perfect example of why you should have it.

Because all the things that could go wrong in the beginning did go wrong.

Although it sounds excessive, reality confirms the words of

Curtis James Jackson III

, the rapper known as

50 Cent.

Because the first years of his life in the borough of Queens passed without a father figure, with a trafficker mother who was murdered when he was only eight years old.

Then came an adolescence mired in the world of drugs and weapons, with several arrests before reaching the age of majority and nine shots in the body when he turned 25.

Still,

50 Cent was

successful, with more than 30 million records sold worldwide.

And, now, the artist makes the leap into a new field: the audiovisual.

The rapper is the executive producer of

Power Book III: Raising Kanan

,

the prequel to the

Power

saga

that Starzplay has premiered and that has already been renewed for a second season as soon as its first episode is broadcast. "The show is a family drama, a coming-of-age story that allows people to see the innocence, the trauma, and the things that allow them to have a stronger understanding of their behaviors," he says.

Although the singer refers to the protagonist of the series, Kanan Stark, in part he refers to himself.

It is no coincidence that the series' story, like his own, takes place in the South Jamaica neighborhood, that his mother is a drug dealer, that family issues set the pace, that violence is a central axis of the plot and that the music industry is always in the background.

Kanan is Curtis ... and Curtis is Kanan.

"What attracts us is that we see characters make mistakes like us or like someone we know," he

says.

"Personally when I see this series I feel identified because I recognize people in my life who did the same."

Family terrain is crucial in the series because, as we said,

50 Cent

grew up without knowing his father. "There are people who give it importance because they have had it in their life and they felt the loss," he says. "

I've never had and never when you thought about meet your father, you have no need to have a relationship

. My grandparents are my father and mother figures, they did that for me.

It was with them that, between poverty and violence,

50 Cent

grew to become one of the greatest hip hop stars in history.

"The damage of poverty gives you a different mindset

,

" he

says.

You do whatever it takes to achieve your goal.

There are people who think that fighting for what they want for themselves is selfish.

Is it to follow your passion and your own nature? ».

50 Cent

came out of that underworld during the 1990s. And, he says, he hasn't changed that much since then.

"It has different shapes, but you can still see it on the street: everything is resolved, your life expectancy is resolved because you are going to end up dead or in jail," he says.

"You have to decide between things like risk or reward and ask yourself what you would do."

In the world of drugs, you have to decide between risk and reward

What has changed in this time, according to 50 Cent, is the relationship between artists and record companies thanks to the rise of platforms such as YouTube.

"Now the artist needs to make himself known to the public before meeting with a record company," he says.

“To impress a music executive, you have to make them feel like you are marketable.

In fact, now the artist would not even go to a record company: we can all appreciate the talent of an artist without intermediaries.

The rapper looks to the world of drug trafficking, in which he was immersed during his adolescence, as the easy option to get out of poverty in this type of neighborhoods and societies.

"Instant gratification serves people because everything they want comes quickly, like cars and nice clothes, which are tangible things and they are drawn to it because they become part of their lifestyle

.

"

However, it also affects the

B-side

of that business: «Now I think that this will most likely not work out well, there are better options to get ahead.

Is the real goal to get in, get something, and get away fast?

Seeing it like this is probably the only way I can say that you become successful in that kind of life. "

50 Cent

recalls that throughout his life he has learned "many lessons."

One of them is that, in their childhood, their close people "could not escape" from the underworld of organized crime.

Not even his mother, with whom he only lived for eight years until she was murdered and with whom he now recalls a scene that links to the fictional plot: «The family's little brother is being mistreated in his neighborhood, he goes straight home and he doesn't say anything to his mother.

That happened to me, I didn't tell my mother because it scared me.

Then she got angry for letting them treat me like that, I wanted to fight, but she explained that when I woke up the next day that problem would have disappeared ».

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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