Personnel includes: 50 Cent, Eminem, Young Buck, Tony Yayo, Nate Dogg, Lloyd Banks.

Producers include: Dr. Dre, Eminem, John Freeman, Red Spyda, Terence Dudley.

50 Cent was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Best New Artist. GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN' was nominated for Best Rap Album. "In The Club" was nominated for Best Male Rap Solo Performance and for Best Rap Song.

With its inclusion on the mega-successful 8 MILE soundtrack, 50 Cent's "Wanksta" blew up in late 2002, calling out the hypocrisies of wannabe gangstas who boast of criminal exploits that exist only in their imaginations. If anyone has the right to speak it's 50 Cent; he made his mark in the streets (not to mention newspapers) long before Eminem inked the Queens rapper to his Shady Records. In between the occasional single and album, 50 Cent has been involved in many notorious hip-hop confrontations. The too-aptly titled GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN' (which includes "Wanksta") introduces his brash, talk-it-like-he-walks-it rap style to the world at large.

50 Cent blithely cites the Bible in "Many Men (Wish Death)" while crowing about the rival who famously shot him in 2000 only to be shot himself ("cuz he got hit like I got hit and he ain't...breathin'"). From that slice of ultra-reality, he shifts to the dance-pop anthem "In Da Club." Throughout GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN', 50 Cent presents a strikingly original, raw worldview, even by the well-traveled genre's bleak and violent standards.

What the critics say...

Rolling Stone (12/25/03, p.104) - Included in Rolling Stone's "50 Best Albums of 2003"
Rolling Stone (3/6/03, p.68) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...A great record....Dark synth grooves, buzzy keyboards and a persistently funky bounce..."
Entertainment Weekly (12/26/03, p.145) - "In Da Club" ranked #14 in Entertainment Weekly's 2003 "Records of the Year"
Entertainment Weekly (2/21/03, pp.148-9) - "...50 Cent may end up the Goliath he wants to be..." - Rating: B
Q (01/01/04, p.83) - Ranked #6 in Q's "The 50 Best Albums of 2003" - "[H]ip hop's man of the year, no contest."
Uncut (01/04, pp.84-7) - Ranked #35 in Uncut's "Albums Of The Year 2003"
Uncut (5/03, p.109) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...[An] unapologetic throwback to straight-assed songs about guns, girls and drugs..."