Young and old alike: it was impossible not to enjoy the "50 Cent" show in Paris

19 years after releasing his masterpiece album and four months after the Super Bowl show that brought him back to consciousness - "50 Cent" recently went on a world tour in which he will also arrive in Israel on July 4-5.

We went out to see him in Paris and saw a charismatic and smiling rapper who for an hour and a half did not leave a poor moment

Nir Yahav, Paris

20/06/2022

Monday, 20 June 2022, 00:13 Updated: 00:45

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Fifty Cent, 50 Cent in Paris (Photo: Nir Yahav)

After producer Zeev Isaac decided to bring veteran rapper Fifty Cent to perform in Israel, signed a contract with him and closed the details with him, a shooting attack took place on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv in which three people were killed who were sitting innocently in "Ilka Bar".

Isaac began receiving a flood of phone calls from fans who had purchased tickets to Fifty's show in Israel in an attempt to find out if the shooting could cause the rapper to cancel his plans to come to Israel.

Isaac smiled in response.

"Fifty was shot nine times at short range. After such a thing, no shooting scares him anymore," he told them.

The incident that Fifty's men are talking about happened 22 years ago.

Fifty Cent - aka Curtis Jackson's stage name - was shot close to his hand, legs, chest and left cheek.

The same injury hit his tongue and some claim that his slightly-strange pronunciation (he coined the word Birthday for example "Barfaday") is the result of the same bullet in the cheek and tongue.

The recovery period that Fifty needed from that shooting lasted for many months and the contract to release an album with the company "Columbia" was canceled as a result.

Fifty later said that "Columbia" did not want to mess with a criminal who would make trouble for them.

"After they shot me, they started to be afraid I would walk around their building. I think the industry would have preferred a studio-made gangster than someone who actually comes from this background like me, because it's less risk for them. You invest money in a human and bullets can suddenly fly."

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Raised the crowd.

Fifty in a show in Paris (Photo: Nir Yahav)

But the one who is not particularly frightened by Fifty's criminal background is Eminem, who decided to sign the rapper on his label.

"Every song he did was crazier than the other," Eminem later said.

"We were in a situation where we just could not give up any song because they were so good. His story just bought me, because it's important to have a story behind the music you create."

Indeed Eminem's sense of smell struck Bull.

Fifty Cent's debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin, exploded everywhere.

It sold 872,000 copies in just four days, the huge hit that came out of it, In da Club, broke a most-qualified song in radio history in a week - and in fact the album became the best-selling album in the United States in 2003.

Almost twenty years have passed since that exemplary album.

Since then he has released five more albums, collaborated with the best artists - but mostly experimented with other things: produced and directed TV series, starred in movies, did business, made millions, lost millions and again made millions.

In February of this year he appeared on the Super Bowl's halfway show alongside his friends Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar and Marie J. Blige.

Nearly twenty years after the same album that exposed him to the world, and four months after the same show that exposed him to the world again - Fifty Cent recently went on a world tour.

He will sign his European part in two performances in Israel (which will take place on July 4-5 at Menora Mivtachim Hall in Tel Aviv), and just before he lands with us we went out to see him at the Accor arena in Paris.

The beautiful stage on which Fifty performs actually consists of two parts - an upper part on which the musicians sit and a lower part where Fifty appears next to his friends in "Green Light Gang" (and behind them four dancers in minimal attire).

Full of charisma.

Fifty Cent in Paris (Photo: Nir Yahav)

There were 14,000 people in the audience in Paris (the first of two fifty-out sold-out performances in the city), both 15-year-olds who discovered it in recent years and older people who have loved it for twenty years.

Fifty's show lasted no more than an hour and a half, but there was not a dull moment in it.

Fifty shot his songs like shell after shell, he threw smiles everywhere, moving from side to side, and mostly proved what a formidable rapper he is - a talented artist, bursting with charisma who for an hour and a half holds a captivated and enthusiastic audience.

There has not been a single dull moment in this show, even for those unfamiliar with all of Fifty's hits, such as In Da Club, Candy Shop or PIMP

twenty years after that wondrous album, and a moment before he celebrates his 47th birthday (a birthday he will celebrate immediately after His second appearance in Israel), it is evident that Fifty Cent has matured, reinventing himself and trying to adapt to the current world.

The fact that thousands of Parisian boys came out with a twinkle in their eye from the show in the city probably proves that Fifty is quite successful in the task.

The writer was a guest producing the show in Paris

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