50 Cent, the rapper and actor, has become known for his dedication to his roles, pushing his physical limits to embody characters fully. This article explores his dramatic weight loss for the film "Things Fall Apart," the methods he employed, and his subsequent fitness journey.
The "Things Fall Apart" Transformation
50 Cent set the internet abuzz when he posted astonishingly thin photos of himself online as he started filming a role as a cancer patient for 'Things Fall Apart.' He is playing the role in tribute to a friend who died of the disease. To portray a football player with cancer in the film "Things Fall Apart," 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, underwent a drastic transformation. He dropped from 214 pounds to 160 pounds in just nine weeks. This significant weight loss was achieved through a combination of a liquid diet and rigorous physical activity, including running on a treadmill for three hours a day. The rapper told Parade Magazine's West Coast Editor, Jeanne Wolf: "The photograph that they see of me is day one of shooting the second half of 'Things Fall Apart.'"
50 Cent explained his mindset during this period: "I was so into what I was doing that I wasn't really concerned with that. I just kept looking at myself in the mirror feeling like I have to be smaller. I had to match." He further elaborated on the challenges he faced, stating, "I had so much muscle on me that it was hard for me to lose definition even as I got lighter and slimmer. I started running to suppress my appetite. Towards the end it was really difficult. It was like, if I don't get close enough to what my best friend looked like to me at that point before he passed, then I'm not doing the story any justice."
He also did research when keeping the weight off got hard. "I actually got on the computer," he said. "When it started getting difficult, I was looking to see what their experience was like and I got a chance to see all of the interviews they had at different time periods when they were doing promotion for the projects."
Echoes of the Past: A Familiar Struggle
This wasn't the first time 50 Cent had experienced rapid weight loss. After being shot in the jaw in 2000, he was restricted to a liquid diet, causing his weight to plummet to 157 pounds. However, he noted that the weight loss for "Things Fall Apart" was "a lot tougher for me."
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"This time it was a lot tougher for me," the 6-foot-tall rapper said in an interview with the Associated Press. "I had to discipline myself not … to actually have myself be in the physical state to convey the energy I felt. It's a passion project for me," said 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson.
Gaining It Back: The Road to Recovery
Following the filming of "Things Fall Apart," 50 Cent began the process of regaining the weight he had lost. He revealed that he weighed 198 pounds at the time of the interview.
The Treadmill Triumph: From Injury to Icon
FOR CURTIS "50 CENT" Jackson, the treadmill scene in his now iconic “In Da Club” video is symbolic. Before he got there, he’d been famously shot nine times in 2000. Nerve damage prevented him from walking unassisted. He relocated to the Poconos from the Jamaica, Queens, neighborhood of New York City, where he was raised and nearly killed. Eventually, he skipped the grueling four-hour round trips to Jamaica Hospital to get (free) physical therapy in favor of a personal treadmill regimen. Two years later, the entire world saw his chiseled triumph in all its shirtless glory, jogging to a Dr. Dre beat while on the verge of releasing a debut album that would go on to sell 12 million records. “I put the gym in the middle of the video because, to me, that’s where I looked the coolest,” says Jackson. “That’s where I learned strong is not all muscle; it’s about being mentally and physically strong.”
Denying Ozempic Allegations and Embracing the Grind
In recent times, 50 Cent has faced speculation about his weight loss methods, with some suggesting the use of Ozempic. However, he has vehemently denied these claims, attributing his physique to hard work and dedication in the gym.
50 Cent denied using Ozempic and shared that he lost more than 40 pounds all on his own. “I was in the gym. I was working the f-k out, man. Who says Ozempic?” he said in a new Instagram video. The rapper said he was running around on tour and giving his all in the gym.
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A History of Physical Transformation and Discipline
Ironically, the attempt on 50’s life was the tipping point for him becoming the 200-pound (plus six percent body fat) herculean MC who bullied music artists and the charts for much of the aughts. One of those nine bullets pierced his jaw, placing him on a liquid diet for six weeks. He shed nearly 54 pounds off a frame that had been stocky since he began boxing at age 12. “[As a kid] I didn’t do well in team sports,” he says mid-reflection. “I would always identify with why we lost. So it was perfect to get into boxing, because there was no one to blame anything on. Boxing gave me a discipline that gives you an advantage.”
That discipline was necessitated by tragedy. After the murder of his mother, he became an orphan at age eight. This led to his role models and father figures primarily being neighborhood criminals who occupied public-housing projects and went by Five Percenter monikers like “Allah” and “Understanding.” For better or worse, these hustlers took young “Boo Boo” (a childhood nickname given to him by his aunt Geraldine) under their wings and landed him in the ring. “I learned from people who didn’t have excuses,” he says. “They looked at it like, ‘Curtis, if you would’ve [trained] like you was supposed to, you wouldn’t have gotten tired in that last round.’ So you can figure it out or go home punch-drunk. I’d rather do the work.”
While being shot several times is unequivocally traumatic, unfortunately, it’s also common in underserved communities like South Jamaica, Queens. But 50 refused to let an attempt on his life kill his dreams. The weight loss caused by his assault gifted the MC two observations that would forever change him: For the first time in Fif’s life, he could see the muscle constellation his weight had hidden throughout his years. “When you slim down, you see everything,” he says before identifying the paranoia in his initial fitness journey. “I’m also working out to get myself stronger, ’cause who’s to say you’re not gonna get hit again?” The second observation was not in the mirror but instead on television. He saw D’Angelo’s “How Does It Feel (Untitled)” video and the subsequent female reaction to the Brown Sugar crooner’s defined physique. “They were talking about a Brad Pitt line!” says 50, referring to the Fight Club actor’s famously defined pelvis. “I’m like, ‘Wait, what’s that?! Oh, nah, that’s important!’”
From "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" to Entertainment Mogul: A Constant Evolution
It’s been 20 years since Get Rich or Die Tryin’ and its abdominal ad of an album cover consumed the world and ignited what many rap purists have deemed the “G-Unit Era,” the four-year run when 50 and his G-Unit Records roster dropped an onslaught of undeniable rap releases that seized both the streets and Billboard charts. Today, Jackson is a metamorphosed hybrid in the entertainment business with a professional resume that's transcended the rap booth. He’s spent the last decade learning and imposing his will on the motion picture industry-similar to his entry into the music biz-and now his rap legend tag is accompanied by the distinction of being a highly successful film and TV exec. He boasts “30 different shows across ten different networks,” including several spin-offs from his initial Power series, which continues to break nearly every existing Starz ratings record; an animation project with Nicki Minaj; and an 8 Mile scripted series. All while continuing to keep a finger on the pulse of Hip-Hop. “Culturally, things move way faster now,” he says. “We have subcultures, street music like Drill. If I were [actively rapping] in this era, I would’ve fallen into that subgenre of rap.”
Although he’s two generations removed from today’s MCs, his influence on young Black men desperately using spoken word to escape the trappings of inner-city underworlds is as undeniable as it is current. 21 Savage remade 50’s grave classic “Many Men.” Fif also agrees that no other music artist of this era resembled him more than the late Pop Smoke. “I saw so much of myself in him,” says Jackson about the slain Brooklyn rapper before providing levity. “I was like, ‘What’s your mother’s name again?’”
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Embracing New Roles and Physical Challenges
50's new career also came with 20 more pounds than he had 20 years ago. During the pandemic, he swelled to 235 pounds but defends the fatty gains as intentional and occupational. “I put more weight on for the role on the ABC show [For Life]. I was eating everything to get as big as possible. Because it was a jailhouse [role], so it didn’t matter if I wasn’t cut up.” On the set of the September Men’s Health cover shoot, he’s down ten pounds since the pandemic and a month away from his 48th birthday. While Method Man showcases his gym results for the photographer, 50-sporting an all-black tank top, jeans, and fitted cap-vacillates between comedic, fitness, and business conversations with cover mate Busta Rhymes. Busta is on a mission to bulk up; 50 aims to drop more body fat. The vanity focus is attributed to both rappers preparing for late-summer ’23’s “The Final Lap Tour,” Jackson’s last global run as rapper 50 Cent. When Fif walked on set, he had 83 dates secured. That was before he was informed at the photo shoot that 20 more shows had been added. That many flights and performances will certainly tax a middle-aged body. This is why the Grammy and Emmy winner is determined to return to “In Da Club” form.
The Final Lap Tour: A Return to Peak Performance
“When I’m in top shape, I’m not sweating until song four,” he says before taking a dig at out-of-shape performers. “They sweatin’ on the second verse. Like, ‘You just got out there and you soaking wet!’”
A Relentless Pursuit of Excellence
50 Cent may not feel as urgent as he did in 2003, but the multihyphenate’s ambition and business intuition is as present as the discipline he gained in those South Jamaica boxing gyms. While in some ways he’s changed over the couple of decades (i.e., marginally less aggressive, with no recent threats against anyone’s life), he’s essentially the same Queens kid eager to remove impediments by any means necessary. He is and has always been his greatest competition. He still aches for a challenge. So whether that calls for dominating network television or Ja Rule or relearning how to walk, triumph is his only option-especially when the stakes and obstacles are at their highest.
“It’s more important to get back in shape now than it was then,” he says with his signature imp smirk. “Simply because I’m getting older. It’s harder.”