Monday, May 12, 2008

Business ventures

50 Cent has established himself in a wide variety of fields outside of his rapping career. In November 2003, he signed a five year deal with Reebok to distribute a G-Unit Sneakers line as part of his G-Unit Clothing Company.

He provided the voice-over as the protagonist in the video game 50 Cent: Bulletproof, which was released for PlayStation 2, Xbox and the PlayStation Portable. A sequel called 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is scheduled for a 2008 release He worked with Glacéau to create and market a grape flavored Vitamin Water drink called Formula 50.

In 2007, Coca-Cola purchased Glacéau for US$4.1 billion. 50 Cent, who owns a stake in the company, was estimated by Forbes to have earned $100 million after taxes. He plans to release a female sex toy line. He also launched a condom line called Magic Stick Condoms and a body spray called Pure 50 RGX Body Spray. and plans to donate a part of the proceeds to HIV awareness. 50 Cent has sighned a multi-year deal with Steiner Sports to sell his memorabilia.

In 2005, 50 Cent made a cameo appearance on The Simpsons episode "Pranksta Rap", in which he makes light of his legal troubles. The same year, he starred alongside Terrence Howard in the semi-autobiographical film Get Rich or Die Tryin'. He also starred in the 2006 film Home of the Brave as a soldier returning home from the Iraq War, traumatized after killing an Iraqi woman.

50 Cent is working on a role as a fighter in an Angola State Prison in The Dance alongside Nicholas Cage, and is set to star opposite Robert De Niro in 2008's Righteous Kill, a movie regarding a police death. He also started the film production companies G-Unit Films in 2007 and Cheetah Vision in 2008. On August 21, 2007, 50 Cent announced plans to launch a dietary supplement company in conjunction with his movie The Dance.

Shortly before appearing in Get Rich or Die Tryin', 50 Cent released a memoir about his life and how he became successful titled From Pieces to Weight: Once upon a Time in Southside Queens. On January 4, 2007, he launched his G-Unit Books imprint at the Time Warner Building in New York. He also co-wrote The Ski Mask Way, a novel about a small-time drug dealer who attempts to rob his employers, which is to be turned into a film before 2008.

50 Cent said he was reading The 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene and worked with the author on a book titled The 50th Law, an urban take on The 48 Laws of Power.

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