Get Rich or Die Tryin' is released

Why it matters

Get Rich or Die Tryin' came out February 6, 2003, on Shady/Aftermath/Interscope. The album sold 872,000 copies in its first week, breaking the record for the largest first-week sales for a debut album in any genre. 50 Cent at this point had been signed to Eminem and Dre's labels for about a year, after spending three years on the New York mixtape circuit building a reputation built partly on the music and partly on having survived being shot nine times in May 2000. The album is the most successful debut rap LP of the 2000s by raw sales. Eight million copies in the United States, twelve million worldwide. Dr. Dre, Eminem, and the G-Unit production team handled most of the beats. "In Da Club," "21 Questions" with Nate Dogg, "P.I.M.P.," "Many Men." The combination of 50's biographical mythology (the nine bullets, the Jam Master Jay protégé connection, the Ja Rule beef), Dre's production, and Eminem's executive-producer credit made the album culturally inescapable through most of 2003. By the end of the year, 50 was the biggest new rap artist in America. You can argue the album has aged unevenly. You cannot argue with the commercial moment. He pulled it off.