50 Cent releases 'In Da Club'

Why it matters

"In Da Club" came out January 7, 2003, on Shady/Aftermath/Interscope, as 50 Cent's debut single on his new major-label arrangement after years of mixtape work. Dr. Dre and Mike Elizondo produced. The song spent nine weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, was the most-played song on US radio in 2003, and became the lead-in to the February 2003 Get Rich or Die Tryin' album. What "In da Club" did, beyond being a #1 single, is reset the mainstream commercial template for what an early-2000s rap hit could sound like. The hook ("Go shorty, it's your birthday") is the part you remember. The beat (a Dre-and-Mike-Elizondo construction with a distinctive synth-and-piano riff) is the part you cannot forget. The song was, briefly, the soundtrack to every wedding reception, NBA game, retail location, and karaoke night in America. 50 Cent at this point had already survived being shot nine times in 2000; the mythology around him was already operational. The song put the mythology on top of the airwaves. You can put it on right now and the room will lock in. It still works.