Mogul 50 Cent made a recent appearance on MSNBC to speak about his success as a businessman and the release of his new book, The 50th Law.
Promoting the book with co-author Robert Greene, the Queens emcee first spoke on his staggering $100 million dollar profit as an original investor in Vitamin Water before its sale to Coca-Cola.
“It’s an exciting deal. The opportunity to get in [during] the infant stages of that company was amazing for me,” 50 Cent stated. “It’s the biggest deal [for me].”
With the music industry struggling overall for sales, 50 reflected on how personal brand extension is essential when previously it was frowned upon in Hip-Hop.
“The technology is absolutely shifting things. The marketing dollars that the major companies would provide for artists in the past is gone with the actual record sales,” 50 explained. “This is taboo; this is almost like selling out. 5 years ago what is great business from an artist perspective now would be absolutely going in the other direction of what they think is cool.”
As an innovator of the mixtape scene, 50 views piracy as a reality that should be embraced by artists.
“I see it as part of the marketing. Because even the people who purchased the music from a pirating perspective end up at the concert. They can’t help but fall in love with the material at that point whether they consumed it from downloading it on the actual Internet or they went and purchased the material. We can’t stop it. If the major record companies could, they would.”
In The 50th Law, 50 and Greene hope to empower those who feel economically lost by the nation’s current recession.
“We’re living through times where people are very frightened,” Greene explained. “The message of the book is you need to move past that fear. Because in a couple of years this recession will be over, and will you be in a position to seize the moment? I think its going to be a new entrepreneurial era. Or are you just waiting on some job?”
“And I think the majority of the companies who are the Fortune 500 were established during a recession,” 50 added. “The recession is predominantly for the middle class. Where I come from the majority of those people have always lived in a recession.”
50 Cent and Robert Greene’s 50th Law is available now.
At press time, 50 Cent’s latest LP Before I Self-Destruct is still set for a November 17 release.
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