50 Cent Tells Secrets To Business Success In New Interview — Beyond Zayn Malik

Too often, when discussing 50 Cent, the media is focused on his personal life and whether he is still after Cookie. Despite this, there is much more to 50 Cent than celebrity gossip — and it is not surprising to find him being presented as a businessman before other career titles.

Since he has had so much success in business, 50 Cent recently sat down for an interview with the premier money magazine, Fortune. In that interview, 50 Cent showed how his business skills are just as great as his rap career — on par with (if not better than) hip-hop music-focused business masters Jay Z and Dr. Dre.

On top of having a legendary career, 50 Cent has kept the ball rolling by doing what it takes to build a rap empire. For example, as previously reported by the Inquisitr, 50 Cent reached out to Zayn Malik before he broke up with One Direction about a possible record contract.

Fortune Magazine recorded a brief video published on April 7 that was captioned, “Rapper-turned-entrepreneur Curtis Jackson tells Fortune about the challenges in running his headphone company SMS Audio.”

The video with 50 Cent is loosely transcribed below.

“When I first came up with the idea for SMS Audio, I wanted to make sure I would be able to continuously be a part of how people enjoy music. I did not [venture into business opportunities] prior to that, and I felt like it would be cool to be associated with why people listen to high-quality products.

“I am constantly approaching people with the idea of ‘what’s next?’ [And I’ll say], ‘Look, you think you did good with your idea? Well wait till you hear mine.’… [And I tell them] ‘Look, all you have got to do is put your money behind my idea.’ And I’ve got nothing. I’ve just got an idea.

“The challenges are finding the right people to work with, initially. Even if you work with a company that has already had some success and you buy that company that is already working… to have a team around it, there is a process of filtering to hire the right people for it.”

Like Dr. Dre’s Beats headphones or Jay Z’s sudden interest in streaming audio, 50 Cent points out that part of what he wanted was to “be associated with why people listen to high-quality products.” In other words, if 50 Cent is interested in an audio product, people will assume he knows what he is talking about as one of the world’s best rappers — and will trust buying from a 50 Cent-associated brand.

Is charisma all 50 Cent needs to sell his products? While charisma is what helped him land his first profitable business deal outside of rapping, he was quick to point out that business success is all about hiring the right people.

Of course, while he seems to state otherwise in his Forbes interview, this is not 50 Cent’s first time in the business world — and he learned from his first serious investment outside of music that his name alone was a powerful marketing tool.

One of his most memorable business ventures was ownership in the Vitamin Water beverage company. He was a huge fan of Vitamin Water, and the Washington Post stated in 2010 that, “He had grown up around alcoholics, so he didn’t drink. He spent hours a day working out and ate healthy…. 50 Cent had found Vitamin water a more pleasurable way to hydrate.”

When asked by Vitamin Water owners in 2004 to work as a product endorser, 50 Cent said instead he wanted to invest. Celebrity Net Worth claims that 50 Cent signed the deal with Vitamin Water in 2004 for “a $5 million fee and a 5-percent equity stake in the company.”

In 2007, when Coke bought Vitamin Water, 50 Cent’s take was 10 percent of the $4.1 billion the company sold for — which gave 50 Cent an estimated $400 million maximum (but likely much less after fees and other costs).

If 50 Cent has as much success with SMS Audio as he did with Vitamin Water, 50 Cent might join the Business Hall of Fame.

[All images from the referenced links.]