# Fifty Cent? Instant celebrity?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifty-cent-instant-celebrity/158296>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [March 1, 2003, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifty-cent-instant-celebrity/158296 "2003-03-01T02:30:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2003, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifty-cent-instant-celebrity/158296/1 "2003-03-01T02:30:33Z")

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I didn’t know about Fifty Cent until the middle of last week. All of a sudden … poof! Everywhere on MTV, everywhere in the celebrity mags, everywhere on shows like Entertainment Tonight and Access: Hollywood. I don’t care if he’s a good rapper or not. I’m wondering how, short of shooting a world leader, someone can go from being a nobody to an instant celebrity in a few days.

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**Author:** ![peepthis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9d8465/32.png) [@peepthis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peepthis)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2003, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifty-cent-instant-celebrity/158296/2 "2003-03-01T03:00:42Z")

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He was taken under the wing(s) of Dr. Dre and Eminem, which brings instant celebrity by association – and, of course, the slick production work of Dre doesn’t hurt. 50 Cent has been known in the underground hiphop scene for a few years now so he’s not the tyro one might think, but only now that he’s signed on with Dre & Eminen has his career taken off. Remember **Mase** , whom Puff Daddy (now P.Diddy) launched to instant stardom about 5 years ago? With the proper impressario running the show, instant celebrity isn’t that tough.

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**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2003, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifty-cent-instant-celebrity/158296/3 "2003-03-01T03:29:06Z")

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Also, he was featured on the **8 Mile** soundtrack, so he got some exposure there. And _Wanksta_ was making waves on the underground even before it was initially released, as **peepthis** pointed out. People have been writing stories anticipating his first official release for several months now, so it’s not exactly sudden fame.

Basically, he’s a known underground who got paired with the biggest producer in hip-hop and one of the hottest stars of the genre. You do the math.