Where other artists would be more than content with over 30 million in record sales, rapper-turned entrepreneur Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson is incapable. Whether it’s in a personal or professional sense, 50 never remains stationary for too long, diversifying his portfolio and finding new streams of revenue and relevancy seemingly every day.
From making upwards of $100 million from Vitamin Water to chronicling the journey of fictional drug tycoon James “Ghost” St Patrick with Starz’ Power, 50 has routinely found new frontiers. Along the way, despite his banter and beef with rap friends and foes alike, 50’s music has taken a clear backseat.
14 years on from his initial threat of retirement during his infamous Graduation Vs Curtis sales clash with Kanye West, 50 has yet to formally bow out of the game. In reality, his emphatic loss at the hands of Ye didn’t stop him from adding two further entries to his solo canon, not to mention two EPs with a reformed G Unit.
That said, there was a time where 50 had every intention of bidding adieu to his career as a recording artist with one grand, career-encapsulating finale in the form of his Street King Immortal project, only to leave fans still pining for this elusive album a whole nine years after it was initially slated for release.
50 Cent at a “Street King Immortal” promotional shoot in NYC, 2012 – Johnny Nunez/WireImage/Getty Images
After he’d originally alluded to his fifth album arriving in the form of an aborted “dance music”-inspired project known as Black Magic, the term Street King Immortal first entered the hip-hop lexicon when 50 took to Twitter in July of 2012, excitedly proclaiming, “Jimmy iovine said STREET KING IMMORTAL is the best album I’ve made since GET RICH OR DIE TRYING.” It’s worth noting, the album title drew its name from a new beverage business venture 50 was investing in at the time, that is, Street King energy drink.
The album announcement was promptly followed by the release of the Dr. Dre-produced and Alicia Keys-aided “New Day.” As a result, 50 exhibited every sign of being in album-release-mode and stipulated that the record would emerge in November of that year, after a reported two years of behind-the-scenes work on it, too.
LISTEN: 50 Cent “New Day” feat. Alicia Keys
“I can’t offer what collaborations I’ll be actually having, but I want to say that the actual project itself was the longest body of work I had an opportunity to work on besides Get Rich Or Die Tryin’,” 50 remarked to XXL that August. “As far as what’s next, they’re gonna see what I have next. I’m not gonna wait a long time. You’re gonna hear new stuff from me.”
Initially earmarked for release on November 13th of 2012, an October interview saw 50 concede that the record wouldn’t come out as previously planned, citing the fact that the album represented his last contractually-obligated record with Interscope, Shady and Aftermath. However, he was gracious enough to drop off an engaging consolation prize in the form of “My Life” featuring Eminem and Maroon 5’s Adam Levine. Then, as he transitioned to 2013, 50 spoke to Fuse and claimed that the “business part is slowing me down.”
Ever the promotional powerhouse, 50 continued working under the pretence that SKI was imminent for the remainder of the year, releasing singles in the form of the Snoop and Jeezy-assisted “Major Distribution” and his Daft Punk-sampling dalliance with Kendrick Lamar that was “We Up.”
Where this collaboration between a perennial star of the moment and a wily vet should’ve set the world ablaze, the response was far more muted than anticipated. And as commercial misfires mounted, so too did his aggravation with his longtime home of Interscope.
WATCH: 50 Cent “We Up” feat. Kendrick Lamar & Kidd Kidd
“It’s a lot of staff changes, a lot of different people moving in and moving out,” Fif told MTV News in July of 2013. “So you have to kind of wait until everything’s right; until it’s settled in.”
Adamant that he was waiting until the album was “right,” another year would pass without Street King Immortal. Another twist in the tale was right around the corner as 50 would officially severed ties with Interscope in February 2014, taking his G-Unit imprint with him to independent distribution company Caroline International in the process.
Looking to mark his newfound autonomy with a bang, 50 would release an album in the form of Animal Ambition. But even as it descended upon the world in June of 2014, it was already being billed as a prelude to Street King Immortal.
“It’ll be seamless,” 50 Cent proclaimed in an interview with Complex. “It’s gonna ride right into it. Street King Immortal is more personal. It’s way more personal than this record. Of course this one is about a portion of my actual experience, but that one is…I talk about things that I haven’t talked about.”
Rather than be the one-two combination that fans were awaiting, 50’s insistence that SKI was waiting in the wings would soon cause the record to take on a mythical allure that mirrors that of mentor Dr. Dre’s archived project Detox.
Following a newly-designated release in September 2014, 50 wasted little time in pushing the record back to 2015, in order to allow him to consolidate his efforts into the revived G-Unit and avoid sacrificing what he termed as “the momentum” of “everyone being back together.”
Having reasserted that the album was “now the focus” as of late January 2015, 50 continued to add news wrinkles to the hype around SKI by informing Hot 97.3 Hartford that both Chris Brown and Kendrick Lamar had contributed, not to mention, there was another record with former label head Eminem that would reportedly be unveiled soon.
Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images
It also appeared that hooks would play a pivotal role within the album as over the years, Trey Songz, John Legend and Ne-Yo were all confirmed for appearances by 50. As far as rhyming partners go, the G-Unit general’s trip to Hartford also saw him disclose that he’d be teaming up with a southern artist that he’d previously had unfavourable things to say about.
“I just did a song with [Lil] Wayne though, ‘Ejected,'” he relayed. “It’s actually Kidd Kidd and Wayne but I had to put it together and I got them to give me the clearance, both Wayne and Baby to clear the record so it’s cool.”
Billed as an album that revolved around storytelling, fans were heartened in August of 2015 when the riveting and deeply autobiographical “9 Shots” was unveiled. Marking a return to the unrivalled grit and lyrical forthrightness that’d made 50 into a superstar in the first place, any fan will recall how the emphatically positive response to the track made it seem as though all the pieces were finally coming together.
WATCH: 50 Cent “9 Shots”
Consequently, it couldn’t help but feel bittersweet when in December of 2016– after the proposed September 2015 and August 2016 deadlines had came and went– 50 finally assigned a retirement narrative to the long-awaited album.
“I want to finish with that project,” he informed Muscle & Fitness during a Q&A. “I don’t want to write another record after that. You know how some artists got to have confirmation that they’re right? I have that confirmation in fucking 35, 40 million [albums] that I already sold.”
Despite, or perhaps as a direct byproduct of the importance that he’d allotted to SKI, the trail would go cold for much of 2017, with 50 dropping off “Still Think I’m Nothing” alongside Jeremih without so much as an insinuation that it was an album teaser.
By January of 2018, the status reports on Street King Immortal felt more like backpedalling, with Jackson informing The New York Times that he was “in the middle of recording” what was once thought to be an already-complete sixth album and claimed (again) that it was “as thrilling as my first.”
Later that month, at the premiere of bank heist movie Den Of Thieves, 50 breezily remarked that “at the end of the year, they’ll get the full album” and suggested that his film and TV endeavours had played a role in the then 8-year gestation period of the project.
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Considering that DJ Whoo Kid claimed to have heard 22 songs worth of “ridiculous shit” way back in March of 2013, it’s safe to say SKI has likely been completed and then rejigged on numerous occasions by this point. And with so many plates spinning and a comfortable lifestyle already secured, 50 could be forgiven for refusing to release something that fell below his personal standards.
But after the NLE Choppa-assisted “Part Of The Game” from the Raising Kanan soundtrack marked a commercial and critical return to form, Curtis Jackson, the musical artist, has begun to exhibit signs of life. In the wake of the track becoming, in his words, “the most added track on urban radio” the G-Unit legend self-effacingly toasted the song’s success by stating, “oh sh*t i’m still 50 cent LOL.”
Although many have consigned the album to the same vault as hip-hop’s other last artefacts, Street King Immortal is yet to be formally cancelled by 50 Cent or his camp. And with 50 riding high off “Part Of The Game’s” warm reception, and the 20th anniversary of breakout mixtape 50 Cent Is The Future approaching in June of 2022, perhaps now would be a fitting time for him to embrace his illustrious place in hip-hop’s history books with the sort of bullets and bravado-ridden farewell that only he could deliver.