Get Rich or Die Tryin’ by 50 Cent

Get Rich or Die Tryin', 50 Cent's debut studio album, hit the streets on February 6, 2003, a week ahead of schedule to outrun the bootleggers, and it sounds like a man who has already been through the worst. The Queens rapper had been shot nine times in May 2000, lost his Columbia deal and his first album, Power of the Dollar, and found himself frozen out of the business until Eminem heard a mixtape and signed him to Shady in 2002.

Eminem and Dr. Dre executive-produced, and the album pairs hard-nosed gangsta rap with slick R&B hooks. The beats bounce and menace in equal measure, and "In da Club" and "21 Questions" with Nate Dogg both topped the Hot 100. Eminem, Young Buck, Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo drop in. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with more than 872,000 copies sold in its first week and ended up the best-selling album of 2003 in America.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.