Hip Hop superstar 50 Cent collected a Certified Diamond plaque for his debut album “Get Rich Or Die Trying” in Australia on Saturday December 10, 2023 to mark sales of 500,000 units in the region.
The rapper took to social media to show off his latest achievement for the classic album as his Final Lap Tour makes eight sold out stops on the contingent down under in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
He captioned the pictures, 💎Diamond certification in Australia 🤫Brisbane tonight is SOLD OUT. The thing 50 is different! @bransoncognac @lecheminduroi @thefinallaptour.”
Other than “Get Rich Or Die Trying” 50 Cent has earned 5x Platinum for his sophomore album “The Massacre”, Platinum or Curtis and Beg For Mercy (The G-Unit album with Young Buck and Lloyd Banks).
The commemorative plaque also imprints Platinum for the singles “Candy Shop”, “I’m the Man”, “My Life”, “Outta Control”, “Poppin Them Thangs” and “Wanna Get to Know Ya.”
A music single or album attains platinum certification in Australia when it surpasses 70,000 copies shipped to retailers, and it earns a gold certification for reaching 35,000 copies shipped. The diamond certification, established in November 2015. The diamond award considers a cumulative total of album sales and individual track sales from that album after July 1, 2014, with 10 track sales equivalent to one album.
“P.I.M.P” featuring Snoop Dogg is 7x Platinum, 5 Platinum for “21 Questions”, 4x Platinum for “Just a Lil Bit”, 3x Platinum for “Many Men (Wish Death)”. “Friend”, “Window Shopper” and “If I Can’t” are all 2x Platinum.
He also earned Gold certifications for the singles “Disco Inferno”, “Straight to the Bank”, “Hustler’s Ambition”, “Patiently Waiting” and “Baby By Me, “When It Rains It Pours”, “I’ll Still Kill”, “Hate It or Love It”, “I’ll Whip Ya Head Boy”, “Wanksta”, “Get Up”, “What Up Gangsta” and “I Get Money.”
The official music video for “Many Men (Death Wish) by 50 Cent directed by Jessy Tererro and produced by Jill Hardin and Darrell “Digga” Branch has surpassed a milestone 500 million views on YouTube as of December 9, 2023.
The video is inspired by and portrays the traumatic incidents surrounding the attempted murder of the G-Unit rapper by a lone gunman at the request of a rival gang in Queens, New York on May 24, 2000. Mekhi Phifer appears as 50 Cent’s hitman, while Adam Rodriguez and Rory Cochrane, stars of CSI: Miami, take on the roles of detectives. The video also features appearances by Gabriel Casseus, Tommy Lister, and cameos from G-Unit members Lloyd Banks and Young Buck.
“Many Men (Wish Death)” was a single from 50 Cent’s debut album “Get Rich or Die Tryin'” released in 2003, produced by Darrell “Digga” Branch with additional production from Eminem and Luis Resto.
The song peaked at No. 11 on the US Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles and is certified 3x Platinum by The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for selling 3,000,000 units the US on January 19, 2023. In addition to its success in the United States, “Many Men (Wish Death)” earned a Gold certification in Denmark for selling 45,000 and Platinum in the United Kingdom for selling 600,000 units in sales and streams by the British Phonographic Industry on February 17 this year.
The cultural touchstone song has inspired subsequent artists and writers like the now deceased rapper Pop Smoke who interpolated “Many Men (Wish Death)” in his 2020 track “Got It on Me,” and producer Metro Boomin sampled the song for his collaboration with 21 Savage in the 2020 track, “Many Men.”
Vietnamese American writer Ocean Vuong, in his novel “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous,” repeatedly references the song, sayin how 50 Cent’s track marked the end of an era in gangsta rap, a period that framed masculinity with both performative elements and problematic stereotypes of misogyny and violence.
