Hip Hop Lessons 101: The Original 50 Cent aka Kelvin Martin

Hip Hop Lessons 101

It's not uncommon for rappers to name themselves after legendary gangsters. At one point in Nas' rap career, he called himself "Nas Escobar." Pablo Escobar was the world's richest and most brutal drug trafficker. Murder Inc's Irv Gotti, whose real name is Irving Domingo Lorenzo Jr., dropped his last name and replaced it with the same last name as an infamous Mafia boss, John Gotti. When you include rappers Scarface and Capone to the list, the consistent gangsta theme in hip hop isn't news.

50 Cent aka Curtis Jackson is known as a world famous hip hop icon. Now learn the real story and meaning behind the name.

Kelvin Darnell Martin (July 24, 1964 - October 24, 1987), known to the underworld as 50 Cent, was an African American who grew up in the Bronx, New York, but later moved to Brooklyn, New York and was known as a stick-up kid in a Public Housing Project in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Throughout the 1980s, Martin became a well-known robber who managed to claim his success through the robbery and murder of local hustlers. Martin allegedly stole one of Rakim's chains and robbed LL Cool J's chain in a parking lot in Brooklyn.

Kelvin Martin was known as '50 Cent' because he was very short and would rob anyone, no matter how much money they had in their pocket. He was a very small guy at 5 foot 2 and 120 pounds however he made up for it with his talent at robbery, if he wanted something he would often just take it.

Friends estimate that, throughout his life, Martin had sustained at least 30 bullet wounds and murdered at least 45 people. Ultimately, gunshot wounds were his cause of death. He was shot on October 20, 1987 on the stairway of his girlfriend's project building, dying in Kings County Hospital four days later.