💀 “The True 50 Cent: How a Brooklyn Stick-Up Kid’s Bloody Reign Shaped Hip Hop Forever”

The story begins in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Projects, an area already notorious for violence in the 1970s.

From the Walt Whitman houses to the Ingersoll towers, the sound of gunshots and sirens was part of the daily soundtrack.

And in the middle of it all was a wiry kid named Kelvin Martin.

Martin wasn’t tall.

He wasn’t built like a heavyweight.

But in the streets, size doesn’t matter — reputation does.

And by his teenage years, Martin’s reputation was as solid as a bulletproof vest.

He was fearless.

Some said suicidal.

Others called him reckless.

But everyone agreed on one thing: you didn’t want to cross 50 Cent.

Yes — he was the original.

The nickname “50 Cent” was born on the block.

Some said it came from him once walking into a dice game with only 50 cents in his pocket and leaving with hundreds.

Others claimed it was because he would rob anyone — hustlers, dealers, civilians — down to their last 50 cents.

Whatever the truth, the name stuck, and in the streets of Brooklyn, it became synonymous with pure menace.

Martin’s style of crime was unique.

Most stick-up kids wore masks, used getaways, and played it safe.

Not Kelvin.

He robbed people face-to-face, no mask, daring them to remember his face and do something about it.

He carried his trademark Colt .

45 and a .

357 Magnum, and he wore his bulletproof vest like a uniform.

He was always ready for retaliation, and for years, none came that could stop him.

50 Cent didn’t fight — he cut.

Stories of his violence spread like urban myths.

One infamous tale described him skating into a confrontation, ripping off his skates, and launching himself across a table, slashing a man’s face repeatedly.

Others recalled him sticking up whole crews, then sticking up the same crews again days later, just to prove he could.

To Kelvin, money wasn’t the motive — fear was the prize.

And the streets feared him.

By the early ’80s, New York was drowning in crack cocaine, and drug crews like Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff’s Supreme Team in Queens and smaller Brooklyn outfits were raking in millions.

But Kelvin Martin wasn’t cut out to be a drug kingpin.

Selling wasn’t his thing.

Taking was.

So he formed his own crew, the Brooklyn Zoo, a squad of young stick-up kids who robbed dealers, extorted store owners, and terrorized nightclubs.

Their rule was simple: pay for protection, or Kelvin Martin will make an example out of you.

His affiliations ran deep.

As a teenager, he had shared a cell with James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond in juvenile detention.

Later, he rolled with members of the Supreme Team.

Even legends like Eric B. and Rakim knew him personally.

Rakim would later admit that much of his debut album Paid in Full was inspired by watching Kelvin live recklessly while he chose rap instead.

That’s how embedded the original 50 Cent was in the DNA of New York hip hop — even without recording a single bar.

But the streets don’t allow legends to grow old.

Kelvin’s violent career made him enemies everywhere.

He was shot, stabbed, ambushed, yet always survived.

At one point, he even joined the U.S. Army, perhaps as a way to escape the mounting attempts on his life.

But he was discharged and drifted back to Brooklyn, back to the chaos.

By the mid-’80s, the pressure caught up.

In October 1987, he was betrayed by one of his own.

An 18-year-old crew member nicknamed Weimo, allegedly acting under threats from Kelvin’s rivals, lured him into a trap.

That night, Kelvin removed his bulletproof vest, believing he was safe among friends.

He wasn’t.

He was ambushed in the stairwell of his girlfriend’s apartment building.

He was shot in the head, chest, and stomach.

Four days later, the original 50 Cent was dead.

He was just 23 years old.

When Kelvin Martin died, he left behind no fortune.

Despite years of robberies and extortions, his family inherited nothing but his gold teeth.

His money had vanished, likely taken by the same enemies who ordered his death.

His reign ended as brutally as it began — in blood, betrayal, and silence.

But the name lived on.

Fast-forward to Queens, 1999.

A young hustler-turned-rapper named Curtis Jackson was carving out his identity.

He had survived his own childhood in South Jamaica — crack dealing, stick-ups, the chaos of the crack era.

When it came time to choose a rap name, he didn’t want something soft or abstract.

He wanted something that screamed danger.

Something that carried the energy of survival by any means.

So he chose “50 Cent.”

Curtis would later explain: “I took the name 50 Cent because it says everything I want to say.

I provide for myself by any means.

” It wasn’t about imitating Kelvin Martin — it was about channeling the same spirit of rebellion and fearlessness.

But for those who remembered the original, the choice was chilling.

The irony didn’t stop there.

Curtis’s early career was shaped by Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC — the same Jam Master Jay who had once been at war with Kelvin Martin’s crew in the ’80s.

Fate had a twisted sense of humor.

The man Kelvin hated became the man who taught Curtis how to write hooks, structure songs, and polish his craft.

And just like the original 50 Cent, Curtis’s career nearly ended in gunfire.

In 2000, he was shot nine times outside his grandmother’s house in Queens.

Miraculously, he survived — a parallel to Kelvin’s many near-death experiences.

Where Kelvin eventually fell, Curtis rose.

His survival became his myth, the proof that he had truly earned the name.

As 50 Cent the rapper exploded into superstardom with Get Rich or Die Tryin’, people began to forget Kelvin Martin.

But Curtis didn’t.

Years later, he paid for Kelvin’s tombstone — a gesture of respect to the man whose name had paved the way for his own legend.

The parallels remain eerie.

Both men rose from broken homes, lived by the code of survival, attracted powerful enemies, and were shot multiple times.

One died young, betrayed by his own.

The other lived to turn the streets into music, beefs into Billboard hits, and his name into a global brand.

But at its core, the story of 50 Cent — both Kelvin and Curtis — is the story of New York itself.

Brutal.

Unforgiving.

A place where names are currency, and survival is earned, not given.

So when you hear Curtis Jackson shout “50 Cent” on stage, remember: it’s not just a rap alias.

It’s a ghost.

A warning.

A name that once made even the hardest hustlers in Brooklyn pause.

And maybe that’s the secret.

Curtis Jackson didn’t just steal the name.

He inherited it.

He kept it alive.

He transformed it from a symbol of fear into a symbol of resilience.

But the question lingers like smoke in a project stairwell:

If Kelvin Martin had lived, would Curtis Jackson ever have dared to call himself 50 Cent?