Hulu has greenlit an untitled three-part documentary series on Curtis Jackson, the rapper, producer and businessman better known as 50 Cent. The project will trace his rise from Queens to global cultural dominance, telling the story of how he became one of the most successful rappers in the world.
The series arrives with real weight behind it. Jackson has sold more than 30 million records, and the logline describes the documentary as definitive as it follows his evolution across music, business and film. He broke out in 2003 with Get Rich or Die Tryin', which featured In Da Club, and later moved into television and film with Starz's Power and its extended universe.
Jackson also made the project sound like a prize in a crowded fight. On April 1, he teased on social media that Hulu was paying $75 million for a new documentary about him, writing that Hulu had won a bidding war against Starz, Netflix and Apple. Hulu has not confirmed that figure, but the company did move ahead with the series, which is being produced by The Intellectual Property Corporation and G-Unit Film & Television.
Mandon Lovett is directing the documentary, while Patrick Altema will serve as showrunner and executive produce alongside Jackson, Lovett, Eli Holzman and Aaron Saidman. The timing also puts Hulu back in the documentary business around major music names, after projects such as Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story and Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band.
The appeal here is simple: Jackson is not just revisiting the years that made him famous, he is shaping the account himself. After a career that included being shot by nine bullets, breaking through with a landmark album in 2003 and then building a second life in television and film, the series will test whether the man who made a brand out of reinvention can still control the narrative of his own rise.
