SHOCKING Indian fans by unzipping his trousers, feuds with fellow rappers, throwing his ex-girlfriend and son out of their home, threatening to quit the music business... these are some of the things that keep 50 Cent among the notorious artists that dominate the world of big-time rap.

But despite all the bad-boy stuff nobody can deny 50 - A.K.A. Curtis James Jackson III - is a musician and businessperson second to none. The 1,83-m-tall former gangster has risen from hardcore drug dealing, jail time and being shot nine times to sell more than 25 million albums and top charts the world over.

He has also revolutionised street culture with his record label, film production company, book label, clothing line, condom range and video games. After hip-hop giant Jay-Z he's rap's wealthiest entrepreneur and harvested a staggering $28 million in 2006 alone, according to the US online business bible, Forbes.

Now the superstar is on his way to conquer South Africa with his rap crew, G-Unit, and we can expect the street-smart attitude, provocative lyrics and larger-than-life personality that has made Fiddy - as he's also known - a global phenomenon.

His SA tour is shaping up to be to be one of the most important of his life. His career has taken a dip lately and the decision to hook up with his old G-Unit homies - some of whom have been rapping with him since childhood - is an attempt to restore the glory days.

The rapper was left with egg on his face last year when his third album, Curtis, was released during a much-publicised showdown with Kanye West's third album, Graduation. Fiddy vowed to retire if Kanye outsold him - but when Graduation sold 260 000 copies more than Curtis the muso quickly backtracked. He wasn't ready to turn in the mike, he announced - but his ego was severely dented and his position as the King of Rap no longer looked so secure.

"I lit a bomb and it didn't explode," the gruff 50 Cent admits now. "I felt like the album should have gone a lot further than the results it received. It had hit singles on it but the timing around their release was wrong."

He went to lick his wounds with the G-Unit guys and it didn't take much to persuade them to climb aboard the tour bus. Accompanying him to SA will be David "Young Buck" Brown, Christopher "Lloyd Banks" Lloyd and Marvin "Tony Yayo" Bernard. Don't expect former member The Game to be with them though - they haven't shared a stage in years.

There's plenty for local fans to look forward to. We'll be among the first audiences to hear some of the tracks 50 and his band have been working on for their new album, Lock & Load.

But his concerts won't be for the fainthearted. He has never given two hoots about shocking people and horrified Indian fans last year when he unzipped his pants during an online video interview.

As he was being taught to say "beautiful girl" in Hindi he loosened his fly and said, "Everyone around the world knows sign language. In every country I've been to people know what I mean when I do this."

Charming. Hopefully he won't resort to sign language in SA.

HIS tough upbringing in Queens, New York's gangster paradise, is almost the stuff of legends and was recently immortalised in his autobiography, 50 x 50, which he dedicated to his 10-year-old son, Marquise Jackson - or 25 Cent as the little guy is also known.

Born on 6 July 1975, Boo-Boo - his drug-dealer mom's nickname for him - never knew his dad and was raised by his mom and grandparents. At eight his life fell apart when his mom was murdered, reportedly in a drug-related incident. "Someone knocked her out in her apartment and let the gas run - she suffocated," he writes candidly.

By 12 Curtis was dealing in crack cocaine and despite a series of arrests, a spell in rehab and six months in the military-style Monterery Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility in New York state he became a major dealer.

In 1996 he met rapper Jam Master Jay, who encouraged him to become a rapper. He changed his name to 50 Cent and completed his first underground album, Power of the Dollar. Unfortunately it didn't pay much and before long he was back on the drug-dealing beat.

In 2000 he was shot nine times outside his grandmother's house. Drug lord Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff was suspected of the shooting but 50 refused to co-operate with the cops and no one was arrested.

His record company, Track-masters, dumped him after deciding he was too much of a risk but his luck changed when rap sensation Eminem declared on a radio show, "50 Cent is definitely my favourite rapper right now."

The next day a bidding war started as everyone clambered to sign him up but 50 showed his thanks by going with Eminem's label, Shady/Aftermath. Suddenly he was hot property and under the shrewd direction of Eminem and rap producer and hip-hop star Dr Dre he released his hit debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin'. The rest is well-documented music history.

WHEN 50 hits our shores he'll be leaving behind a messy court battle with his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his son, Shaniqua Tompkins. She's suing him for trying to evict them from the $2,3-million home she says he bought for them in a swanky Long Island neighbourhood.

"The house was promised to Shaniqua," her lawyer, Paul Catsandonis, insists. "He decided not to put it in her name. Now he's trying to turn her out which would mean evicting his son."

Fortunately the bad blood between 50 and Shaniqua hasn't affected his relationship with Marquise. "My son thinks I'm a superhero," says 50, who lives in a sumptuous New York mansion.

When he's not spending time with his son he's keeping a firm toehold in the entertainment industry. Although his 2005 biographical movie, Get Rich or Die Tryin', wasn't well received he's determined to succeed on the silver screen.

His latest flick is the thriller Righteous Kill in which he plays a drug dealer-assassin opposite Oscar-winning legends Robert De Niro and Al Pacino.

He's also tackling his next solo album, Before I Self Destruct, due for release later this year. He promises to "get even more hardcore" on the CD. For now he's focusing on giving SA fans the time of their life and hip-hopping his way back up the top of the rap tree.

Hey, Kanye - you scared?

Sources: MTV, NECN, WIKIPEDIA, SOHH, THE PRESS ASSOCIATION, BALLERSTATUS, HiPHOPOX, VIBE MAGAZINE, IMDB, ASKMEN, NEWS24

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Related articles: 50 CENTS, INDIA, RAP, SOUTH AFRICA, NEWS24, MUSIC, ARTIST, GANGSTER, DRUGS, JACKSON, JAY-Z, G-UNIT, EMINEM, AMERICA, HOLLYWOOD, DE NIRO, PACINO