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Got the whole industry mad at me I said

Then B.I. said, "Hov' remind yourself

nobody built like you, you designed yourself"

I agree I said, my one of a kind self

Get stoned every day like Jesus did

What he said, I said, has been said before

"Just keep doin your thing," he said, say no more

Jay-Z reappropopriates Jesus’ persecution at the hands of the Romans as a metaphor for his struggle and subsequent rise to hip hop stardom. Jay-Z, and the Notorious B.I.G and the Bad Boy Movement/Record label created new conceptual and aesthetic space for hip hop narratives. They served as precursors to a new type of hip hop iconography and archetype. Hip hop emcee and businessman 50 Cent represents a culmination of these

trends within hip hop aesthetics. He is a synthesis of Tupac Shakur’s tragic realism and

P.Diddy’s business acumen. However, it is 50 Cent’s appropriation of real-life Brooklyn

stick-up kid, Kelvin “50 Cent” Martin’s street moniker, 50 Cent, that signaled a new era

of hip hop iconography. Kelvin “50 Cent” Martin was unique to hip hop iconography

because 1) he was an African American gangster; and 2) he represents the 1980s crack

era in New York City. The recentness of Martin’s narrative speaks to a younger

demographic within the hip hop generation, the end of 1990s crack narratives in hip hop and the beginning of ultra-violent, yet commercially-viable narratives within hip hop.

50 Cent’s was an aesthetic departure utilized 1980s gangster icons and draws on 50

Cent’s narrative as an infamous Brooklyn stick-up kid that also robbed and extorted

rappers. 50 Cent, the stick-up kid, had an intimate relationship on hip hop, as he was