They Came From Queens - 50 Cent From South Jamaica

Curtis Jackson -- or 50 Cent as he is known around the world -- grew up in South Jamaica, and his immense popularity as a hip-hop artist owes a great deal to his gangster mystique from stories of selling drugs and later getting shot in the neighborhood.

Love him as millions of hip-hop fans do, or disdain him as a thug championing the gangsta life, you have to respect 50 Cent the entrepreneur. Since the success of albums like Get Rich or Die Tryin propelled him to fame, he has put his energy into marketing everything from water -- his investment in, and own flavor of Vitamin Water -- to movies, books, and video games.

But can you believe the next frontier for 50 is a digital one? It's a budget PC deal with Apple Computers. Engadget reports that the G-Unit founder and Steve Jobs the founder of Apple "get each other" and are negotiating about a possible co-branded budget computer.

Though 50 no longer lives in Queens -- his mansion is in central Connecticut -- he still sells his records by selling his story of a tough life growing up in Southside, Jamaica. Here's a profile of South Jamaica that may dispel some of the 50 Cent myth of what is essentially a working class neighborhood in Queens.

• South Jamaica Queens
• 50 Cent [About.com Hip-Hop]
• 50 Cent Bio [Wikipedia]
• 50 Cent and Steve Jobs [Engadget]