The three-part series will trace the rapper’s journey from the streets of Queens
What started as what many dismissed as an April Fools’ joke has turned out to be very real and very lucrative. Curtis Jackson, known worldwide as 50 Cent, announced on April 1 that Hulu had paid $75 million for a documentary about his life, outbidding Starz, Netflix, and Apple in the process. Given his well-known reputation for trolling on social media, few took it seriously at first. The joke, it turns out, was on everyone else.
Hulu has officially greenlit an untitled three-part documentary series centered on the life of 50 Cent, according to Deadline. Unlike the many projects he has produced for others over the years, this one puts him squarely in the spotlight as the subject. The series will chronicle the full arc of his life, from his childhood in South Jamaica, Queens, to surviving being shot nine times in 2000, to the release of his landmark debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin in 2003, and through his rise into one of the most commercially successful figures in hip-hop history.
From the streets of Queens to the screen
For years, audiences followed the fictional worlds built inside the Power franchise on Starz and its prequel series Raising Kanan, many without fully recognizing how much of those stories drew from Jackson’s own experiences. The documentary will pull back the curtain on the real life behind those narratives, offering a firsthand look at the decisions, setbacks, and pivots that shaped the man behind the brand.
Jackson has been building G-Unit Film & Television into a serious production operation for the better part of a decade, developing projects for other artists and storytellers. This documentary marks a turning point, with his own story finally taking center stage on one of the most-watched streaming platforms in the country.
The team behind the project
The documentary will be directed by Mandon Lovett, whose previous credits include The French Montana Story, For Khadija and Boys in Blue. Patrick Altema joins as showrunner, while Eli Holzman and Aaron Saidman serve as executive producers alongside Jackson through G-Unit Film & Television and IPC.
A bidding war years in the making
The reported $75 million deal did not happen in a vacuum. Jackson has spent years methodically building a media footprint that extends well beyond music. With more than 30 million records sold worldwide and the Power franchise growing into a multi-series empire on Starz, his value as both a producer and a cultural figure has only strengthened. The competitive bidding process that drew interest from Netflix, Starz, and Apple reflects just how significant that footprint has become.
The deal also arrives at a moment when music documentaries are commanding serious attention on streaming platforms. The Sean Combs documentary Sean Combs, The Reckoning recently reached the number one spot on Netflix, signaling strong audience appetite for personal, in-depth accounts from hip-hop’s most prominent figures. Jackson’s story, spanning poverty, near-death, reinvention, and empire-building, fits squarely into that appetite.
What comes next
No premiere date has been announced for the series, and production details beyond the core creative team remain under wraps. It is still unclear how deeply the documentary will explore Jackson’s business dealings, his legal history, and his relationships within the industry. Those are the kinds of details that will determine whether this project becomes essential viewing or simply a well-funded victory lap.
What is clear is that after decades of operating largely behind the scenes as a producer, and years of building stories around other people’s lives, 50 Cent‘s own story is finally getting the full treatment. He beat out three major platforms to make it happen, landed one of the bigger streaming deals in recent hip-hop documentary history, and did it all while most people assumed he was joking. That, more than anything, might be the most on-brand move of his career.