The Life of a Hunted Man

50 was poised to be a star. In a few months, his album was to be released. But there was at least one contract on his life; some say three. "Where I'm from, the price of life is cheap," he says. "For $5,000, you could kill somebody. You could pick a shooter. You could have a few different choices. Might do it for less than that if they like you." On May 24th, 2000, death came for a visit, and his life changed forever.

He was at his grandmother's house, on his way to the tattoo parlor and then to the studio, at about 11:20 in the morning. He got into a friend's car, then was asked to go back in to get some jewelry. When he returned and slid into the car, another car pulled up. Someone crawled out of the back and came up on 50's left side with a gun cocked. "Sneaky motherfucker, man," 50 says. "He did it right. He just didn't finish. He like Allen Iverson shakin' a nigga, go to the basket and miss." The man hit him with nine shots at close range. 50 took bullets in the hand ("shell hit my thumb and came out my pinky"), the hip ("that one hurt-hurt"), the calf and the chest, and one to the face went through his left cheek and into his mouth. "You don't actually feel each one hit you," he says. "The adrenaline is pumping. You movin' and tryin' to get out of the way. I was bouncing around the back seat. We pulled off. We got a block or so. We had to pull over to get rid of the tote [gun]. Threw it in the sewer, then we got to the hospital. But I was up and still talking the whole time." A few weeks later, the shooter was murdered. 50 denies responsibility.

He spent thirteen days in the hospital, then staggered out on a walker. Six weeks later, he began walking on his own. Now life was more precious to him. He began working on his body with endless push-ups, pull-ups and sit-ups that turned him from kinda fat to chiseled.

But more important for an MC, there was now a large, squarish hole through the left side of his lower jaw and a piece of bullet left in his tongue. He'd lost a bottom tooth and a U-shaped chunk of his gums, but his lazy tongue and the hole in his jaw gave him a slur like no one in hip-hop. "There's a different sound now when I talk, 'cause of the air around the tooth," 50 says. "Gettin' shot just totally fixed my instrument."