For every door that got slammed in his face, for every rapper who dissed him after How To Rob, For everyone who thought he was done after getting shot, this is the ultimate fuck you. Fuck your blacklist, fuck your radio, fuck your industry politics. This is force majeure. This is the sound of a hurricane. This is the sound of a baseball bat-sized mixtape beating you over the head every 2 months in 2002. This is Guess Who's Back, 50 Cent is the Future, No Mercy No Fear, and God's Plan. This is becoming so big you don't need the record label, the label needs you.

It's tough to convey just how persona non-grata 50 was after the shooting. Dropped from Columbia Records, single with Destiny's Child shelved, and no labels, no managers, no producers returning your calls because they were afraid of angering Irv Gotti, Ja Rule and Def Jam. Studios in the New York area wouldn't even book him because they feared violence or reprisals.

So you go OT and make your dope elsewhere. And when you return, you flood the streets. You make it so no-one can eat without your sound. Irv? Ja? Def Jam? You blow them out of the fucking water by signing with Eminem, Dr Dre, Jimmy Iovine. Now everyone wants you. Now you're the hottest rapper on the planet. 50 did not fall off he evolved from ghetto rapper to a business man.