50 Cent Opens Up in Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter – Book Review

50 Cent is a man known for his persistent rise to icon status. Breaking into to the hip hop scene after accumulating a grassroots following in the early 2000s. His unorthodox grind—using the mixtape circuit—led to him catching the attention of Eminem, and the rest is history. We know 50 for being an outspoken and sometimes aggressive force in hip hop, but in his self-help book Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter, 50 Cent reveals a humble side of him that the world may have never been exposed to before.

Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson | Buy on Amazon UK | Buy on Amazon US

About Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter

Summary

Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter is a cutting-edge self-help memoir written by 50 Cent. For the first time ever, 50 Cent opens up and uses real examples from his life to demonstrate how to apply the lessons learned in your own life.

My Thoughts

Every true 50 Cent fan knows that he’s shown nothing but unwavering confidence throughout his whole career, and this confidence is often taken as ego and cockiness. But at heart, 50 Cent is a reasonable, loyal and ambitious person. It’s just that his good qualities are often outshined by the beefs, tabloid reporting and the thirst for hip hop drama that we all love.

But if you really paid attention to 50’s music, there was always more there than just clubbing, beefing and hustling. 50 Cent dropped a lot of gems throughout the years for the people who were really paying attention. But for those that weren’t, they saw him as the super controversial celebrity that hated everyone.

Well this book—Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter—gives you the Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson that you perhaps wasn’t paying attention to. In this book, 50 Cent really opens up and gives away many stories (some of them unheard) from his life so that the reader can learn something from each of them. And what’s even more shocking is that the hip hop megastar who is known for always winning, actually admits to taking some L’s and then learning from them. It’s a side of 50 that many have never been exposed to before.

For example: 50 plainly admits that other rappers are capable of outrapping and outperforming him. But what sets him aside is that fact that no one is ever going to outwork him.

It’s a level of self-awareness and honesty that many hip hop artists wouldn’t show in public. 50 even opens up about his damaged relationship with his first son and his son’s mother. A topic that can’t have been easy to write about.

Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter is centered around 9 themes, each chapter based on one of these themes. These are: Finding Fearlessness, Heart of a Hustler, Constructing Your Crew, Knowing Your Value, Evolve or Die, Power of Perception, If We Can’t Be Friends, Learning From Your Ls and The Entitlement Trap.

Each chapter gives many examples so that the lesson behind the themes is easy to digest. In some cases, 50 even breaks down stories from other entrepreneurs including Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Enzo Ferrari and Soichiro Honda.

While Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter has practical information for any audience, there’s no doubt that fans of 50 Cent himself will get a lot out of this too. The memoir side of the book over delivers.

50’s previous memoir—From Pieces to Weight—highlighted his life from birth all the way up to him signing a record deal with Eminem and Dr. Dre. For years, we wanted to know what 50’s life was really like during his successful career and in this book he gives us everything we’ve been wanting to know. From why the G-unit music group split up, to conversations he’s had with Robert De Niro, to his 2007 sales battle with Kanye West, and to why he left Interscope records and hasn’t been as focused on music for the past 10 years. He also shares how his hit Starz TV show, Power, came about.

This book completes From Pieces to Weight by showing the complete evolution of Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.

Verdict

Whether you aspire to become an entrepreneur and are looking for practical lessons to apply to your life, or you’re someone who enjoys hip hop memoirs, or you’ve been a fan of 50 Cent for years…Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter is a phenomenal self-help memoir full of lessons and personal insight.