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50 Cent has accomplished so much throughout his career some might think he would kick back and enjoy the fruits of his labor. But the man born Curtis Jackson III is hungrier than ever.

Upcoming projects include the second season of the STARZ crime drama Power, The Beast Is G-Unit group album, Street King Immortal and Beautiful Nightmare solo albums. plus more.

The business mogul recently spoke with Paul Lester of The Guardian and shared his thoughts on where he ranks among hip hop's greats, Jay Z, Kanye West, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and more.

On your last album, Animal Ambition, which came out in the summer, you rapped about “tryin’ to make it feel like the first time/Like a junkie chasin’ my first high”. Did you achieve that?
It’s too soon to say. But I feel reignited. Like the energy’s been rebooted into me as an artist. I been recording in the middle of the night – there ain’t enough hours in the day. I slept for two and a half hours yesterday.

Do you worry about sales? 
It’s not possible to achieve the things I’ve done in the past. Technology changes, so does the way people consume music. I don’t think it’s possible to go diamond right now. I’ve had two albums sell over 10m records.

Animal Ambition was subtitled An Untamed Desire to Win. But didn’t you already win?
I did, but the theme was prosperity. The lioness on the cover was the most aggressive image I could actually put without offending people.

Do you worry about the repercussions of some of the references in your lyrics?
No, but there’s a lot of jealousy. People around you develop a sense of entitlement and feel like you’re supposed to make their career work. They’re like, “I’ve got this really good idea about how you can make me rich.” And I’ll be looking at them like, “Are you serious?” And they are serious.

On Animal Ambition’s title track you say you’re scared of rats. Really?
Not actual rats running across the street, no. I’m scared of what people may say to the police for no reason. I’m the guy from the neighbourhood who’s becoming a symbol of hope. They look at me and go, “It is possible to make it.” I took all the dysfunctional behaviour, everything damaging or that wasn’t good in my life, and I turned it into the most beautiful nightmare you can actually create. That’s my life.

A beautiful nightmare?
Oh yeah. That’s the title of one of my next albums. Street King Immortal is the new one to come out, but the one after that might be Beautiful Nightmare. I’ve got thousands of titles.

You were in the 2008 fil Righteous Kill with De Niro and Pacino. Who was cooler?
I love both of them as acting talents, but De Niro is a little more exciting to be around for me. I was also in [2012’s] Freelancers with him and Forest Whittaker. And that was one of my passion projects – I played the lead in that film. De Niro had his people reach out to me.

Which question were you more dying to ask De Niro and Pacino: “Are you talkin’ to me?” or “Say hello to my leedle friend?”
Ha ha. It was amazing to see them on set together. Their body of work, it’s incredible. It’s interesting to watch their choices, their performance in each scene.

Your SMS headphones. Are they better than Dre’s?
I actually don’t own any Beats. And, yes, they are better.

Have you ever seen Dre wearing a pair of yours?

Probably not. You know what’s really weird about that? Every time you get to that point, talking about SMS or Beats by Dre, it’s honestly not even an issue for Dre any more. They just sold the company, so it doesn’t matter now. They put the money in their pocket. If you look at the process we had to go through to make sure we had the right signature style for each headset, we wanted them to sound better across all genres of music. If you listen to some of the Beats headsets, the bass is a little heavier. It’s targeting a hip hop audience and that’s not as good. That’s just my opinion.

You also have a vitamin drink. Are you allowed to enjoy other healthy water-based beverages in public? 
I drink all kinds of water in public. It depends whether I like the water. I drink what I like!

There’s no contractual obligation to drink it?
No.

In your track Don’t Worry ’Bout It from Animal Ambition, you mention Instagram. Have you considered moving into the picture app market?
I think it’s messing up everything. It’s giving us all really weird habits. Taking pictures of things you don’t even like.

Do you get hassled a lot by photographers wherever you go? Can you walk about?
Not much. Not right now. The dangerous time is when I release something. You shouldn’t really go out then.

If you walked through South Jamaica, Queens, tomorrow, what reaction would you get?
I’d end up walking with people. I wouldn’t be walking by myself. They would start walking and talking to me.

Do you miss anonymity?
Oh, it’s a fair exchange.

Are you friends with the other members of the Forbes Hip-Hop Cash Kings list?
What do you think I would do with them? What activities do you imagine would happen? What would you do with your friends?

Um, go-karting?
Well, we’d do the same thing. I’m not sure you could classify it as friends. But when we acknowledge each other, it’s friendly. It’s cool, we can communicate with each other, no problem.

Is it hard for you to recreate your moment of first impact, arriving as you did with such a dramatic backstory?
There’s always, in my crazy little life, a way for unexpected things to be bigger than you actually intended them to be. I may go to the Mets game, throw a terrible pitch and it would be all over the world’s biggest media platforms. So, yeah, I believe I can recreate what I did the very first time.

Have you ever thought that if you’d checked out earlier, like 2Pac and Biggie, you’d have achieved true Street King Immortality?
You know what, I don’t think they’ll replace me now. Already my face is in the hearts of people who really love hip-hop music, and the culture’s growing to the point where you have people from all walks of life choosing it for their personal pleasure. So it’s already there. I don’t think it’s going to take me being killed to compare me to Biggie or 2Pac. I am immortal.

Is there an element of self-parody in what you do?
Do you know what’s interesting? My album is called Street King Immortal and at one point being King of New York was everything. Hip-hop comes from New York City, so when you say Street King it actually works, it resonates, it’s a strong title. But they changed it, made it even bigger, about God himself – like when when Kanye calls himself Yeezus. And then Jay Z calls himself Jay-Hova … A god instead of a king. That’s a little further than I would go.

So it’s sacrilege to proclaim yourself equal to a deity?
I don’t think they put that much depth into it. I don’t think they had negative intentions when they chose those things, but me personally I believe in a higher power, so I won’t really play in that area.

Were you annoyed that you – and Jay Z, and Lil Wayne, to be fair - weren’t included in Ice-T’s documentary the Art of Rap?
I haven’t seen the finished work.

Do you think you deserve a place in the rap pantheon of all-time greats?
Yeah, I’m cool. I know how I’ve come to things. It’s not “what have you done?” but “what have you done for me lately?” I’ve had eight records go platinum.

If they made a film of your life, would people think it was too far-fetched to be true?
Oh yeah. There are different facets of it. Not all of it is true. Some of it comes from descriptions from journalists, as opposed to what actually happened. Sometimes it’s down to the perception of a journalist, who may not even like me or my culture. They may not even like music. I’ve had conversations with people who are extremely passionate about what they do, and I understand why they’re in the position they’re in, because they do it well. But I’ve also come in contact with people who had 20 minutes to Google the facts, and have no idea what they’re actually talking about.

That’s depressing.
It’s not depressing – it’s the way of the world. When you say, do you miss normalcy? – if this is not normal, shit, I’m not sure I like the normal stuff. My life before I started doing this wasn’t a whole lot of fun, either! You’re choosing the better evil.

Thanks, 50.
This was a pleasure. It was a cool interview.

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