With so many different business ventures going on at the same time it's important for 50 Cent to have people he trusts, that are dependable working with him. During an interview with Apartment Therapy's Chris Perez at CES 2013, 50 revealed the secret to building a strong team.
"A big part of being successful is being a good judge of character," 50 told Chris. "You have to have people knowledgeable enough in different areas to find who is going to be the right person to specialize in the other. You got to do it in pieces. Imagine this, you're a journalist and my friend knows something about journalism. I'm going to bring him with me when I meet with you so he can throw things out there — to see what you know, and what you don't know. Then I can assess if you're the kind of person I want to be involved with. 'Did he impress me or did he not impress me?' After going through the process you feel like you accumulate the people that are the right team and then full steam ahead."
Timbaland recently became an investment partner in SMS Audio. Timbo is on the board of directors and will help with product development. 50 talked about the partnership.
"Timberland is the other producer I work with outside of Dre...[in music] I use them as sound boards," explains Fif. "I'll go create what my album is and then bring it and play it for them to put pressure on them to give me something better than I already have. Creatively they'll listen and they want to be the best. [Timbaland] financially invested in SMS audio — and got some equity / ownership in the company — so that he can help me with the signature sound. Obviously we'll use professional acoustic engineers to get it to the right place but if I'm in a space that I feel like I have two that are the best, I'll go 'OK, here you decide.' Then Timb can listen in and we'll go from there...his ear for it can help us pick the right things."
One of the hobbies the G-Unit mogul has picked up in the last several years is photography. He's photographed Rosa Acosta and Tia (Rick Ross' babies' mother) for Smooth Magazine. 50 explains to Chris what attracted him to the art.
"I traveled my first 3 albums...I got a huge map inside my office and I put push pins in each one of the locations I had been," the G-Unit boss said. "So if I was in Germany I'd say I want to go to Copenhagen, because there was no pin in that area on the map. When I say I'm a world touring artist I wanted to mean it, and feel like I've been everywhere. So I opened markets in Africa, Kosovo, and Croatia, just to say 'yeah, I've toured everywhere.' The excitement of getting back and looking at the actual map was cool but I didn't have anything to hold onto or remember the actual time period. So a photo album would have been a lot more effective of the actual experience...seeing how you changed...how the style changed over that period...your haircut...your energy. The Vitamin Water staff gave me some photography lessons and it went from there."
As owner of SMS Audio, 50 firmly believes in his product and uses the headsets on a daily dasis.
"I use those. These [headphones] fold up and are portable. This morning I got up at like 6:30am and went to the gym and used them early there but everyday my shift changes. Under different circumstances I'll be traveling and...getting in a car from a plane," 50 says. "I haven't traveled with the noise canceling ones yet, they don't want me walking around with them because we just unveiled those here at the CES [sitting back and laughing]. Notice I said 'they didn't allow me?' I'm supposed to own the place but I still need to listen to people."
Chris said he has personally tried out the SMS Audio headphones and picks them over Beats by Dre.
Chris Perez
"I listened to the Street by 50 headphones and left very impressed," Chris says. "The sound quality is great, and in my opinion delivers more clear and crisp highs than the popular Beats by Dre line. If you're in the market for headphones in this category, I think they're definitely worth a listen."
To read the full interview head over to Apartment Therapy.
Shouts to Chris Perez
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