50 Cent - Power Of The Dollar (1999)

50 Cent's first single was the  controversial 'How To Rob', which detailed how he was going to relieve some of the biggest rappers of the time, like Bobby Brown and Will Smith, of their wealth. The single got 50 Cent's name into the media, even though he didn't have an album out, and before long he'd been taken under the wing of producers Samuel 'Tone' Barnes and Jean-Claude 'Poke' Olivier - a.k.a. Trackmasters - who decided to record a whole album based on Cent's previous experience with armed drug dealers, gun fights, and robbery. They recorded 36 tracks in just two weeks, and hand-picked 18 of them to go on the debut album, which was to be released on the Columbia label. However, just before he was due to film a video for 'Thug Love', he was gunned down in Queens, and shot nine times, with one of the bullets piercing his cheek, giving his later rapping a distinctive slur, (which is obviously not evident on this album as it was recorded before the incident). As soon as the label found out about the shooting they suddenly got cold feet, feeling that they preferred a studio gangsta on their label to an actual one. They cancelled their contract just weeks before the proposed release of the album, and shelved it permanently, leaving it to the bootleggers to allow us to hear these unique recordings from 50 Cent, featuring guest appearances from Destiny's Child, Noreaga, Dave Hollister, Bun B and The Madd Rapper. 

Track listing

01 Intro
02 The Hit
03 The Good Die Young
04 Corner Bodega
05 Your Life's On The Line
06 That Ain't Gangsta
07 As The World Turns
08 Ghetto Qu'ran
09 Da Repercussions
10 Money By Any Means Ft. Noreaga
11 Material Girl
12 Thug Love Ft. Destny's Child
13 Slow Doe
14 Gun Runner
15 You Ain't No Gangsta
16 The Power Of The Dollar
17 I'm A Hustler
18 How To Rob Ft. The Madd Rapper

Suggested by 'The Greatest Albums You'll Never Hear' by Bruno MacDonald