50-Cent debuts in new show on MTV

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Even with inflation, 50 Cent is worth a fortune.The platinum-selling artist is among the richest rappers in history, selling more than 21 million copies combined of his last three CDs. However, most of his money has been made elsewhere.He has made a mint off of a vitamin water drink, videogames and sneakers. Considered one smart businessman, he is spreading his wealth of knowledge in an MTV competition series called "50 Cent: The Money and the Power" (10 p.m. Thursdays, MTV).Fourteen contestants vie in challenges mixing business savvy and street smarts. 50 Cent presides over their trials and empathizes with their yearning to have it all.At the end of every episode, someone is booted.Sounds like "The Apprentice"? Don't tell 50 Cent that."On 'The Apprentice,' the contestants end up working for Donald Trump," he says. "On 'The Money and the Power,' they have their own business idea, and they are competing for seed money."Still, the similarities to "The Apprentice" are noticeable. At MTV.com, the home page for the series sports a picture of 50 Cent in a suit and tie, very much the businessman image, with New York City's skyline in the background.It evokes the same images that The Donald puts forth on "The Apprentice."Plus when it comes to money, 50 Cent is loaded. He raked in $150 million last year -- not bad for a former drug dealer who claims he was shot nine times in 2000 - and his image is one money can't buy, that of a former thug who has been redeemed but retains his fire."The image I present to the public is considered more 'street' because of the slang associated with (my music)," he says. "When people watch you grow from nothing and you've come into a position where you're on top of the world, they feel like you're representing their space."They feel like you can tell them about it."At 33, 50 Cent is undoubtedly going through a metamorphosis, one that reaches for respectability in the same way Puff Daddy went from Top 40 rapper to bon vivant Sean Combs.When 50 Cent burst onto the scene with the CD "Get Rich or Die Tryin' " in 2003 and the radio hit "In The Club," he was the tough-guy gangster, who, as he said in the rap, walked with a limp because he's been shot.Now he's introduced before a telephone interview not as 50 Cent but by his given name, Curtis Jackson. "For me, writing graphic content in (my) music is definitely me drawing from my past, even before the first record's success," he says, but he admits, "Now I am in a different space, financially. ... My mind now is totally business orientated."Success has tamed 50 Cent. "I am more conservative with my comments," he says. "I watch my language. I don't want to step on the wrong toe."So with this maturing 50 Cent -- a man of power -- which is harder for him to face: a room full of investors or a gunshot from a gang member?"Probably facing a room full of investors," he says, allowing for a small laugh at the thought. "After you're shot, you have to go through it whether you feel like it or not."With investors, I am who I am, but people understand better who I am once they're around me. They hear my music, and they have an impression of me from it."That's the part that stands out -- the shocking part. But I'm more than that. That kind of (image) sticks with them until they get to meet me."Terry Morrow writes for the Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee