50 Cent exploded onto the scene with his 2003 debut album Get Rich Or Die Tryin’,” which included the multi-platinum single “In Da Club.” Written by 50, Dr. Dre and Mike Elizondo and co-produced by Dre and Elizondo, the song debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January of that year.
The accompanying video, which co-starred Dre and Eminem, won Best Rap Video and Best New Artist at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards. Now, the Philip Atwell-directed visual has just crossed a major YouTube milestone, surpassing one billion views since its release. In 2020 alone, the video has averaged over 400,000 views per day.
To celebrate the occasion, “In Da Club” has been fully restored from the original film and is now available in 4K.
According to a press release, “In Da Club” is now only the second rap/Hip Hop music video from the pre-YouTube era to achieve this milestone, following Eminem’s “Without Me.” The song was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Male Rap Solo Performance and Best Rap Song categories at the 2004 Grammy Award ceremony.
Get Rich or Die Tryin’ was also nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap Album that same year and in 2020 and officially certified 9x-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Fiddy now belongs to a diverse and elite group of artists from this era to do the same, including Nirvana, Queen, Guns N’ Roses, Whitney Houston, The Cranberries and A-ha.
Check out the polished version of “In Da Club” above.