50 Cent has admitted he made his hit song “21 Question” with the hopes of it helping his love life.
The comments were made in an interview with MSNBC’s Ari Melber, where 50 elaborated on his recent revelation that Dr. Dre didn’t even want the Nate Dogg-assisted track to appear on his blockbuster 2003 debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin.’
“[Dre] said, ‘I know what this is. It’s N.W.A with just one member and you really don’t need it,’” the Queens, New York legend recalled around the 11-minute mark. “He didn’t know why I wanted to put the record on.”
“Why did you?” Melber interjected.
“Because I wanted ladies to feel like maybe they could fix me, and I had done so many push-ups,” Fif replied with a smile. “So I felt like, ‘This is gonna be good for my love life!’ I’m dead serious.”
He added: “I thought that they would see some way that they could possibly fix me or understand me in a different way. And their favorite line on the song was, ‘I love you like a fat kid loves cake.’ When I wrote it, I was thinking, I love you, but too much of you is no good for me. Like a fat kid loves cake.”
While Dr. Dre might have been skeptical about “21 Questions,” the song was a chart-topping success. It peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in May 2003, becoming the second consecutive chart-topping single for 50 Cent following the album’s lead single “In Da Club” and the first for Nate Dogg.
“21 Questions” reigned atop the Hot 100 for four weeks and also found international success, reaching the top 10 in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and other countries. It has since been certified 4x platinum by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).
Get Rich or Die Tryin’ dropped on February 6, 2003, via Interscope, Dr. Dre’s Aftermath and Eminem’s Shady Records in conjunction with 50’s own G-Unit Records. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling over 872,000 units in its first week, and has since sold over 12 million copies worldwide.
Last November, the project also became 50’s longest-charting release of his career after re-entering the Billboard 200 at No. 165, bringing its total number of weeks on the chart to 150.
As Get Rich or Die Tryin celebrated its 20th birthday earlier this month, 50 Cent took a moment to reflect on his long and fruitful partnership with Eminem and Dr. Dre, both of whom helped him craft the album.
“When you have a team like this it’s hard to lose, I’m so blessed to have worked with the best ever,” 50 wrote on Instagram next to a throwback interview featuring the three of them. “You can re-write a book, you can re-write a song but you can’t re-write history. The 3 headed monster EM, DRE and 50cent. Boom.”
Revisit “21 Questions” below.
