50 Cent - I Get Money

2007

50 Cent - I Get Money (2007) Director: Chris 'Broadway' Romero (co-directed with 50 Cent) Era: Mid-2000s Hip-Hop Maximalism (2007) - Peak G-Unit era conspicuous-wealth rap, coinciding with 50 Cent's third album 'Curtis' and the height of mid-decade mainstream hip-hop excess aesthetics. High curatorial value as a canonical example of G-Unit era visual aesthetics and mid-2000s mainstream hip-hop video production. The video's co-direction by 50 Cent himself and his in-house creative director Broadway Romero makes it a notable case of artist-controlled visual branding. Its chart performance (#1 BET 106 & Park), critical reception (Time and Rolling Stone year-end lists), and 95M+ YouTube views confirm its status as one of the most culturally significant hip-hop music videos of 2007. Recommended for Tier 1 preservation as a primary document of the era. Context: Released in summer 2007 at the apex of 50 Cent's commercial dominance, 'I Get Money' arrived as a promotional single for his third album Curtis and served simultaneously as the official remix to 'Straight to the Bank.' The song's lyrical core references 50 Cent's real-world financial triumph, specifically the Glacéau/Vitaminwater acquisition by Coca-Cola, in which he held an equity stake, lending the wealth-display aesthetics of the video an unusually grounded biographical dimension rare in the genre. The track was named one of Time magazine's 10 Best Songs of 2007 and ranked #14 on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Songs of 2007, cementing its status as a cultural artifact of mid-decade hip-hop's peak commercial moment. The video's rapid-cut style, entourage staging, and mansion/luxury-car settings are canonical examples of the G-Unit visual playbook that defined mainstream rap video aesthetics between 2003 and 2008. Director notes: The video was co-directed by 50 Cent himself and his in-house G-Unit creative director Chris 'Broadway' Romero, a pairing that reflects the artist-driven, vertically integrated production model 50 Cent employed throughout the mid-2000s. Broadway served as creative and digital director at G-Unit Records during this period, making him the primary hands-on production director for the label's visual output. The video was released on July 13, 2007, in support of the single from '50 Cent's third album, Curtis. It reached #1 on BET's 106 & Park on September 7, 2007, and has accumulated over 95 million YouTube views as of April 2024. The song samples Audio Two's 'Top Billin'' and was produced by Apex.