50 Cent's "How To Rob" Revisited By XXL

By Nemmy Kim.

                                  

XXL examines the making of 50 Cent's 1999 single, "How To Rob."

50 Cent said that he identified his targets as he was writing his 1999 single “How To Rob,” which included the Queens, New York rapper rhyming about Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Foxy Brown, Jay Z and Big Pun, among others.

“It wasn’t just random," 50 Cent said of “How To Rob” in a story that XXL published on its website today (August 8) and that was originally published in XXL Magazine’s December/January 2010 issue. "People came to mind based on what rhymes. Once I was able to say it in different orders, I said the verse to Rich Nice. Before I brought it to him, I’d been doing it over a Beanie Sigel beat, other tracks. I was just playing with the concept in my head… It wasn’t hard to come up with the concept of robbery, when you’re not in a great financial space. It kind of felt like I was being rejected during that time, while I was trying to make music. And after it got even worse.”

50 Cent also said that he was not concerned about the reception the song would receive.