50 Cent’s ‘Get Rich or Die Tryin’’ Rallies Back to Album Charts After Memes Tied to Trump Rally Shooting
Many streams for “Many Men (Wish Death)” power 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’ album flying back to No. 22 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart dated July 27. The set enjoys its highest chart rank since its original 2003 release run, spurred by a “Many Men” streaming boost after many social media users used the song to comment on the July 13 shooting at former president Donald Trump’s rally.
For the tracking week of July 12-18, Get Rich or Die Tryin’ earned 13,000 equivalent album units, according to Luminate, a 62% surge from 8,000 units in the previous week. “Many Men” drove much of the improvement, with the song registering 6.4 million official U.S. streams in the tracking week, a 224% rally from its 2 million total in the prior frame. It was the best-streamed Get Rich or Die Tryin’ cut for the week, eclipsing usual frontrunner “In Da Club,” which pulled 3.9 million clicks.
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Accompanying the streaming boost, “Many Men” also experienced a sales lift to 3,000 downloads sold, up from a negligible amount in the previous tracking week. Thanks to the purchases, the track launches at No. 4 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales chart and No. 14 on the all-genre Digital Song Sales list.
“Many Men” — with the chorus starting with the line “Many men wish death upon me” — surged in online popularity in the wake of July 13’s apparent attempted assassination of Trump near Butler, Pennsylvania. Social media users soundtracked memes with the song and shared altered Get Rich or Die Tryin’ album covers with the former president’s head superimposed on 50 Cent, who famously survived being shot nine times. The rapper himself joined in on the trend, even promoting his own “Many Men” T-shirts.
With its No. 22 return on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, Get Rich or Die Tryin’ attains its best showing since its No. 21 rank on the chart dated Oct. 4, 2003. At the time, the album was enjoying its third consecutive top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, “P.I.M.P.,” after prior singles “In Da Club” and “21 Questions,” featuring Nate Dogg, both topped the chart. Notably, although “Many Men” wasn’t pushed as an official single and never charted on the Hot 100, its fan-favorite status gave it 12 weeks on the Bubbling Under Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in 2003.
Elsewhere, Get Rich or Die Tryin’ returns at No. 17 on the Top Rap Albums chart and rockets 185-75 on the all-genre Billboard 200.
