'It just came out when the music was playing': 50 Cent says coming up with his most popular song was simple
- Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson spoke with Business Insider's media editor, Nathan McAlone, at Business Insider's IGNITION Conference Tuesday afternoon in New York City.
- Jackson said he didn't have to think too hard to come up with the chorus to "In Da Club": "Go shorty. It's your birthday."
- To date, "In Da Club" is the rapper's most popular song.
- "It's not rocket science," Jackson said. "Every day is someone's birthday."
"Go shorty. It's your birthday."
If those words weren't stuck in your head 15 years ago, you were probably living under a rock.
The lyrics made up the refrain to "In Da Club," rapper Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson's most popular song to date, according to Billboard.
But they weren't very hard to come up with, Jackson said Tuesday afternoon at Business Insider's IGNITION conference in New York.
"Simplicity is the key to a lot of success in entertainment," he said. "It's not rocket science," he said of "Go shorty. It's your birthday." "Every day is someone's birthday."
Jackson added, "I didn't have to study" in order to write those lyrics. "It just came out when the music was playing."
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"In Da Club," cowritten with Dr. Dre and Mike Elizondo, was released to tremendous success: It was nominated for Best Male Rap Solo Performance and Best Rap Song at the 46th annual Grammy Awards. Artists like Beyonce have since produced their own remixes of the song.
Jackson has spoken before about getting into a state of creative flow when he records songs. In 2018, he told The New York Times that, in his studio, "there are no windows so it's very easy to lose track of time. I could be there six hours and not even feel it."
At IGNITION, Jackson said that even a seeming stroke of genius like "In Da Club" may need some edits. "There are always notes on a project," he said, because everyone "needs a reason why they're getting a check."