My Gadget Life – 50 Cent
Fiddy (aka 31 Pence) talks YouTube music vids, headphones and being compared to Dre
I’ve been writing music full-time since 1997.
It can be a 20- or 30-minute process to get the rough of the song laid down. The mixing process takes a lot longer. Once you’ve been through all that you want people to hear it properly. That’s why my company’s called SMS Audio; it stands for Studio Mastered Sound.
Dr Dre uses ‘In Da Club’ to test his headphones.
I do too, but I didn’t just make my headphones for hip-hop. I’ve been listening to a lot of old stuff: Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, ‘Dead End Street’ by Lou Rawls. I use YouTube a lot [not for testing]. I like the way you can just type in a name and listen to everything they have.
I wasn’t afraid of being compared to Dre.
Dre’s an amazing producer. I’ve had records mixed and then had to take them to him to have them remixed. [Launching my own headphones] just shows I have the same passion as Dre. That’s no bad thing.
Seventy per cent of music is consumed online.
That’s only 30% in physical retail, so you can be a huge success without even making a record. If I was a new artist right now I’d drop a music video on YouTube every week. That way, you’re sustaining your audience instead of just gaining them and letting them go away.
I still play computer games.
Mainly basketball. It’s almost impossible not to, given their popularity. I’d like to make a car game – something like OutRun. That was my favourite game. The music was a big part of it.
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Dan Grabham
Editor-in-Chief 
