It seems that 50 Cent made his chart-topping song “21 Questions” as a way to improve his love life.
Fif sat down with MSNBC’s Ari Melber, where he responded to Dr. Dre’s recent comments about not wanting the Queens native to include the song on his 2003 debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin’.
“[Dre] said, ‘I know what this is. It’s N.W.A with just one member and you really don’t need it,’” 50 said around the 11-minute mark. “He didn’t know why I wanted to put the record on.”
50 Cent then explained that he, “wanted ladies to feel like maybe they could fix me, and I had done so many push-ups. So I felt like, ‘This is gonna be good for my love life!’ I’m dead serious.”
He continued, “I thought that they would see some way that they could possibly fix me or understand me in a different way. And their favorite line on the song was, ‘I love you like a fat kid loves cake.’ When I wrote it, I was thinking, I love you, but too much of you is no good for me. Like a fat kid loves cake.”
Though Dre was apprehensive about “21 Questions” being on Get Rich or Die Tryin’, the inclusion led to massive success. The song peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 a few months after its release. The album also did extremely well, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and becoming the rapper’s longest-charting release ever this past November.
50 Cent celebrated the project’s 20th anniversary this month, writing on Instagram, “When you have a team like this it’s hard to lose. I’m so blessed to have worked with the best ever. you can re-write a book, you can re-write a song but you can’t re-write history. The 3-headed monster EM, DRE, and 50 Cent.”