Remember when 50 Cent drove a Maserati MC12 around Monaco?

Window Shopper from the Get Rich Or Die Tryin' O.S.T.

49w ago
10.6K

In the late 1990s and early 2000s MTV began censoring lyrical content like crazy, muting out words. It was a bit ridiculous, if you ask me, mostly because it ended up ruining the song while also paradoxically drawing attention to words and phrases that some people would've probably ignored.

And it was also a bit weird because they didn't just limit censorship to swear words as they also censored anything that sounded remotely offensive, including innocent words in specific contexts, phrases and idioms.

For example, you had instances of words like 'brain' and 'head' being censored because they were part of well known idioms that people use. Production companies and artists eventually got tired of this and so what they'd usually do was make two different versions of the same song, one was uncensored and the other one was a radio edit that would also be used for music videos. And that's where things even got more ridiculous because they would replace words like 'head', in the aforementioned context, with 'bread'. But I digress.

Window Shopper was released in 2005, the first single from the 'Get Rich or Die Tryin'' soundtrack. Apart from the weird muted out parts ("I don't go cruise to nobody hood without my [gun]"), the music video was filmed on location in Monaco and there a few things I want to address.

Get Rich Or Die Tryin', a drama film starring 50 Cent as the main character, contains several autobiographical elements from 50's real life story and was written and filmed using Eminem's 8 Mile as a template.

There's no question that Get Rich Or Die Tryin' was nowhere as successful, both commercially and critically, as 8 Mile but the Window Shopper music video uses an interesting metaphor that's also part of the movie.

In the film, 50's character is a kid growing up in poverty and he gets mocked by some other kids when he's window shopping for sneakers he can't afford. As the story unfolds, Marcus makes money and buys himself sneakers and the same idea was utilized for the video.

2005 Monaco looked nothing like 2021 Monaco, most of the views in the video have changed, especially Casino Square, which was completely renovated around a year ago. And then of course we gotta talk about the car that 50 drives in the video, a 2004 Maserati MC12. One of only 62 units ever produced (including 12 track-only cars), the MC12 was built on the underpinnings of the Ferrari Enzo and powered by a 6.0-litre V12, producing 621 hp and 481 lb-ft.

Again going (slightly) off-topic, if you're not into rap music, it'd be great if you could give this a listen.

Both versions are good but I prefer the original, non-remastered song (above).

Join In

Comments (10)

  • Are you sure this wasn’t Benessandro?

      11 months ago
    • come on, man. I was trying to stay humble here

        11 months ago
    • anyway, Benessandro the type of homey to wear bulletproof vests made of RM watches because they're unbreakable

        11 months ago
  • ooo a Maserati

      11 months ago
  • Yo yo yo, she saw my peepee in the jacuzzi! 50 Penny man!!!

      11 months ago
  • My favorite Maserati and possibly my most favorite car of all time.

      11 months ago
10