Now, with Sunday night’s premiere of standalone crime series Black Mafia Family -- based on the real lives of Detroit brothers turned drug kingpins, Demetrius "Big Meech" Flenory and Terry "Southwest T" Flenory -- 50 Cent is returning to his musical roots. (50 also cast Big Meech’s son, Demetrius “Lil Meech” Flenory Jr., to play his notorious dad.) Meanwhile, the rapper is also responsible for the series’ theme song, “Wish Me Luck,” featuring fellow music icon Charlie Wilson.
50 Cent tells Billboard that a radio version of “Wish Me Luck,” which includes additional feature appearances from Snoop Dogg (who appears in the all-new BMF as Pastor Swift) and recent hitmaker Moneybagg Yo, will soon “be performing as a single everywhere,” with an accompanying music video on the way. The song will be available for streaming on Sunday night to coincide with the Black Mafia Family premiere.
Bringing it back to the music, how hands on were you with the music composer Meshell Ndegeocello and Tank with working on the sound for Black Mafia Family? Then as an artist yourself, how big of a role did you feel the music in the series plays in telling the story?
It’s really important. I spoke to them several times about why they should have a certain feel and where they should place music. As far as the theme song, [“Wish Me Luck”] with Charlie Wilson, Snoop Dogg and Moneybagg Yo... The theme song and the chorus is the same production, but the song starts with Moneybagg Yo -- that’s the center of the song -- and Snoop performs at the end to top it off.
It’s important that we offer the right musical pieces at points. When you ask about the music supervisor, [Meshell Ndegeocello], you have to understand the right time period. We offer some hip-hop culture because BMF being relevant to hip-hop is important -- but what was hip-hop in 1980? It was the baby at that point. It wasn't as big, it didn't have the same audience and effect that it has now.
We had to find the right R&B music and the things that make the show not feel soft. Back then, R&B had buttons, it was love music. We had to find those nuances that weren’t so relationship-based, that really fit the [scene] and time period. They had a lot of dance music at the time too.
Raising Kanan and these shows will change because their [setting and time period] is starting to get closer to where we are [now in real life].
Did each of you -- Charlie Wilson, Snoop Dogg and Moneybagg Yo -- write your own verses for “Wish Me Luck”? Who is the producer?
We all wrote our verses, individually with me, Snoop and Moneybagg separately. As soon as I sent the record to Moneybagg, he was like, “I’m doing this tonight.” He sent it right back. I this is actually a place in my dad.
The producer is S.Dot. Whenever I play live, he plays in my band.
I’m excited to see what else you’re going to executive produce now that we see you’re going to keep going.
It’s gonna be good. I’m going to to raise the bar . I’ve got some projects that I’m sure they’re gonna look at and go, “I didn't necessarily expect that from him, but this is really good.”
I know. You know what would be really crazy 50, if you do some type of kids animated program that’s educational. People are gonna be like, “What?” [Laughs.]
You’re gonna feel like I stole your idea. [Laughs.]
No, I’ll feel very important. I’ll be like, “I remember that one time I spoke to him and look what happened.”
Can you walk me through the creative process of "Wish Me Luck"? Why did you choose to collaborate with Charlie Wilson specifically. With Snoop Dogg, I see why because he’s in the show. But also, why Moneybagg Yo?
When I looked at the song, with Charlie Wilson, there’s nobody that can duplicate that sound, that the energy is put in the music because it goes back to old school Charlie Wilson, because he’s gonna do it his way regardless. When the record came back, I was excited because I knew we had the base for the actual hit record.
People really appreciate this song. I couldn’t even change the theme song, I tried. People were like, “Put that s—t back.”
When I got the song back with his vocals on it, I was completely happy with it. Then I got Moneybagg Yo to do his portion of it first. Because we masked up on the record, it was a little choppy, so I moved it to the front. He heard what I did and wrote his verse behind it. After he completed his, I thought it was a better song with him opening it. I put his vocals in the front and dropped the production, the drums out, because I’m trying to make the best record we can make, period.
Some people want to hear themselves first, like they haven’t heard themselves their whole lives. I’ve heard myself enough. [Laughs] I put Moneybagg Yo in the front and let him set the record off. It came out the right way. The way Snoop Dogg came onto it, it feels like a whole hit record.
Now that we know “Wish Me Luck” is about to come out, can fans expect more music from you or a full project?
I’m gonna come out with a full soundtrack for BMF.
When you look at your childhood, to see you now, you’re like, “I produced my own show, made the song, I'm releasing it separately and have two shows of mine airing on the same day." You should be so proud. Was Charlie Wilson always one of your musical influences growing up?
Charlie Wilson is the only one [of his contemporaries] still rocking and busy. It’s crazy. Everyone else in that period, I don’t know if they stopped singing or we just stopped listening to what they’re doing. Now that Charlie did those vocals, I was like, “Man, I gotta get with you on something else.” This had a specific feel to it that I needed it for the song. I get to see things that vocally that I wouldn’t be able to with a new artist because [Charlie] has his own way of doing it.
I'm glad you did that, because for the younger generation who maybe doesn't already know him, this is a great introduction. In your opinion, is it more challenging to create a theme song that embodies a show vs. a traditional song? In this case, you did both.
The Power universe, all of those songs match up with each other. They're a little different production wise, but they embody different times. Raising Kanan had to feel like the ‘90s in [my hometown of] South Jamaica, [Queens, New York]. The biggest theme or song that was a representation and matched the time period was Keni [Burke’s] "Risin’ to the Top." I had to replay that in order to create that feeling in the theme and it was perfect to match that show in the ‘90s and show the trauma and things that [my character, Kanan Elijah Stark], experienced that made him who he was in Power.
