The 'In Da Club' hitmaker has amassed a huge fortune through the success of his albums and burgeoning film career, and he insists the greatest thing about having wealth is it gives him freedom.
He said: "I see money as a facilitator. If airlines don't have a plane that goes to where you want to go, a private jet will. If a studio doesn't go after a project and I think it's the right project for right now, I can go and get it made. I think that to some people I may appear a little off, but they're just not on the same page as me."
The 36-year-old star is desperate to become a respected actor, and he stars in upcoming movie 'Things Fall Apart', in which he plays a promising American football player whose career is derailed when he is he diagnosed with cancer.
But 50 – who wrote and produced the film himself, and based it on a childhood experience - accepts he will have to work hard to shake off his bad boy rapper tag if he wants to be taken seriously as an actor.
In an interview with The i newspaper, he revealed: "My first CD contained all of the dysfunctional behaviour that was affecting me. And you become you music to the general public, so I became exactly what the CD was in their eyes. Having it go on to become the widest-selling hip-hop album and sell 12 million CDs worldwide made it intense. So people have a perception of me that's going to be like that until I continue to be successful in other fields. Eventually that will open people's minds up so they think about me in different ways."
