50 Cent says wealth gives him freedom

50 Cent says the best thing about being rich is he can do what he wants to do.

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.

“I see money as a facilitator,” he said. “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.

“My first CD contained all of the dysfunctional behavior that was affecting me,” he said. “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.”