Kelvin Martin

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For the football payer, see Kelvin Martin (American football).

Mugshot of Kelvin Darnell Martin.

Kelvin Darnell Martin (July 24, 1964 - October 24, 1987), known to the underworld as 50 Cent, was an African American who grew up in the Bronx, New York, but later moved to Brooklyn, New York and was known as a stick-up kid in the Fort Greene projects. Throughout the 1980s, Martin became a well-known robber who managed to claim his success through the robbery and murder of local hustlers. Martin allegedly stole one of Rakim's chains and robbed LL Cool J's chain in a parking lot in Brooklyn.

His life and influence were chronicled in an in-depth, biographical documentary, starting from his upbringing and carrying through past his death and on to the career of the rapper now known as 50 Cent. The documentary is called Infamous Times: The Original 50 Cent^[1].

Kelvin Martin was known as '50 Cent' because he was very short and would rob anyone, no matter how much money they had in their pocket^[2].

Friends estimate that, throughout his life, Martin had sustained at least 30 bullet wounds and murdered at least 45 people. Ultimately, gunshot wounds were his cause of death. He was shot on October 20, 1987 on the stairway of his girlfriend's project building, dying in a hospital four days later. Julio "Wemo" Acevedo was convicted of first-degree manslaughter and sentenced to a minimum of eight years in prison for Martin's killing^[3].