50 Cent Made An Estimated $100M From His Vitaminwater Deal — And It Paved The Way For Artists Like Flo Rida

Although the New York-bred rapper had the music game on lock during the early 2000s, using his career to land deals with brands like Reebok and his very own video game, 50 Cent still wanted more, setting his sights upon the beverage industry.

According to Trapital, at the time, the “Get Rich Or Die Tryin'” rapper told his manager, the late Chris Lighty, that he wanted a water bottle deal, noting that there was a stark price difference between Poland Spring and other companies.

What initially started as a test trial with Vitaminwater during a 2004 Reebok commercial, led 50 Cent to a 10 percent stake in his Formula 50 brand.

Originally, he wanted to invest in the Vitaminwater brand alone. However, Trapital reports that its parent company, Glaceau, wasn’t initially down. Then, all parties came to the final deal.

From there, the rest was history. The company’s sales reportedly grew from $100 million to $700 million within three years with help from 50 Cent.

What’s more, his deal with Vitaminwater began in October 2004, and when Glaceau was sold to Coca-Cola in May 2007, the rapper got paid.

“People were talking about how much money I made, but I was focused on the fact that $4.1 billion was made,” 50 Cent told Zack O’Malley Greenburg in 2008, according to Trapital. “I think I can do a bigger deal in the future.”

Not only did he make a reported $100 million, but many of 50 Cent’s fellow Hip-Hop superstars were inspired by his business model in the years to follow.

As previously reported by AfroTech, Flo Rida just walked away $82 million richer thanks to a lawsuit that he won against Celsius.

“The rapper filed a lawsuit in 2021 against energy drink company Celsius. Flo Rida was seeking $30,000 in damages because the company failed to uphold a 2014 contract. According to his legal team, Flo Rida should have received compensation in the form of stock options or a bonus,” we reported.

Before the win, Flo Rida’s legal team revealed that 50 Cent’s influence was actually one of the reasons that Flo Rida wanted to sign the deal with Celsius in the first place.

“In Flo’s mind this was always a Vitamin Water type of deal, he was signing on to 1% of the company of a multi-million dollar endorsement deal and was hardly getting paid anything for it,” Flo Rida’s lawyer, John Uustal, previously told Insider.

50 Cent celebrated the rapper’s win via social media on Jan. 18.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by 50 Cent (@50cent)

“@official_flo is a good dude,” he wrote in an Instagram caption. “Celsius was wrong and they are going to have to pay now. I was only drinking it because Flo was involved.”

Flo Rida responded to the praise by giving 50 Cent some flowers of his own.

“Love you my brother, always appreciated and a true inspiration to this situation in [the] way you’ve accomplished your ventures,” said the “Low” emcee in the comments section of 50 Cent’s post.