In the world of hip-hop, cars maketh the star, and there is no star bigger than 50 Cent at the moment. But 'Fifty' ain't happy with what's in his garage, and he has plans to turn the car world on its head, literally. 50 Cent is about to make his Rolls-Royce Phantom a drop-top, even before the company does the work for itself...
"I just want something everybody else doesn't have," declares the megastar backstage at a one-off UK concert at Rockingham race track. He then unleashes a tidal wave of how and why he is going to butcher his Phantom. "I don't care if it messes up the electrical system. The roof is gonna be gone. I want something more sporty. I'm not an old man. That's why I wanna chop the roof off it. I'll leave the TVs. They had TVs in the package I got. It's fully loaded. I'll leave everything that's in there. I'll just cut the roof off. Make it into a 'vertible."
The man to whom 50 will turn for this ultimate chop-top is Funkmaster Flex, New York car artiste to the rap stars. The Bronx-based customiser, 50 Cent's motoring mentor and restorer of the singer's '65 Chevy Impala and '84 Buick Regal has been trying to talk the megastar out of what some will regard as sacrilege.
"I don't think is such a good idea and it's going to end up costing him almost as much as the car," predicts the host of the 'Ride With Funkmaster Flex' cult TV show. Rather than hack the roof off the Phantom, Flex thinks it would be better to try and buy a production example of the stunning 100EX convertible concept car when it goes on sale in 2007. An idea 50 is having none of.
"They won't give me one," he tuts with the air of a petulant teenager. "Having me drive a Rolls-Royce is great for [promoting the company], but they don't see eye to eye with the kid yet."
50 (I have been warned not to call him Mr. Cent!) is flexing his considerable muscles. Less than three years since being drop-kicked to the top of the hip-hop parade with a plug from Eminem, 50 is enjoying the power of fame and spending a $100 million fortune which would run many a small country.
Fame and fortune has come at a price. In 2000, Curtis James Jackson III was shot outside his grandma' New York house. Now there are more bullet wounds in his body than fingers on one of his blinged-up diamond-encrusted hands. One 9mm shell even went through his front teeth. Every time he grins I try and spot it. So far I have failed.
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Next: Bomb-proof cars 
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