Dear Superstar: 50 Cent

50 Cent doesn't look so tough. When the 28-year-old rapper arrives at our Manhattan photo studio and beelines for the table of catered food, Blender does a double-take to make sure the man carefully selecting hors d'oeuvres is really him. His He-Man build is hidden beneath the soft folds of an oversized G-Unit sweatshirt, he stands about 30 feet shorter than we'd expect of a bullet-riddled, Ja Rule-punching ex-convict and he's beaming a smile worthy of Vanna White.

It's Curtis Jackson's signature blend of warmth and wickedness that helped 2003's Get Rich or Die Trying post the highest first-week sales recorded for any debuting artist, ever. He's said he personally grossed $40 million that year, and with a clothing line, sneaker, label, book, sports drink, videogame and Hollywood biopic all either out or in the works, $40 million is likely chump change by now. That blend is also the key to his second album, The Valentine's Day Massacre, which has already spawned "Candy Shop," the scariest-sounding hit to ever build an oral-sex metaphor around lollipops.

Apparently, 50's savings account isn't the only thing that's changed since his debut. Dipping into a bowl of hummus, we remind him that when we interviewed him in June 2003, he confessed he'd never had sex on a beach.

He chuckles, "Trust me, homey. A lot has happened since then." Please, go on…

Does the bullet shard in your tongue make it hard to get on airplanes?
KINGCRUMPS99
No, it doesn't go off. It's only a fragment. Sometimes, though, it tastes like I've got a lemon in my mouth. My taste buds be buggin' out!

When was the last time you did your own laundry?
KILLASETH
Never. Nope. My grandmother used to do it for me, now I have other people to do it for me.

What are your favorite tattoos, and what do they mean?
HULK4HELL
On my left forearm I got one that says "God understands me." In my position, you gonna be misinterpreted. That's why I put it there. On my right bicep is my son's name, Marquise, written in an axe. He's 8. The axe is 'cause I'm a warrior. I don't want him to be one, though. The next one's my whole back. It's kinda like a mural. It's a huge "50." Across the top it says "Southside," for Southside Jamaica, Queens. Then it says "Cold World." I'm a product of that environment. It's on my back, though, so it's all behind me.

How much money was in your bank account when Eminem first called you in 2001?
HIGSLYSHIRE
$4,000. I'd signed a publishing deal with Columbia on my hospital bed, three days after I had the operation, for $100,000. After I did that, they found that I'd been shot nine times, and they dropped me. While I was rehabilitating myself, I kinda ran through that money. The $65,000 advance was gone, so I went back to selling drugs. That's the only way I learned to provide for myself outside of music.

My son's bar mitzvah is coming up in April. What would it take for you to come and sing "go, go, go, it's your birthday"?
SIMON.KNS
My bar mitzvah rate is $250,000. That's a discount. Ha ha! Hell, I'll do a whole hour and thirty minutes. There'll probably be a lot of old people, but they'll shake it. They gon' get busy.

Will there be sex scenes in your movie, and would you show your lollipop on screen?
BUTTACUP69
There will be sex scenes, but you ain't seein' no lollipops unless you get the tapes that's in my bedroom closet. We start shooting the movie in April. It's loosely based on my life story, and I'm working with Jim Sheridan, a great filmmaker. Terry Winters from The Sopranos wrote the screenplay.

Find out how much it costs to bulletproof an SUV and what 50 does on a first date in the April issue of Blender, on newsstands now!