Posted by Emily Exton on 10/04/2011 at 12:25 PM News

The Popdust Files: 50 cent, books, bullying, ew

50 Cent is getting in on the anti-bullying trend with his young adult novel Playground, written with Laura Moser, which tells the story of a 13-year-old tormentor named “Butterball.” EW has a look at the first three chapters—which already contains language that might not go over well with parents—but the introduction alone is something of note. 50 uses the early pages as an opportunity to address those (a.k.a. us) who think he might not be the best person to write about the troubles of adolescence and perils of bullying based on his own experiences. He writes:

I’ll be the first to admit that not everything I’ve done in my life has been role-model material. I’ve been on the wrong side of the law. I’ve been in violent situations. I’ve also been a bully. I know how a person gets to be like that. That’s why I wanted to tell this story: to show a kid who has become a bully—how and why that happened, and whether or not he can move past it.

Writing Playground was a personal journey for me.There’s a lot of me in Butterball. I drew on events that happened in my childhood and adolescence as well as things I saw around me. I also tapped into some of the feelings I remember having at that age—feelings about my family, feelings about my future, feelings about other kids on the playground.Living life on the edge has taught me a lot, like the fact that being mentally strong will get you ahead in life. But being a bully won’t get you anywhere. Some kids don’t figure that out until it’s too late. Does Butterball? You’ll have to read the book to find out.

Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson III
New York, New York

See that kids? Even the biggest lunch money thief can change his or her ways—all you have to do is fork over some hard-earned babysitting money to G-Unit Books find out how. Whether true to life or not, the example splashed across the pages of Playground is certainly better than what’s resulted from his past rap feuds or the scary skinny transformation for a movie role few people saw, so we guess we should take this as 50′s sincere attempt to provide a positive influence for young fans and connect to a new audience. As long as this isn’t just a stunt for his comedy website.